Just prior to the election, the appearance of Osama Bin Laden - tanned, rested, and ready - reminded many of us of the Bush administration's failure to effectively address the threat of terrorism. The
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists details another terrorist threat that's being ignored by Ashcroft's Justice Department - homegrown terror.
A bomb is a bomb. A chemical weapon is a chemical weapon. It won't matter to the victims whether their attacker's name is Ahmed or Bill.
An excellent article by Michael Reynolds, this piece details the activities of William Joseph Krar, a militia activist who was - by accident and happenstance - found in April 2003 with a homemade hydrogen cyanide device capable of killing hundreds of people, if not more. The device was part of a substantial armory of terrorist tools. More below the fold...
Along with the sodium cyanide, hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, and glacial acetic acid, Krar and Bruey's armory included nearly 100 assorted firearms, three machine guns, silencers, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, 60 functional pipe bombs, a remote-controlled briefcase device ready for explosive insertion, a homemade landmine, grenades, 67 pounds of Kinepak solid binary explosives (ammonium nitrate), 66 tubes of Kinepak binary liquid explosives (nitromethane), military detonators, trip wire, electric and non-electric blasting caps, and cases of military atropine syringes.
The storage unit also contained an extensive library of required reading for the serious terrorist: U.S. military and CIA field manuals for improvised munitions, weapons, and unconventional warfare; handbooks on assault rifle conversions to full-auto and manufacturing silencers; formulas for poisons and chemical and biological weapons; descriptions of safety precautions in handling; and information on means of deployment. Many of the same easily acquired, open-source materials, translated into Arabic, were found in Al Qaeda terrorist manuals recovered in Afghanistan and Europe.
Reynolds provides extensive details on Klar's activities, and points out over 10 other domestic terror cases which are largely ignored by the media. He also makes a persuasive case that authorities - focused on demonstrably quixotic and trumped up cases involving 'foreigners' - have ignored the real threat facing our country.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Homegrown terror