[JohnMitchel]

Spokane Spokesman Review: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...oute-was-bomb/

The abandoned backpack found Monday along the route of Spokane’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. march contained a bomb capable of inflicting “multiple casualties,” the FBI has confirmed.

...

Frank Harrill, special agent in the charge of the Spokane FBI office, would not discuss what specifically made the bomb so dangerous but said the investigation has become a top priority.

“It definitely was, by all early analysis, a viable device that was very lethal and had the potential to inflict multiple casualties,” Harrill said. “Clearly, the timing and placement of a device _ secreted in a backpack _ with the Martin Luther King parade is not coincidental. We are doing everything humanly possible to identify the individuals or individual who constructed and placed this device.”

...

“I think the link to the Martin Luther King celebration and march is inescapable,” Harrill said. “At that point, it falls directly in the realm and sphere of domestic terrorism. Clearly, there was some political or social agenda here.”

[Vipvlad]

NBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41139894...me_and_courts/

Workers initially reported the suspicious package to Spokane police. The march was slightly re-routed and delayed.

Television video on "The Rachel Maddow Show" showed the backpack sitting upright on a metal bench backed by a waist-high brick wall. In the interview with Maddow, Spokesman-Review reporter Clouse said sources told him the device was placed to direct the blast outward toward the marchers.

"The three contract workers in the area who were there are unsung heroes," the FBI spokesman said.