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On January 17, 2011, a radio-controlled, shaped

Shaped charge

A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, to initiate nuclear weapons, to penetrate armor, and in the oil and gas industry...

 pipe bomb

Pipe bomb

A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device, a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion, and the fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially...

was found and defused in Spokane, Washington

Spokane, Washington

Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...

 along the route of that year's Martin Luther King Jr. memorial march. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, the bomb was a "viable device" that could have sprayed marchers with shrapnel

Shrapnel

Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually. They relied almost entirely on the shell's velocity for...

 and caused multiple casualties; it also contained rat poison

Rat poison

Rodenticides are a category of pest control chemicals intended to kill rodents.Single feed baits are chemicals sufficiently dangerous that the first dose is sufficient to kill....

 to prevent bleeding wounds from coagulating. According to the FBI, the bombing may have been racially motivated

Hate crime

In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

, and its timing was likely not a coincidence. The New York Times said that the bomb had been reported to police at roughly 9:25 AM that morning.

The bomb was found in a Swiss Army brand

Victorinox

Victorinox is a knife manufacturer based in the town of Ibach, in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. Since its acquisition of rival Wenger in 2005, it has, once more, become the sole supplier of multi-purpose knives to the Swiss army.-History:...

  backpack

Backpack

A backpack is, in its simplest form, a cloth sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders, but there can be exceptions...

 that also contained two T-shirts. One of the shirts mentioned a rally against cancer in Stevens County, Washington, while the other mentioned a 2009 play put on by students at Chewelah, Washington

Chewelah, Washington

Chewelah is a city in Stevens County, Washington, United States. Chewelah was labeled Chiel-Charle-Mous on the 1897 U. S. Land Office Map. The population was 2,607 at the 2010 census which was a 19.3% increase over the 2000 census.-History:...

 high school (also in Stevens County). The FBI has offered a $20,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of those responsible. Police sent bomb-sniffing dogs, a robot, and specially trained officers to the location where the bomb was found. Following the defusing of the bomb, the backpack was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 laboratory in Quantico, Virginia

Quantico, Virginia

- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there are 561 people, 295 households, and 107 families living in the town. The population density is . There are 359 housing units at an average density of .-Racial composition:...

 for further analysis. According to the Rev. Percy "Happy" Watkins, most people at the march did not know about the bomb threat at the time it happened.

The Saturday after the bombing attempt, another rally celebrating Eastern Washington University

Eastern Washington University

Eastern Washington University is an American public, coeducational university located in Cheney, Washington.Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided into four colleges: Arts and Letters; Business and Public Administration; Science, Health and Engineering; and Social & Behavioral...

's football team was planned, which would go past the same spot where the bomb was found. The plans for that march were not changed even after the bomb was discovered.

Police investigation and trial

In February a possible lead was discovered; a woman who owned a bookstore discovered a piece of paper with anti-Semitic and anti-African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 messages hidden in a book about the 2008 United States presidential election. The paper also included a list of dates, some of them crossed out. As of February 2011, research on the bomb still had not been completed; this is because the bomb was wrapped in numerous layers of duct tape

Duct tape

Duct tape, or duck tape, is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure sensitive tape often sealed with polyethylene. It is very similar to gaffer tape but differs in that gaffer tape was designed to be cleanly removed, while duct tape was not. It has a standard width of and is generally silver or black...

 which are slowly being peeled back to look for hairs, fibers, or fingerprints.

On March 9, 2011, the FBI arrested Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Addy, Washington

Addy, Washington

Addy is an unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington, United States.Addy was first settled in 1854 by Thomas Brown and his family. A small town alongside State Route 395, Addy was not tracked by the 2000 U.S. Census, but in the 2010 census the population was 265. The town has one gas...

, in connection with the bombing attempt. Harpham allegedly has ties to the National Alliance, a white supremacist organization.

On May 3, 2011, Harpham's lawyers requested a four-month delay in the defendant's federal trial for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. The defense contends that their client faces up to life in prison, so they need more time to prepare. The delay will be discussed during a scheduled May 20 court appearance in Spokane, Washington. Harpham has pleaded not guilty, and remains in jail without parole since his March 9, 2011 arrest.

On May 20, 2011, U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush agreed to delay Harpham's trial until August 22, 2011. The same article noted that the bomb had a "welded blast plate" and contained shrapnel. The shrapnel was further combined with an anticoagulant rat poison apparently intended to prevent any resulting wounds from clotting

Coagulation

Coagulation is a complex process by which blood forms clots. It is an important part of hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, wherein a damaged blood vessel wall is covered by a platelet and fibrin-containing clot to stop bleeding and begin repair of the damaged vessel...

.

On September 14, 2011, Harpham pled guilty to setting the device .