Russian man faces weapon of mass destruction charges in Pennsylvania

cnn ^ | 1-26-14 | Steve Almasy

[FlJoePa]

Police officers were investigating a reported marijuana-growing operation when they discovered a homemade bomb and bomb-making materials in a suitcase, the news release said.

Vladislav Miftakhov, a Russian citizen, was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe and drug-related offenses. He was arraigned Friday and bail was set at $500,000, Blair County corrections officer James McMahon said Sunday.

[FlJoePa]

Have we re-defined what a WMD is? Apparently so.

[FlJoePa]

Another story from local paper:

link here

[Paladin2]

Maybe it should be called a large firecracker.

[virgil]

I can see why he was arrested, but I’m not so sure about WMDs.

[Gaffer]

The powdered magnesium and the other two substances and 1 lb-ish quantities does sound kinda dangerous to me, but I certainly don’t think they qualify as a WMD.

If they do, then all these frigging liberals need to go back to Bush and Iraq’s defeat and revisit what they refused to call WMDs.

[Usagi_yo]

Bogus charges. If he had anything even remotely close to an WMD there wouldn’t be any bail.

Agree or disagree?

[PapaBear3625]

Under United States Code 18 USC § 2332a, a "weapon of mass destruction" is defined to include any destructive device. So, the US code refers to any bomb, mine, missile, etc which can be used to produce multiple casualties as a WMD.

[null and void]

By that definition a car is a WMD.

[Gaffer]

Interesting that the Democrats, Media and liberals never applied that meaning to their condemnation of Bush’s defeat of IRAQs for the purpose of removing WMDs.

IMO, the USC is ridiculous.

[PubliusMM]

“risking a catastrophe” That’s a criminal offense?

Zero and 0bamunists are guilty as sin. Arrest ‘em.

[Second Amendment First]

We used to blow up stuff when I was a kid all the time, and only about ten miles from where this guy was arrested. Doing the same thing today would have sent me to prison for life.

[Eagles6]

$500,000 bail? You’d think he reimbursed somebody for a campaign contribution or something.

[Born to Conserve]

Jeez, the guy was doing what country boys do. They make things that go boom. It’s a rite of passage.

[freeandfreezing]

Under PA state law pretty much anything is a "weapon of mass destruction" including things that everybody has in their garage. The state law is a great example of poor legislative drafting.

What the student was allegedly doing appears stupid and dangerous, but it is hard to see how it merits the "weapons of mass destruction" charge. Reading the statute in the way necessary to charge the kid, it also reads on just about everybody in the state, including the police who arrested him. That's ridiculous.

Here's the PA Statute.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Prisoner exchange with Snowden in the works?