FBI: Race Could be Motive behind MLK Bomb
Federal agents are investigating race as a possible motive behind an abandoned backpack containing a functional bomb after it was left along the downtown route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
"The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive," said Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the Spokane FBI office.
The suspicious backpack was spotted by three city employees about an hour before the parade was to start Monday, Harrill said. They saw wires and immediately alerted law enforcement, who disabled it without incident, he said.
The discovery before the parade for the slain civil rights leader raised the possibility of a racial motive in a region that has been home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations.
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said the attempted bombing was unacceptable.
"I was struck that on a day when we celebrate Dr. King, a champion of non-violence, we were faced with a significant violent threat," Verner said. "This is unacceptable in our community, or any community."
The Spokane region and adjacent northern Idaho have had numerous incidents of anti-government and white supremacist activity during the past three decades.
The most visible was by the Aryan Nations, whose leader Richard Butler gathered racists and anti-Semites at his compound for two decades. Butler was bankrupted and lost the compound in a civil lawsuit in 2000 and died in 2004.
In December, a man in Hayden, Idaho, built a snowman on his front lawn shaped like a member of the Ku Klux Klan holding a noose. The man knocked the pointy-headed snowman down after getting a visit from sheriff's deputies.
Harrill decried the planting of the bomb as an act of domestic terrorism that was clearly designed to advance a political or social agenda.
"The potential for injury and death were clearly present," he said of the bomb.
CBS News security correspondent Bob Orr reports the device appeared to be fairly sophisticated; a pipe bomb with additional metal to act as shrapnel, and a remote detonation device.
The bomb was planted, reports Orr, to send the brunt of the blast directly toward those participating in the parade.
The FBI received no warnings in advance and did not have a suspect, Harrill said. No one has claimed responsibility for planting the bomb.
The federal agency has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. "The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive," said Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the Spokane FBI office.
The suspicious backpack was spotted by three city employees about an hour before the parade was to start Monday, Harrill said. They saw wires and immediately alerted law enforcement, who disabled it without incident, he said.
The discovery before the parade for the slain civil rights leader raised the possibility of a racial motive in a region that has been home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations.
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said the attempted bombing was unacceptable.
"I was struck that on a day when we celebrate Dr. King, a champion of non-violence, we were faced with a significant violent threat," Verner said. "This is unacceptable in our community, or any community."
The Spokane region and adjacent northern Idaho have had numerous incidents of anti-government and white supremacist activity during the past three decades.
The most visible was by the Aryan Nations, whose leader Richard Butler gathered racists and anti-Semites at his compound for two decades. Butler was bankrupted and lost the compound in a civil lawsuit in 2000 and died in 2004.
In December, a man in Hayden, Idaho, built a snowman on his front lawn shaped like a member of the Ku Klux Klan holding a noose. The man knocked the pointy-headed snowman down after getting a visit from sheriff's deputies.
Harrill decried the planting of the bomb as an act of domestic terrorism that was clearly designed to advance a political or social agenda.
"The potential for injury and death were clearly present," he said of the bomb.
CBS News security correspondent Bob Orr reports the device appeared to be fairly sophisticated; a pipe bomb with additional metal to act as shrapnel, and a remote detonation device.
The bomb was planted, reports Orr, to send the brunt of the blast directly toward those participating in the parade.
The FBI received no warnings in advance and did not have a suspect, Harrill said. No one has claimed responsibility for planting the bomb.
The federal agency has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
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They very idea that this is an incident manufactured by the Federal Government is silly, is insulting to every current or former federal employee and is downright imbecilic. Our Government is the American people. Before we begin our public services, we all swear to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States. Government workers and officials are your acquaintances, neighbors and friends. Their children go to school with and associate with or play with your children on any given day. Most of us know some of their friends, relatives and loved ones. What happened at Oklahoma City when the Murtaugh Building was blown up and we all saw the victims and their families clearly showed people that. Those people who think that the feds would knowingly place them in danger are sick in the head.
I used to be a fed before I retired, I am proud of my years of government service and know that I helped many members of the public and served them well.
It's hard not to believe that race was not the motive behind a bomb being placed along the route for a MLK Day parade. I seriously doubt the muslim terrorist angle simply because the terrorists have always wanted to publicly take credit for their past foul deeds and attribute it to Islam. With that said, I appreciate that what appears to be obvious may not be the actual motive, so I am willing to wait for the authorities to determined exactly what happened here.
...and I was not trying to harm or oppress them.
The conspiracy nuts cannot point to a SINGLE CASE where the federal government was behind an attack on the American people...nor can they point to a SINGLE CASE where the feds planted a bomb to scare or intimidate the American people into taking a particular course of action.