Tuesday, January 11, 2005
A women's clinic in Washington state that has been picketed by anti-choice wackos for the past twenty years was lit on fire on Sunday but, uh, it wasn't terrorism, it was a "random act" of arson: (from the AP)
Ross of It Affects You comments
A fire that damaged an abortion clinic appears to have been a "random act" of arson without any evident link to anti-abortion groups, investigators say.
Scott Thomasson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Seattle said Monday the federal agency and local police and fire investigators concluded that the fire was set with incendiary materials on the roof of the Eastside Women's Health Clinic. [ ... ]
"It seems to be a random act at this time," Thomasson said.
Nonetheless, he added, setting the fire violated federal law because the clinic is a federally funded health care center.
Co-owner Nancy Armstrong said she didn't think the fire was random.
"The first thing that comes to mind is they're anti-abortion," Armstrong said.
Jan. 22 is the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
The clinic receives 30 to 40 patients a day. Staff members met outside with patients who showed up Monday and worked to reschedule appointments. Other appointments were being rearranged through the clinic's answering service.
The clinic had been picketed every Thursday - the day abortions were performed - for 20 years without violence and received no recent threats, though some people have aroused suspicion, she said.
Ross of It Affects You comments
Imagine if this was, for example, an office of Focus on the Family which had been firebombed. The right would be screaming, screaming, about domestic terrorism and the evil liberal agenda. It would be front page news all over the "liberal media."
