FBI Raises Reward in Abortion Clinic Arsons : Crime: Agency doubles the amount of money offered for tips leading to culprits in the series of attacks on medical facilities.

Citing a consistent pattern in a string of abortion clinic attacks that began in Ventura, federal officials Wednesday appealed to the public for help as they doubled the reward for information on the culprits.

The FBI’s announcement of a $100,000 reward came one day after an arson fire at a clinic in San Francisco, the fifth and most recent attack in the series that began three weeks ago and progressed north along the California coast.

“The evidence collected from the various scenes leads us to believe that we’re talking about . . . a consistent pattern,” said John Hoos, a spokesman for the FBI in Los Angeles. “We had a tire in Ventura, we had a tire in Santa Barbara and we had (a tire) in San Francisco.”

In Ventura, a tire was used to hold several bottles and then doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. FBI officials said they would pay $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the Ventura fire or any of the other incidents--with a maximum of $100,000.

Abortion-rights advocates in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties praised the FBI’s decision to offer a reward, saying it could make the difference in solving cases that traditionally have left investigators few clues. Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, an advocacy group, last week offered their own $100,000 reward for tips that lead to an arrest and conviction in the attacks.

“I think that money is always an incentive for people to betray their allies,” said Terri Thorfinnson, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“The people that are going to know the information are not going to be neighbors,” she said. “They’re going to be the people that work with or are friends with or are comrades with people responsible for the violence.”

Although FBI officials will not comment on whether individuals or organized groups are suspected, Thorfinnson said she is convinced they are part of a nationwide conspiracy to shut down abortion clinics.

“We have been targets of clinic violence stretching back for 10 years, and few of them have been solved,” she said.

The recent string of attacks began the morning of Feb. 9 in Ventura at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group. No one was injured, and firefighters doused the blaze before it caused much damage.

Two days later, a similar fire slightly damaged the Santa Barbara Women’s Medical Group, a private doctors’ office where abortions are performed.

On Feb. 15, a fire swept through a Planned Parenthood office in San Luis Obispo, causing the most extensive damage so far. That attack was followed six days later with a fire at a clinic in Santa Cruz.

And on Tuesday, an arson at the Pregnancy Consultation Center near downtown San Francisco caused $600 damage.

All of the fires are under investigation by the Anti-Abortion Violence Task Force organized last year by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to investigate possible conspiracies behind violence at abortion clinics throughout the country.

The task force includes agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.

FBI officials said part of their investigation is focusing on possible reasons for the geographic pattern of the attacks, and potential targets in the future.

“It doesn’t take a great investigator to figure out there’s a concern for people north of San Francisco,” said Rick Smith, a special agent for the FBI in San Francisco.

Despite the movement north, officials with abortion clinics in Ventura County say they remain apprehensive.

“I feel like the threat is still there,” Thorfinnson said. “We don’t know where that person is or how many people are involved.”