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New Mailbox Bomb Found in Colorado

by Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press

SALIDA, Colo. - An FBI official said a pipe bomb found in a Colorado mailbox yesterday appeared linked to 16 others found in three Midwestern states, raising concerns that the domestic terrorism spree is spreading West.
“We have a rather disturbing pattern where the subjects are moving West rather quickly,” FBI agent Mark Mershon said. “We’re looking for someone who is mobile. We’re moving mountains to determine who that is.”

A resident found the device in a sandwich bag with a piece of paper in the small mountain community of Salida, about 100 miles southwest of Denver. It did not explode.

“The device is consistent in description and appearance with 16 other devices recovered since Friday in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska,” Mershon said.

He said the fact that the other devices were found in clusters raises concern that more bombs may be delivered in the area.

Mershon said he hadn’t seen the paper with the device, so he didn’t know whether it was similar to the anti-government letter found with the other devices.

A bomb squad from the Colorado Springs Police Department took the bomb. It wasn’t clear whether police planned to detonate it.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms spokesman Rich Marianos said a second pipe bomb was found late yesterday in a field about 35 miles east of Salida. However, he said it did not fit the characteristics of the other devices.

Also yesterday, another mailbox bomb was found in rural Nebraska. It was the eighth discovered in the state and the 16th in the Midwest since last week.

Six people were injured by mailbox pipe bombs in Illinois and Iowa on Friday. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

The latest Nebraska pipe bomb was found near Hastings in the mailbox of someone who had been away for the weekend, authorities said. It did not explode. There was no immediate word on whether it was accompanied by an anti-government note.

The explosive was disarmed yesterday evening by Nebraska State Patrol bomb technicians after it was removed from the rural Clay County mailbox by a robot. Authorities had detonated the other Nebraska bombs.

The FBI said yesterday that the first 15 bombs clearly came from the same source, but officials have not said whether they are searching for an individual or a group.

Officials described the Midwest bombs as three-quarter-inch steel pipes attached to 9-volt batteries, and said they appeared to be triggered by being touched or moved.

The typewritten note found with the bombs read, in part: “If the government controls what you want to do they control what you can do. ... I’m obtaining your attention in the only way I can. More info is on its way. More ‘attention getters’ are on the way.”