Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Virginia terrorist plot foiled

ABC News is reporting a terrorist conspiracy involving a student at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.
Authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.

The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. They were "slow burn," according to the official, and would not have been very destructive.

"There were indications that there were others involved in the manufacturing of these devices and we are still investigating these individuals with the assistance of ATF, Virginia State Police and FBI. At this time it is not believed that these devices were going to be used to interrupt the funeral services at Liberty University," the Campbell County Sheriff's Office said in a release.

The devices might not have interrupted the funeral, but the screams of those being burned to death might have interrupted it.

I should point out that my use of the word "terrorist" above is my own conclusion based on the description of a group of people trying to intimidate others into silence by using an explosive device to murder them. So far none of the news stories have used either the word "terrorist" or "terrorism" to describe the plot. I suppose that's to be expected; as we all know, it's not possible to be a terrorist if you are a white, Christian conservative.

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