Wyoming Valley West High School Yearbooks On Sale

TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT MISSING WOMAN WOULD HELP ALL

<div class="body-head">DAN NEPHIN
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Associated Press
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PITTSBURGH - On New Year's Day two years ago, the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group, claimed responsibility for igniting several trucks and sport utility vehicles at an auto dealership - the fourth and last known attack in northwestern Pennsylvania in the preceding year.

No one has ever been charged and eco-terrorism experts say it's unlikely that anyone will.

"Unless somebody squeals or somebody got a license place number, they're probably not going to get caught," said Gary Perlstein, an eco-terrorism expert and professor emeritus at Portland State University.

Gerald Clark Jr., acting supervisory special agent of the FBI's Erie office, remains optimistic. Agents "continue to follow leads that we feel have potential in the investigation," he said Wednesday.

Law enforcement outside Pennsylvania had identified Michael J. Scarpitti as a suspect in one of the other attacks, the Aug. 11, 2002, fire at a U.S. Forest Service research station near Warren. Clark said he couldn't confirm or deny whether Scarpitti was a suspect in that blaze, which caused $700,000 damage.

Scarpitti, who has said trees told him to change his name to Tre Arrow, was convicted last year of shoplifting in Victoria, British Columbia, and remains in jail there. He is wanted for his alleged role in the 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon, but is fighting extradition.

Clark acknowledged that ELF is a difficult group to investigate. In October, a joint terrorism task force was created to enable local and federal law enforcement to combine resources and intelligence to combat terrorism, which should help, he said.

ELF's lack of structure makes infiltration difficult and it doesn't announce when or where attacks will occur, according to eco-terrorism experts and law enforcement.

Members are anonymous, claiming membership by simply carrying out an action under the group's name and guidelines. The group uses the Internet to communicate and broadcast its message, but its Web site has been down for about the past six months, said Kelly Stoner, executive director of Stop Eco-Violence, a Portland, Ore., group that tracks environmental violence.

ELF claimed responsibility for four attacks in the Erie area. Besides the vehicle torching at Bob Ferrando's dealership in Girard and the research station fire, ELF took credit for torching a $500,000 construction crane at a bridge work site in Erie and setting fire to a mink barn outside Erie.

The acts were part of ELF's campaign to battle commercialism and industry in the name of saving the environment.

Members carry out their assaults individually or in groups of three to five trusted allies, reducing the chance of being caught, Perlstein said.

Because the Erie area attacks happened in a narrow time span, Perlstein said it's likely whoever was responsible was a high school or college student who's since graduated and moved.

In the few cases in which someone has been caught, Stoner said, they've tended to be local. But, she said, ELF is savvy and members could well float from place to place.

As for Ferrando, he said the fire cost him nothing more than some paperwork because his insurer covered the losses.

But the activities do bother him and worry him that someone may get hurt, he said.

So far, ELF hasn't intentionally harmed anyone, but firefighters and other first responsders are put in risk with each fire, said Harvey W. Kushner, chair of the criminal justice department at Long Island University and author of "Encyclopedia of Terrorism."

The group hasn't ruled out violence. In a communique issued after the research station fire, ELF said: "While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice."

Kushner said ELF's methods aren't working.

More vehicles are built to replace those destroyed and more trees are cut to replace lumber destroyed when ELF sets fire to housing developments, he said.

Eco-terrorists' elusiveness frustrate law enforcement in Pa.