An airport was evacuated and a shrapnel filled bomb was defused this weekend. Doesn’t it seem a bit strange that we didn’t hear about it? The bomb was set to go off at 6am, when the airport would have been filled with people. The story is genuinely dramatic and a rousing success for our nation’s anti-terrorism efforts. Not only that, but it resonates with the “must be afraid of terrorists!” narrative we keep hearing. So why wasn’t this all over the news?
On the morning of Oct 6, 2017 at 12:39 a.m., security footage from the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina showed a man walking through the front doors wearing black clothing and a black cap, while carrying a bag [containing] AN/FO (Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil) explosives that [can] explode violently, [along with] sharp nails and bullets. Whoever built it designed the bomb to cause horrific bodily harm. Before disarming it, authorities discovered that the alarm attached to it was scheduled to go off at 6:00 a.m. that morning just as a fresh round of travelers was scheduled to arrive at the airport. — The Intercept.
If you’ve been paying attention, you can probably guess why: “the man who planted [it] was white.” I guess IED-style bombs are only scary when they’re planted by people who don’t need a lot of vitamin D.
