WASHINGTON -- An 18-month investigation of violence against abortion clinics gathered evidence toward solving a handful of arson cases but found no direct evidence of a nationwide conspiracy, law enforcement officials said yesterday.
As a result, the Justice Department's clinics task force is shifting strategy: to focus on regional arson prosecutions instead of on the single grand jury sitting in suburban Alexandria, Va., since late 1994. The grand jury is disbanding March 26, when its term ends.
Attorney General Janet Reno promised to continue pursuing evidence of conspiracy in anti-abortion violence and protecting clinics "as vigorously as possible."
Abortion protesters said the change in tactics vindicates their criticism of the investigation. Advocates of abortion rights worried that the federal effort might be dwindling but expressed hope that arsonists would indeed be prosecuted soon.
"We found a lot of cheerleaders for this activity, but no national conspiracy," A senior law enforcement official said. "However, we have managed to virtually wrap up a handful of unsolved arsons."
Evidence is to be presented within months to federal grand juries where the arson fires occurred, said the official. He would not identify the locations.
The regional approach is more in line with traditional Justice Department investigations than empaneling grand juries with national responsibilities. The government usually brings the easiest cases first and tries to entice those convicted to finger accomplices and bosses in return for leniency.
The department does not feel it wasted the grand jury, which heard more than 50 witnesses. The law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said evidence was found "that some people were moving toward some bad stuff when they read about the grand jury. ... They might have been scared off by the grand jury."
"We maintained all along there is no national link," said Patrick Mahoney, executive director of the anti-abortion Christian Defense Coalition. "This was politically motivated to appease the Clinton administration's pro-choice constituency and harass abortion protesters."
He proclaimed the investigation to be the government's worst violation of free-speech rights since the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had his agents harass civil rights and Vietnam war protesters in the 1960s.
"Murder is not free speech," said Ann Glazier, director for clinic defense for Planned Parenthood. "And anti-abortion violence hasn't disappeared."
She said her group, which runs 1,000 clinics nationwide, recorded in the last week an attempted arson in Oregon and a blockade of a clinic in Pennsylvania.
"There have been five people murdered and seven wounded since 1993 and millions of dollars in arson damage. These aren't random acts," said Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation. "The statistics clearly show an organized campaign to use violence to stop legal abortions."
Glazier and Saporta said they would applaud additional prosecutions so long as the federal investigation is not curbed.
Justice officials said the same abortion violence task force would continue to supervise the case under the new strategy. "The personnel that have been involved will continue to address the problem," Reno said.
At her weekly news conference, Reno said, "We will continue to pursue all leads, all evidence, and to ensure that the statute protecting abortion clinics from violence and from threats of violence will be enforced as vigorously as possible."
Reno set up the task force investigation after a clinic doctor and a volunteer escort were killed in Pensacola, Fla., in 1993.