Bomb planted along MLK Day parade route

Via digby at Hullabaloo, some jackass planted a bomb along the route of a parade for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Spokane.

An incendiary device found along the route of a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Wash., was "likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the FBI said today.

A city employee found a backpack Monday morning, just before the parade was to start, in a parking lot that was both on the parade route and across the street from a performing arts center that hosted a pre-parade rally.

More than 1,000 people attended the parade, according to the Spokesman-Review.

Police responded, followed by the FBI. Several blocks around the parking lot were shut down, and the parade was re-routed. The area was shut down all day, as agents first dismantled the device, using a robot, and then called in hazmat teams.

The FBI said today that the device posed a credible threat.

"Subsequent preliminary analysis revealed the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the agency said in a statement.

Apparently, we will once again refrain from referring to this as "terrorism" until it has been demonstrated that this bomb was planted by a racial and/or religious minority.