Ecoterrorists Strike In Arizona

Vandals who claim to act in the name of animal rights and the environment are expanding their targets from laboratories and constructon sites that offend them to homes and cars of those with whom they disagree. On Feb. 19 in Tucson, a UA researcher had her water valve cemented shut and a mining company employee had her car tires flattened and her windows etched with hateful sayings. A press release posted on the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center site by a group calling itself "Tucson H.A.A.N.D." or "Hooligans Attack at Night, Duh," claimed responsibility for the acts. It said UA Health Sciences researcher Katalin Gothard's water meter was turned off and cemented shut because of her research with monkeys and Kathy Arnold's car tire was slashed and her window etched because of her job with Augusta Resources Rosemont Copper Project. Augusta wants to open a 1.2-square-mile open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains. A post on a Blogspot.com site called "Social Rupture" said the same group was responsible for a Jan. 15 vandalism attack that targeted Si Schorr, Tucson attorney and former chairman of the Arizona Transportation Board. The post said Schorr was targeted because of his espousal of an Interstate 10 bypass route that environmentalists say would damage valuable habitat. Vandals painted and etched expletive-laced slogans on the home's windows and garage doors. Schorr called the language "vile." "They were hateful expressions directed at me in my capacity as a public official," he said...TMC News