Michigan man planned to bomb GOP convention, feds say
Posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2008 2:45 PM ET
By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent
Federal prosecutors today revealed the arrest of a Michigan man who made at least five Molotov cocktails that he planned to throw at the Republican National Convention. He also discussed plans to bomb underground power cables to shut off power to the convention center, according to the Justice Department.
The man, 23-year-old Matthew DePalma of Flint, was arrested Saturday in an apartment in South Minneapolis. FBI investigators say they found three completed Molotov cocktails there. And they say he had spent several weeks building explosives and planning a potential attack.
The FBI began investigating DePalma in July, after he attended a convention of anarchists in Wisconsin called the CrimethInc. Convergence. He told an FBI source there that he planned to go to "make some bombs and "blow [stuff] up" at the Republican convention. From then on, federal agents had him under surveillance with the cooperation of the source, who allowed DePalma to use his Minneapolis apartment, in which the FBI secretly made audio and video recordings of their discussions.
Court documents unsealed Wednesday said DePalma talked about ways to make the flammable liquid in his bombs stickier, so that it would adhere to the targets and burn longer and hotter. He told the source he wanted to attack police officers at the convention, saying, "I will light one of those pigs on fire," the documents say.
The FBI says the source -- whose name has not been revealed -- drove DePalma to remote locations to test the Molotov cocktails. In late August, the documents say, DePalma's first attempt failed but the second device caught fire as intended. Investigators say he managed to make two containers of a flammable gel, like Napalm. In all, they say he made five Molotov cocktails and was captured on FBI video and audio recordings assembling them.
DePalma has a court appearance scheduled for Friday at 1 pm, local time, in Minneapolis. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Updated at 4:20 pm.
