From Academia To Arson--The Profile Of An ELF Ecoterrorist

Jennifer Kolar--the distance between academia and moonbattery is not very far

Jennifer Kolar spent time at the University of Colorado where she began to participate in the "activism" so prevalent at the left-wing campus--and took that education a step further through her involvement with Earth Liberation Front, the ecoterrorists:

A former University of Colorado student who left academia for the clandestine world of environmental extremism was a key witness against an activist with the Earth Liberation Front in a trial that ended Thursday.

Jennifer Kolar, 34, who now lives in Seattle, described to jurors a double life of yacht racing and environmental terrorism with the same shadowy, loose-knit group that torched buildings at the Vail Mountain Ski Resort in 1998.

Kolar testified against Briana Waters, telling jurors that her former friend helped her and three others set a massive fire at the University of Washington.

Kolar also admitted to trying in 1998 to burn down the Wray Gun Club in Wray, one of four arsons she confessed to in her deal with prosecutors. Her testimony against Waters was part of her deal.

The sordid tale of the ELFtards, who ran up quite a tab in arson and destruction from 1996-2001:

The Earth Liberation Front is a underground group of environmental extremists who burned down the Two Elks Lodge and other facilities high on the slopes of the Vail ski area in October 1998. Although Kolar lived in Colorado at the time of the fire, she was not involved, according to court documents.

Kolar and Waters are among 19 people charged in connection with a series of ELF arsons in the West between 1996 and 2001, according to a Department of Justice spokeswoman. One committed suicide. Thirteen pleaded guilty after reaching sentencing deals with the government. Four are believed to have fled the country. Waters is the only one to go to trial.

Kolar's radicalization began at CU-Boulder, with a foray into the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (COPIRG), a well-known student-funded organization subsidized every semester with student fees:

Like many other ELF activists, Kolar described a path from academic promise to criminal infamy. She earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from CU in 1995, a master's in astrophysics in 1997, then spent two years working toward a Ph.D. in oceanography, according to university records.

Kolar testified that she got her start in activism as an undergraduate working with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, volunteering with Rocky Mountain Animal Defense and teaching at a student environmental center on the CU campus.

Such innocent beginnings.

Like Sonny says to Michael in The Godfather (paraphrasing): "Did you go to college to get stupid?"

In Kolar's case the answer is yes, apparently.

Exit question: did Kolar ever take a class from Ward Churchill? If not, she certainly borrowed from his theology of action--a stellar example of CU's "academic" excellence.

Go Buffs!