Arrest made in Spokane MLK Day bomb plot

Possible white supremacist ties, according to the story:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/09/washington.bomb.suspect/index.html?hpt=T2

(CNN) -- Authorities have a suspect in custody in connection with a backpack bomb found in January along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane, Washington, according to Michael Ormsby, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

Ormsby told CNN that Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Colville, Washington, is scheduled to appear in court at 3:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET) Wednesday on charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an unregistered explosive device.

The weapon of mass destruction charge would carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to five years of court supervision after release, prosecutors said. The unregistered explosive device charge would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of court supervision after release, they said.

The suspect was apprehended away from his home, which is in a rural part of Washington state near Colville, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Authorities are trying to determine if the bomb attempt was part of a conspiracy, but for now, the scheme seems to be a "lone wolf" situation, the source said.

 

Obviously the chemical component mentioned in this passage explains the weapon of mass destruction charge:

The device contained a chemical found in rat poison and was packed with little metal pellets, apparently as shrapnel, another law enforcement official told CNN in late January. The device was set up to be detonated remotely, that official said.

I'm curious as to how that was packed/constructed to make that poison work. Would it have gone airborne with the explosion and killed people outside the immediate blast radius? Pretty scary stuff whatever the reach of the weapon is.

 

I think the rat poison chemical is the explosive component. It was intended to blow up, not poison people.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/explosives-nitramines.htm

 

A life sentence and three years supervision after he's released? How would you like to be the parole officer pulling cemetery duty?

 

If all of his/her other "clients" were similarly located in that cemetery, it would be a pretty easy job.