Environmentalist charged with teaching arson in San Diego

AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 2/22/06 | Seth Hettena - ap

[NormsRevenge]

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging an environmental activist with teaching others how to start an arson fire during a 2003 lecture in San Diego, where the costliest act of ecoterrorism in U.S. history had just occurred.

Prosecutors said Rodney A. Coronado gave the lecture 15 hours after a $50 million fire destroyed a massive apartment complex in a north San Diego neighborhood. The indictment, however, does not link Coronado to that fire.

Coronado, 39, was arrested Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., on a charge of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. He will be arraigned there Thursday.

Defense attorney R. Antonio Felix of Tucson, Ariz., did not return a message left seeking comment.

Coronado previously served four years in federal prison for a 1992 blaze at a Michigan animal research facility.

Daniel Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI office, alleged that Coronado was a national leader of the radical Earth Liberation Front. ELF is an underground movement with no public leadership, membership or spokesperson, according to its Web site. An e-mail sent to the Web site didn't elicit an immediate response.

The 2003 fire destroyed a five-story, 206-unit apartment complex, an underground parking garage and a construction crane in the University City area of San Diego. No one was injured.

A 12-foot banner found at the scene read "If you build it, we will burn it" with the initials of the ELF. The group, which only communicates with the news media by e-mail, issued a brief statement in response to media inquiries, saying the banner "is a legitimate claim of responsibility by the Earth Liberation Front."

Coronado's subsequent talk covered animal rights and militant environmental activism. According to an account and photos of the speech posted on the Internet, Coronado demonstrated how to build a crude ignition device using a plastic jug filled with gasoline and oil. Three animal rights activists who attended the lecture were ordered jailed for contempt for their refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating the fire.

While he repeatedly insisted that he had no role in the arson, Coronado has said he sympathized with the arsonists. Describing himself as an unofficial ELF spokesman, Coronado told The Associated Press at the time that young activists are "doing the only thing they know to do and that is strike a match and draw a whole lot of attention to their dissatisfaction with protecting the environment."

Authorities said the charge on which Coronado was indicted has only been used four times since it was written in 1997, most recently in an Ohio case unsealed Tuesday against three men charged with attempting to wage terror attacks against the United States. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Coronado was previously sentenced to nearly five years in prison for a crime in which he said he did not participate: the 1992 firebombing of a Michigan State University laboratory and the offices of two animal researchers that caused $1.2 million in damage.

In December, a federal jury in Tucson, Ariz., convicted Coronado of illegally entering the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area to interfere with efforts to trap and relocate mountain lions following public sightings. He faces up to 7 1/2 years in prison when he's sentenced in March. That indictment called Coronado a member of Earth First!, perhaps best known for forest protests aimed at halting logging.

[popdonnelly]

Here's hoping he gets the full 7 1/2 years.

[midwyf]

Sounds to me like this guy has a thing for fires, regardless of the excuse he gives for starting them.

[umgud]

The ACLU will defend his free speech rights.

[manglor]

Ship that terrorist off to Gitmo.

[goldstategop]

Another liberal nature lover.... hey, the means justify the end. This is persecution.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Northern Alliance]

..distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. He will be arraigned there Thursday.

Wow, that is quite the charge - I'd expect something like that in my native Canada, but not the USA. A shotgun shell is an 'explosive device'. That law should be limited to WMD. You could make a case setting a major fire with the specific purpose of burning down a housing complex is a WMD. Broad brush laws like this invariably get misused at some point.

[tubebender]

This is the scum bag who was in Eureka a couple of years ago intimidating the family of a tree climber hired to remove anarchists from the tops of Redwood trees on PL property...

[jordan8]

distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction.

A bogus charge, if it ain't classified secret the government has no right to arrest you for it. There are a lot of old survivalists on this board who might do 20 years for this "crime."

[Cheapskate]

AHHHH, more of those PEACEFUL AND COMPASSIONATE FOLKS!I see.

[BJungNan]

In the wake of a massive fire set by the ELF in San Diego, activists are receiving intense harassment from the government. Activists have had their homes raided, have been detained by the police, and have had their homes photographed by agents sitting in SUV's. Still, they are resisting. On Saturday, there will be a rally and press conference held in Balboa Park where a number of activists will discuss the various forms of repression the government is using to silence free speech.

Here is the link if you want to read more ...

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2003/08/100428.shtml

[Lurker]

It's a crime if you distribute the knowledge with the intent that it be used for unlawful purposes.

For instance, I 'manufacture' ammunition in my home using ingredients that could be used to manufacture destructive devices. Anyone who reloads has that information.

The difference is that when I show someone how to do it, I don't intend for them to build bombs or incindiary devices with it. Nor would I ever be so stupid as to teach someone who said they wanted those skills so they could do something unlawful.

This guys a numbskull who should go to prison for basically holding a seminar on how to commit arson in a room full of people who have pretty much stated they like to burn things down.

He intended that people use the information for unlawful purposes. That's the crime.

L

[FlyVet]

In December, a federal jury in Tucson, Ariz., convicted Coronado of illegally entering the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area to interfere with efforts to trap and relocate mountain lions following public sightings.

Misleading. They weren't just sightings, the cats were stalking hikers, who had a hard time driving them off with lots of yelling and rock-throwing. The local mediots paraded Coronado (and his fellow protestor dupes) as a meek, mild-mannered animal lover just trying to save the lions, on TV for about a week straight. They made no mention at that time of his eco-terrorist history, and after the word got out he suddenly disappeared from TV. At least now, they are exposing him for what he is.

Coronado is a sociopath who needs to be locked up for a long time before he kills somebody.

[FlyVet]

In December, a federal jury in Tucson, Ariz., convicted Coronado of illegally entering the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area to interfere with efforts to trap and relocate mountain lions following public sightings.

Misleading. They weren't just sightings, the cats were stalking hikers, who had a hard time driving them off with lots of yelling and rock-throwing. The local mediots paraded Coronado (and his fellow protester dupes) as a meek, mild-mannered animal lover just trying to save the lions, on TV for about a week straight. They made no mention at that time of his eco-terrorist history, and after the word got out he suddenly disappeared from TV. At least now, they are exposing him for what he is.

Coronado is a sociopath who needs to be locked up for a long time before he kills somebody.