Sunday, February 08, 2004

Backyard bombers

The Houston Chronicle (which has been studiously ignoring the story) finally weighs in with a piece about the Texas cyanide bomb case:
Plans for arsenal a mystery despite guilty pleas

Like last week's AP story, there isn't a lot new here, and the description of the literature found in his possession as "anarchist" is misleading. Krar's literature was almost purely right-wing extremist, including Ku Klux Klan cards and The Turner Diaries, though apparently he did have a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, which is beloved by extremists of all persuasions. (Anarchists are another faction altogether, and they tend to be left-leaning, though ostensibly they are apolitical.)

Mostly, the story paints a picture of the Krars as cultlike kooks, which may well be accurate. But it severely plays down the potential threat they posed, as well as any perspective on the nature of that arsenal.

Nowhere, either, is there any assessment of the FBI handling of the case, nor do we get any sense of the possibility that there may well be more of these bombs out there -- the points which remain, of course, the most relevant aspects of the story.

None of this is surprising. When a paper is this late getting into the game, it shouldn't be a shock that it lags behind in other respects as well.

[Many thanks to Charles Kuffner and my old friend Robertjayb for the heads-up.]

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