The Spokane Spokesman-Review is reporting that FBI agents yesterday found an improvised explosive device placed alongside the route of Spokane, WA's MLK Day parade. The FBI's special agent in charge said:
"Clearly, the timing and placement of a device secreted in a backpack with the Martin Luther King parade is not coincidental...."At that point, it falls directly in the realm and sphere of domestic terrorism. Clearly, there was some political or social agenda here."
It's clearly irrefutable now that DHS's warning of the rise of right wing extremism, issued April, 2009, was spot on. Inflammatory rhetoric debates not withstanding, there is a clear and present danger from extremism in this country. This time, the bomb placed to slaughter innocents was found before it detonated. This time. But every time I attend a political event, or even mildly controversial gathering, I'll think about this.