Flashback: Terror's Trivial When It's Not Muslims

A Colorado man is free on $50,000 bond after a police search of his house discovered a cache of weapons, explosives and volatile chemicals.

Ronald Swerlein of Longmont, CO, attracted the attention of his neighbors by setting off explosions in his garage. Police had been seeking tips after several small homemade explosives were found in a local parking lot nearly three weeks ago.

A police search of the Swerlein home turned up hundreds of volatile chemicals and other weapons, as well as books about bomb-making and revenge.

Swerlein says he's been experimenting with various chemicals to use as rocket fuel.

According to reports from Colorado, police confiscated nitroglycerin, ammonium nitrate, PETN, thermite, and sodium azide, none of which are used as rocket fuels. They also discovered laboratory-grade glassware worth thousands of dollars.

Ammonium nitrate is the basic ingredient in so-called fertilizer bombs; PETN is an ingredient in plastic explosives; sodium azide produces a toxic gas when it comes into contact with metal; and nitroglycerin is a well-known (and extremely unstable) liquid explosive. Thermite, as most 9/11 researchers know, can be used to cut steel and may have been involved in the demolition of the three World Trade Center buildings which disintegrated on September 11, 2001.

Police detonated the nitroglycerin in Swerlein's driveway.

Longmont Police Sgt. Tim Lewis said the police had seized "cartloads of weapons ... more than I have ever seen in our armory."

Despite the size of the cache and the volatility of the chemicals involved, Sgt. Lewis told reporters that Swerlein had not created enough chemical explosives “for a terrorist action,” although he did have enough to damage his home and others in his neighborhood.

Sgt. Lewis also said, "This investigation is still in its infancy. We're still trying to determine what his intent was."

Considering that the perpetrators of the most extravagant terrorist attack ever committed on American soil were allegedly armed only with box-cutters, it is incomprehensible that a cache of weapons and explosives larger than the Longmont police have in their armory could be described as insufficient for a terrorist action.

How much nitroglycerin does one need to commit an act of terrorism? Or does that depend on one's religion or the color of one's skin?

And why has this case attracted so little national attention? Or does that depend on religion and skin color, too?

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[selected links]

7 News (Denver), June 3: Homemade Explosive Devices Put Authorities, Neighbors On Alert

7 News (Denver), June 16: Homeowner Arrested After Explosives Found In Longmont

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 18: Swerlein has first day in court

7 News (Denver), June 18: Longmont Homeowner Goes To Court In Explosives Probe

UPI, June 19: Homemade explosions land man in jail

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 19: ‘Cartloads’ of weapons seized

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 19: Police: Chemicals more than rocket hobby

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 19: Suspect in explosive case out on bond

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 19: Longmont neighborhood won't be evacuated

Rocky Mountain News (Denver), June 20: Longmont bomb team redeploys

Longmont Daily Times-Call, June 20: More explosives found