Prosecutors said [the terrorist] left five bombs outside homes in the Colorado city of Grand Junction in March 2006, including one where a Federal Aviation Administration official lived.
This is a huge story, right? Multiple bombs, one aimed directly at an official of the agency overseeing the nation's air transportation system? As in, helllllooo, 9/11?
Oops. My bad. Seems the guy can't be called a "terrorist" on account of he is not brown. Or Muslim. In fact somehow multiple bombs, some directed at government officials, don't even count as terrorism without those factors being involved. How is it we--maybe it's just me?--heard nothing about this story a year ago when it was happening or since then when the guy was caught? And, oh, um, got a full and public trial?
A former air traffic controller accused of planting homemade bombs outside the houses of former co-workers and a government official was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to damaging a building.
Robert Burke, 55, also was ordered to pay $11,865 in restitution for damage caused by another bomb to a building in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that belonged to his former employer, Serco Group PLC, a contractor that supplies traffic controllers to airports.
[snip]
Burke was arrested in Utah in April and charged with six counts, including possession of a dangerous weapon and explosives.
In October, he pleaded guilty to one count of malicious damage to a building used in interstate commerce after accepting a deal from prosecutors.
I never would have seen it at all if the Murfreesboro angle hadn't put it on the Tennessean's radar. There must have been a missing white woman back then which drove coverage of this story out of the media.
- captain nemo's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1+[CSE]+#b94+
Front page
Comments
Tterrorism in Tennessee?
Was he white? No story. Now if he'd been an Islamofascist (or a Muslim) or had a darker complexion (you know they're all criminals, especially according to Tennesseans, then it would have been national news.
Can't anyone here play this game right?
Another word for homemade bombs
would be, um, improvised explosive devices.
Hell, Lurch, TN's a hotbed of terr'sts
We've got this guy with ricin, guns, silencers, and a little bipolar problem...but "he was not known to be associated with any terrorist organizations or other violent groups" so nobody bothered to tell anybody he was talking about having ricin until his ex-wife ratted him out.
And the air-traffic controller guy cited above.
Plus there was another dude just convicted a couple of months ago--explosives possession don'cha know, with intent to recruit help to blow up unspecified shit but the first attempted recruit was an FBI guy so this did not progress far, except I can't find any links to stories about him. Nobody carried it but the local weekly and the Jackson TN Sun, neither of which has a search function worth blowing to hell you should pardon the expression.
And this is just middle and west TN, God only knows what's going on over in the eastern parts where they are notoriously unstable. Long history of bridge-burning and the like. :)