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Spokesman Review: Suspect Arrested in Spokane Bomb Scare
As opposed to the inaccurate assumptions about the shooter in the Tuscon rampage in early January, it looks like the suspicions about right wing extremism in the Martin Luther King Day backpack bomb case may be accurate.
The Spokesman Review has the story about the 36-year-old ex-soldier who was arrested by the FBI today.
The Spokesman Review has the story about the 36-year-old ex-soldier who was arrested by the FBI today.
An ex-soldier with ties to the white supremacist movement has been taken into custody in connection with the planting of a backpack bomb along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in downtown Spokane, authorities have confirmed.
Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Colville, could face life imprisonment on charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an unregistered explosive device, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court. An initial court appearance is scheduled for this afternoon.
Harpham was arrested this morning during a raid at his home at 1088 Cannon Way near Addy, Wash., by dozens of federal agents who had been assembling in Spokane during the past few days.
The Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed that Harpham in 2004 was a member of the National Alliance, which is one of the most visible white supremacist organizations in the nation. It was founded by the late William Pierce, who authored “The Turner Diaries,” a novel about a future race war. That book was believed to be the blueprint behind the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.
“What to me this arrest suggests is that the Martin Luther King Day attack is what it always looked like: A terror-mass murder attempt directed at black people and their sympathizers,” said Mark Potok,
who is the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project that tracks and investigates hate groups.