Feds to charge SC student with attempting to use WMD

A Proud Liberal · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:25 pm

Feds to charge S.C. student with attempting to use weapon of mass destruction

Quote:

CHESTERFIELD, S.C. (Associated Press) -- The acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina says a teenager accused of planning to bomb his high school will face a federal charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The charge carries a possible life sentence.

Prosecutor Kevin McDonald says 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger (SHAL'-en-burger) also will face two lesser federal charges stemming from his scheme to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in Chesterfield, a town in northeastern South Carolina.

The news came less than an hour before Schallenberger (SHAL'-en-burger) was to appear in court for a bond hearing.

Schallenberger (SHAL'-en-burger) was arrested Saturday after his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate.
. . . . .

This is wrong on so many levels, I'll probably miss a few.

1. The kid is no Saddam Hussein (who had no WMD's but probably had a lot of ammonium nitrate fertilizer).

2. Yeah, he probably is a McVeigh wannabe with a critical difference, McVeigh wasn't a suicide bomber.

3. McDonald has to inflate the charges so he looks like a good appointment, not the Repug political payback after the firing the competent U.S. attorney before him.

4. Family members turning suspects for charges that carry life sentences for attempted actions smacks of Nazi Germany. If ordering ten pounds of fertilizer is proof of a crime then one shouldn't be able to do so.

Catherine · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:40 pm

Quote:

If ordering ten pounds of fertilizer is proof of a crime then one shouldn't be able to do so

Holy Shit...I've seen farmers around here bring that much fertilizer into their veggie gardens and cow pastures. I've bought that much when I was sewing grass seed in the field below my house. Had no trouble buying it, either. I agree, APL...if it's enough to make a 'wmd,' then the quantity shouldn't be available without some kind of "signing statement."

While the kid definitely has problems, he's probably saturated his mind with too much tv watching....or Faux News paranoia.

Finding his journals also made the parents do what they did:

Quote:

Police said that after they were called by his parents, they discovered a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers, an audiotape to be played after Schallenberger died during his rampage and a year's worth of plans for the bombing that included a hand-drawn map of the school.

dori · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:57 pm

He was probably miserable in school and at home, and didn't see anything better on the horizon.

We really should be able to have a better out for kids like this than having them plan to commit suicide and take as many of their tormentors with them as possible.

Media and entertainment do not help in these matters!

:cry:

Feds to charge SC student with attempting to use WMD

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