Were any of those SUV arson incidents done for the insurance?

[fujiyama]

I heard that some of these dealerships may have been set on fire in order to collect the insurance...and then it was easy to peg it on various environmental groups.

Was there any evidence of this? I do recall some had ELF spray painted though.. I'm sure certain groups would be capable of violence, but I think the "threat" posed by the ELF is vastly exagerrated by the FBI (numberr one terrorist group in the US? That's BS) I was reminded of this because of that thread in the lounge about a Hummer owner getting his vehicle vandalized.

[Hapameli]

1. The whole thing never made sense to me...

Who would set fire to vehicles and call themselves environmentalists?

It just never made sense to me when it was happening.

Its probably just because left-wing groups don't kill, like right-wing extremists do, so they're trying to pin something insignificant and never proven on our side.

[Hekate]

2. Don't think so; see LA Times Magazine article just out

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-humvee15apr10,1,6253893.story?coll=la-headlines-magazine

> He's convicted of the crime. He's about to do the time. Still,
> there's a reason why SUV graffiti arsonist Billy Cottrell is
about to get . . .burned

> A bright but quirky Caltech student is about to be sentenced for
> helping damage 125 gas-guzzlers during a midnight vandalism spree
> in 2003. Psychologists think they may know why he was there--
> something the jury that convicted him did not

> By Vince Beiser
>
> April 10, 2005

> There are a lot of stories about Billy Cottrell.....

In this case one of the perpetrators appears to have Asperger's Syndrome, which despite his brilliance in some areas gives him diminished capacity to understand social cues and subtleties. (Asperger's is sometimes thought of as a less-incapacitating form of autism -- but having known one and suspected a few others, I can tell you they really don't read faces or pick up on social cues, and it makes for a difficult life.) It's really quite a good article.

I need to sign off now, as I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, but regarding the E.L.F. graffiti, Cottrell now recognizes that spray painting those three letters was probably the single dumbest move of his life: the US government in its infinite wisdom classifies ELF as a terrorist organization. He could get 30 years...

Hekate

[Bridget Burke]

3. Once incident near Houston sounded pretty suspicious....

A smalltime cardealer had a bunch of SUV's burned. Nobody claimed responsibility; there was no "evidence."

The dealer said it must have been "eco-terrorists" but no charges have ever been filed. Even for insurance fraud....