Explosives found inside torched 'Street of Dreams' homes

[Newsjock]

Source: KOMO-TV

WOODINVILLE, Wash. -- Explosive devices were found inside multimillion-dollar show homes that burned in the Maltby area north of Woodinville Monday, fire officials said. Authorities also found a spray-painted sign purportedly left by a radical environmental group at the scene.

Fire Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District 7 said fire crews discovered the devices inside the houses and were able to remove them.

The FBI said the fires in the five homes were being investigated as a potential domestic terrorism act. Agents from the FBI and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were assisting local authorities in the investigation.

... The sign, a white sheet that had the initials of the Earth Liberation Front in scraggly red letters, mocked claims the luxury homes on the "Street of Dreams" were environmentally friendly.


Read more: http://www.komotv.com/news/16178002.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. hmmm....

what's wrong with this picture....?

[Warpy]

4. Somebody needs to follow the money

and find out how much financing has gone south in recent months.

This one smells.

[htuttle]

6. I think somebody was trying to literally "flip" the house...

The primary suspect should be the current deed holder, IMHO. I bet the mortgage is underwater.

[dbonds]

15. That is my first thought also.

If it was E.L.F. then they aren't very smart leaving a calling card like that. Much more likely the housing crises hit the developers. At least that should be looked at along with the E.L.F. connection.

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. Just about everything

With the recent arrests of ELF leaders on arson charges, it is extremely unlikely that even a radical group like the Earth Liberation Front would so openly engage in arson activities. Also, the modus operandi of these fires is strikingly dissimilar to past ELF activities: I don't recall any other suspicious fire where ELF calling-cards were left behind or which used explosives.

I really think this is a frame-up, and a rather sloppy one at that.

[enid602]

2. cake

Well the title of your post takes the cake. Bar none. America in a nutshell.

[baldguy]

3. Study - 99.9% Of "Green" Product Claims False, Misleading Or Unsubstantiated - CanWest News

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x136810

[Journeyman]

5. Not to cast undue aspersions for there's still much investigation to be done. . .

but there's always the possibility the "domestic terrorism" angle was manufactured to cover a simple arson-for-profit scheme.

None of the five showcase homes from the Street of Dreams last summer had been sold, said Grey Lundberg, a builder of one of the houses.

Wouldn't be the first time radical groups with a history of violence were used as a cover for pedestrian crimes.

[janetle]

20. I agree

OK, I admit it. I went to visit this Street of Dreams for ideas. And torching these homes is causing a lot of environmental damage because of the wetland area and it is a horrible horrible thing.

But something is weird here. When I heard the news I kept thinking houses being built for next summer's 2008 display were set on fire. But nooooo. It was the houses that have been finished and furnished and not sold and sitting empty since Street of Dreams was over last AUGUST. Wouldn't eco terrorists take on new construction not yet finished to make their point--to stop it??

Also, ELF has been in the news around here lately because of a trial of a woman accused of participating in torching the UW horticultural center. I don't know--something doesn't smell right.

[catnhatnh]

So...Bic Lighter=Terrorism

and Ricin=Move along-nothing to see here....

[liberaldem4ever]

7. This is sad

I live fairly close to where this happened and it makes me feel bad to see beautiful homes burn up. My husband and I will probably never be able to afford to buy any house at all due a bad financial situation (I was disabled in a car accident). I would do almost anything to have a nice house.

[Xithras]

8. ELF are arsonists, not terrorists.

They do destroy things, but they go out of their way not to harm people. I could give a s**t if they want to burn a bunch of unsold yuppie McMansions, even if those mansions are supposedly "green". A $2 million dollar 4,000+ square foot home built in an environmentally sensitive area doesn't meet any definition of "environmentally friendly" or "sustainable living" that I've ever read.

[Parche]

23. Exactly

I dont agree with their tactics....but they are arsonists not terra ists....


Its a wonder they dont call people who run thru Stop signs terra ists....
as they are calling everyone else terra ists....:grr: :grr:


:hi:

[The Croquist]

25. Its nice to know you are such a caring person

Personally I don't decide if I like someone by the size of their wallet or their house. Rich or poor, whoever destroyed these homes deserves to go to jail and spend the rest of their lives paying back whoever lost money on the fire even if that person is a developer or insurance company.

[Xithras]

26. I have little sympathy for those who profit from environmental destruction.

I would be vehemently against this if the homes were privately owned, because the buyers of homes have less to do with the locations chosen to build them. But these houses hadn't been sold. They still belonged to the builders who saw fit to destroy an ecologically sensitive area for profit and greed. There is enough genuine anguish in the world to bury us all, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to scrape up some faux sympathy for some corporate insurance company or megabuilder simply because they lost some profits. Boo fricking hoo.

By the way, my beliefs have little to do with economic discrimination. As I posted yesterday in another thread, my own home was worth more than a million bucks not long ago (much less now because of the downturn...like $400,000 less). I own a business, have several successful investments, and am not poor by any stretch of the term. I simply despise people who decide to gain wealth by destroying the world around them. Sprawl is a cancer on the land that will kill us all.

[The Croquist]

27. The insurance companies are owned by private citizens

in the form of stock or mutual funds. There are allot of retired people who just lost money.

There will be more trees cut down to rebuild these houses. Is that good for the environment?

[Codedonkey]

29. I'm assuming they are just going to be rebuilt though.

Acts of terrorism, arson, or whatever you want to call it, do not help the cause at all...

Then again, it may very well turn out to be something totally different than some maybe trying to make it appear as.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Owners of these houses weren't subprime holders, were they?

[Journeyman]

10. The homes had not been sold -- the developer was "holding the bag". . .

and had been holding it for quite some months.

From the last paragraph of the article:

None of the five showcase homes from the Street of Dreams last summer had been sold, said Grey Lundberg, a builder of one of the houses.

[Hannah Bell]

13. that's what i saw, too.

it'll be interesting to see who gets nabbed, what with recent legislation on "environmental terrorism."

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. Anyone checked the developers for financial problems?

It wouldn't be the first time.

[hatrack]

12. Good thing developers deep in debt with unsold homes can't use spray paint, huh?

:eyes:

[notadmblnd]

14. Some bankrupt developer/builder trying to hide arson is probably more like it.

[xchrom]

16. r-i-g-h-t -- enivironmentalists did it.

:eyes:

[melody]

18. Cointelpro n/t

[Ian David]

19. Some guy in the Boston area vadalized his own pet shop and made it look like PeTA did it, IIRC. n/t

[niyad]

21. I thought the whole story smelled even wrose than the fires did.

e.l.f. mUST mean earth liberation front, and I just LOVE the way the authorities are throwing around the words "terrorist" and "terrorist acts"

let's see--the housing market is trashed, these houses have been on the market for months, without selling, and suddenly they are burned? hmmmmm.

[timtom]

22. Ohhh...nooo....

Is there no end to the Empire's mindless tricks??

[maxsolomon]

24. the FBI will sweat every one of the affected developers

these homes were 5-star BuiltGreen - even though that's a program started by the BIAW to rub their own rhubarb regarding Sustainability - it has real standards - these home exceeded the state energy code by up to 70%. there was extensive mitigation to protect the adjoining wetlands.

if ELF did it, they had their head up their ass.

but any firebug with a can of spray paint can be ELF these days.

[DiverDave]

28. It's an insurance scam

The builders torched those houses, but they'll get off...the scary "terrorist" did it, they found a sign...sheesh, so fucking transparent.