Posted on 06/10/2003 3:00:19 PM PDT by dixiechick2000
Man with Ore. ties faces charges for bomb plot 06/09/2003
By KGW, NBC and AP Staff
A man with ties to southern Oregon, who is currently in prison for vehicle theft, is now suspected of planning a significant attack -- say authorities who uncovered an arsenal of semiautomatic assault weapons, ammunition, pipe bombs and barrels of jet fuel.
Authorities have not been able to identify any targets. And the man, John Noster, 38, has refused to talk to investigators, said Los Angeles County, Calif. sheriff's Sgt. John Demooy.
Noster had traveled back and forth across the country in a pickup with a camper shell after leaving a Los Angeles sporting goods firm where he worked, investigators said. They placed him in Texas, Arkansas and Oregon.
"He was definitely planning on targeting a structure, location, individuals, and would have created significant damage," Demooy said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating Noster for firearms and explosives violations and plans to present its findings to prosecutors, said spokeswoman Latese Baker.
Noster was arrested in November during an investigation into purchases of vehicles using assumed names.
Incendiary devices found during the arrest prompted a search of two storage units Noster rented, authorities said. In the search, they said, they found three pipe bombs, two incendiary devices, six 55-gallon drums of jet fuel, five assault weapons, smokeless powder, cannon fuse, electric matches, thousands of rounds of ammunition and $188,000 in cash.
The guns, ammunition and cash were in a garage "with a $3 padlock on it," Demooy said.
Investigators also recently flew over 20 acres of land Noster owns just outside of Oakland, Ore. near Roseburg. They were looking for anything suspicious, but said they found nothing in the Oregon location.
Noster pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft auto on Jan. 14 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison but was given credit for 120 days served, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
"He was white-collar professional, seemed like an intelligent man and I believe if charges are brought against him ... that he'll be vindicated in court," said Nicholas Khan, an attorney who represented Noster in the theft case.
Authorities also found a handwritten note about options for destroying a building by either dropping an "instrument" from a gyrocopter or placing it nearby. A gyrocopter is a tiny aircraft that looks like a helicopter but is pushed by a rear-mounted propeller while the unpowered overhead blades create lift.
I saw this story reported on MSNBC.
It was news to me.
I've seen many of your posts and you are truly the Queen of Links! ;o)
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