As Rachel Maddow reported, the FBI is now offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for placing a bomb near the Martin Luther King Jr. day parade route in Spokane, Washington. FBI: Bomb found on MLK
January 19, 2011

As Rachel Maddow reported, the FBI is now offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for placing a bomb near the Martin Luther King Jr. day parade route in Spokane, Washington.

FBI: Bomb found on MLK march route:

SPOKANE, Wash. — A backpack found along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane contained a bomb "capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the FBI said Tuesday, describing the case as "domestic terrorism."

The FBI said the Swiss Army-brand backpack was found about 9:25 a.m. PST on Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.

In an interview on msnbc cable's "The Rachel Maddow Show," Spokesman-Review reporter Thomas Clouse said confidential sources told him that the device was equipped with a remote control detonator and contained shrapnel.

A bomb disposal unit was called in and neutralized the device with a robot. The FBI said in a statement on Tuesday that "the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties."

The FBI has refused to discuss how the bomb was constructed.

"Suffice it to say it was of grave concern," Frank Harrill, special agent in the charge of the Spokane FBI office, told NBC News.

"You could describe it as an improvised destructive device ... or improvised explosive device."

The FBI has not established an official motive, but Harrill told NBC News "the timing and placement of the backpack (along the march route) is inescapable."
Image: Backpack that contained bomb
Courtesy FBI
The FBI is seeking information connected to the identity of the person or persons seen with this Swiss Army-brand backpack.

"At that point, it falls directly in the realm and sphere of domestic terrorism," Harrill told the Associated Press. "Clearly, there was some political or social agenda here." Read on...

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