WARREN, Pa. -- A radical environmental group has claimed
responsibility for a fire that destroyed the U.S. Forest Service
Research Station at Irvine on Aug. 11.
The Earth Liberation Front said it was responsible for causing
about $700,000 in damage to the federal facility in an e-mail to
the
Warren Times Observer on Sunday night.
The group said it would target the facility again if it is
rebuilt. All other U.S. Forest Service administration and research
facilities "should now be considered likely targets," the message
said.
The e-mail was being examined by state police and the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The fire in Warren County is not the first crime linked to the ELF.
During the past six years, the group has claimed responsibility
for several acts of destruction, many of them arsons, against
federal facilities around the country.
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