Eco-terror attacks anger Hummer owners

MOAB — No canyon insurmountable, no trail unnavigable, John North's Hummer conquers all — a 3-ton king of the road or, if you disapprove, the most shameless leviathan of all SUVs.

Hummers, such as North's snow-white pride and joy, are now popular targets for an underground movement of "eco-terrorists" who lay ruin to construction sites, meat processing plants, genetic food labs and sport-utility vehicles.

North, 54, owner of a West Coast restaurant chain, argues that his 12-miles-to-the-gallon ride doesn't deserve the kind of clandestine attack that destroyed or damaged 40 Hummers, costing more than $50,000 each, at a dealership in West Covina, Calif., in August.

"I think terrorism is terrorism," North said during a 10-hour Hummer caravan late last month across the treacherous Poison Spider Mesa high above the Colorado River in southeastern Utah. "It's like saying, 'I don't like what you're doing, so let's go burn your offices down.' "

Claiming responsibility for many of these attacks is the Earth Liberation Front, which federal officials often list as the nation's most dangerous domestic terrorist organization — using violence to draw attention to its anti-growth message.

Lawmakers have compared the organization's loose, secret membership to al-Qaida. But the group emphasizes — and authorities concede — that no one has been killed or injured in the attacks.

The eco-terrorists view their campaign as a "monkey wrench" thrown into the machinery of modern consumerism and pollution. Their ecologically motivated sabotage — or "ecotage," as they call it — has occurred in all parts of the country but especially in the West, where the fiercest battles over development are being fought.

Liberation Attacks

In 1998, ELF claimed responsibility for torching a ski resort in Vail, Colo. In the past several years, it has targeted genetically engineered food with arson attacks against agriculture research facilities at Michigan State University, the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota.

In the past year, assaults against SUVs have stepped up, with vandalism in Richmond, Va.; Erie, Pa.; Santa Fe, N.M., and Houston. Last March, two nearly completed homes in Ann Arbor, Mich., were torched by ELF.