West IED charge one of hundreds filed nationwide

A violation of the Internal Revenue Code

“Everybody's going nowhere, baby; they're only fighting for the chance to be last. There's nothing with going nowhere, baby, but we should be going nowhere fast...” - a song from “Streets Of Fire,” by screenwriter Walter Hill.

Waco – Bryce Ashley Reed, the dismissed – and seemingly disgraced - West paramedic who was arrested by ATF agents in the middle of the night and arraigned in federal Magistrate Court in secret, is charged with a violation of the U.S. Tax code.

He has yet to have his day in open court, a postponement of a bail hearing arrived at “by agreement,” said his attorney, Jonathan Sibley, who is hired by the Court at $125 per hour, according to documents on file.

The arrangement is allowed under a Title 18 Code section that provides 3 days of leeway upon motion of the Government and up to 5 days on a defense motion if “the attorney for the Government or upon the officers' own motion if there is a serious risk that the defendant (a) will flee or (b) will obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice, or threaten, injure or attempt to threaten, injure, or intimidate a prospective witness or juror.”

Mrs. Brittany Reed is known to have blurted out at a community meeting held on the evening of the day of Mr. Reed's arrest that agents interrogated the couple for many hours after a pre-dawn-early morning raid, and stated that “if he gets out on bail, he will kill himself.”

Possession of an unregistered explosive device is equated with possession of an unregistered firearm under the provisions of 26 U.S. Code Section 5861 (d), according to the Tax Code, which code also requires in another section that manufacturers of firearms pay a $1,000 fee and dealers a $500 fee annually in order to legally register their products.

He'sonly one of hundreds of people similarly charged with possession of an IED (improvised explosive devices) since President Obama declared detection of such violations a national priority on Februrary 26 –the 20th anniversary of the 1993 truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center. Largely symbolic, that terroristic attack was against a symbol of America's competence – one of the nation's temples of high finance.(click)

Obviously, the powers that be in the executive departments of the U.S. Government are now sweating the possibility of violent attacks on the nation's infrastructure in agriculture and transportation.

Google IED arrests, and you will see numerous hits on http://mugshots.com/search.html?x=0&y=0&q=arrests+for+improvised+explosive+device for Americans booked for the same offense on that day, and on the days that follow, often in conjunction with other charges.

SAC Robert Champion BATFE, Dallas

For instance, the ATF's Dallas Special Agent in Charge, Robert Champion,who ramrodded the 30-day, multi-million dollar investigation of the explosion at West Fertilizer Co., joined the FBI and Assistant U.S.Attorney in the announcement that agents arrested Midland land surveyor Steven Leonard Prewitt following a lengthy undercover operation on May 2. Mr. Prewitt had led undercover agents on a tourof rural properties in two other west Texas counties where he proudly displayed and demonstrated IED's and caches of bomb-making materials.(click here)

Mr. Champion re-emphasized last week that in their ruling that the tragic events are of an “undetermined” cause, authorities are not prepared to maintain any connection between the charges filed against Mr. Reed and the fire and explosion at West Fertilizer Co.

Uzbekistani activist Fazliddin Kurbanov is charged with helping to raise moneyfor terrorist organizations based in his native land, as well as instructing fellow insurgents on how to make IED's, possession of the deadly devices, and the makings for more of them. He is charged in U.S. District Court in Idaho.(click)

Police in Tempe, Arizona, arrested a high school student for possession of an explosive device, and charged him under the same statute.(click)

Look up the President's declaration, and you will read that terrorists are poised to begin the kind of attacks U.S. Forces have countered in Iraq and Afghanistan – in the streets and along the transportation corridors of American cities and rural locations.

“They employ the most recent and successful tactics, and procedures gained from experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world,” saith Mr. Obama in his declaration. There were in excess of 4,000 such attacks worldwide during 2011, according to the White House statement.

Part of planned strategy calls for “Conducting multi-mode data analysis of IED patterns, trends, and tactics, techniques, and procedures to anticipate future IED threat evolutions ...”

Clearly, Old Blue, the federal hound, has his ear to the ground.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Agent Douglas J. Kunze, the Sheriff's Office was called to “a residence in Abbott, McLennan County, Texas...(and) it was determined that the destructive device components had been in the possession of Bryce Ashley Reed.”

They “included a galvanized metal pipe that was 3.5 inches in length by 1.5 inches in diameter. Attached to the pipe were two galvanized end caps, one of which contained a drilled hole approximately 1/8 inch in diameter. Additionally, the canisters contained an unknown amount of hobby fuse, a lighter, a digital scale, plastic spoon, six coils of metal ribbon and several pounds of chemical powders in individual bags...”

The agent listed Potassium Nitrate, aluminum powder, Red Iron Oxide, Ammonium Perchlorate, Potassium Perchlorate, Sulfur powder, Air Float Charcoal and Eckart 10890 German Dark Aluminum as components thus stored.

For additional information on Mr. Reed, click here

There is some confusion as to whether the explosive device was assembled, or if there were only components stashed at the Abbott residence. According to Chief Deputy Matt Cawthon, the device picked up by the Sheriff's Officers was fully assembled.

“After further investigation, it was determined that the resident had unwittingly taken possession of the components from REED on April 26, 2013.” The fire and explosion occurred April 17.

Arguably, Mr. Reed may have come under suspicion due to his extremely voluble and somewhat argumentative inclination to discuss the tragedy and his role in its aftermath. He was reportedly a first responder who took command of a radio communications center while EMT's and firemen helped clear bodies of those who perished from the wreckage and rushed survivors to medical attention.

A blog entry on a KXAN website published in Austin related how he suddenly took a perch standing on a coffee table at the Czech Inn, where he admonished survivors and their families they were "in the right place," to “stay where you are,” or he might very possibly find himself at the blast site clearing their remains from the wreckage.

The somewhat astonished broadcast reporter wrote that he gave interviews to press and broadcasters alike in the motel's parking lot while other members of the Volunteer Fire Department maintained a stony, stoic silence to all comers.

Very definitely, it is a cultural thing, the difference between those who see playing with explosives, as well as carrying handguns and owning assault rifles, as a total no no, while certain personalities from more rural settings see no problem with any of it.

They include relatives of highly placed elected officials, who maintain it's only a boys-will-be-boys phenomenon, long observed when country boys and girls get it on down on the farm.