Both local and federal law enforcement agencies admit that they have no idea whether the 6-foot-5 and 270 pound McMenemy had spent the last few months "scouting the Midwest for abortion clinics to destroy" because he's affiliated with some known domestic terrorist group, or whether he acted on his own. And they have even less idea whether McMenemy deliberately chose the September 11 date to use his car as a fire bomb, or whether he even knew what day it was.

But at least Scott County Prosecutor William Davis would like to find out: "Is he just a fruitcake, or is he better connected? We don't know. We're hoping to get better information on him." According to Davis, investigators have begun tracing credit card receipts and any other available details to find out whether McMenemy is connected with individuals or groups who could be planning further attacks on abortion-providing clinics.

But although both state authorities and the local U.S. Attorney's Office have asked the FBI for help in their investigation, an FBI spokesman refused, explaining that that the Bureau was "unlikely to get involved."

To those involved in abortion care, this lack of interest on the part of the FBI comes as no surprise. There was a time when things were different, when the Bureau took an interest in antiabortion violence, and maintained close liaisons with providers of abortion care around the country. There was a time when Special Agents from the Counterterrorism Division were available to our clinic on an around-the-clock basis.  But that was then, and this is now.

This was the day that the FBI seemed to relax its concern regarding antiabortion terrorists who self-identified as Christians, and who openly proclaimed that their religious beliefs motivated their crimes.

The seven-year hunt for the chief suspect in the Atlanta Olympic bombing has ended after police arrested him behind a stack of milk crates in a remote hunting village in North Carolina.

Eric Robert Rudolph, 36, had apparently been living rough in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina for several years, and appears to have survived by killing wildlife and stealing food from rubbish bins at night.

He went on the run in 1998, after police named him as the chief suspect in the Olympic bombing and three other bombings that killed two people and injured 150.
Photo: Reuters

Rudolph didn't make the Most Wanted list simply because his deadly shrapnel bombs went off at a gay bar and at two women's clinics, but because his first bomb exploded in Olympic Park -- after which the feds focused all their attention on the wrong man.

Rudolph is accused of bombing a park adjacent to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, using an massive and elaborate pipe bomb loaded with nails and screws for extra killing power, an M.O. that was repeated in most of the cases now connected to Rudolph.

The bomb was hidden in a knapsack, which was found by security guard Richard Jewell before it detonated. The device went off while security teams were trying to evacuate the area, killing one woman and injuring more than 100.
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[T]he police and media zeroed in on Jewell as a convenient scapegoat. Jewell was crucified in the press but eventually vindicated. In the meantime, Rudolph escaped scrutiny entirely, and he allegedly continued his bombing campaign before the dust of the Olympic bomb had settled.

But the FBI was on the case -- because Rudolph was a terrorist.

And then there was Clayton Waagner. Remember him?  Claytie was pretty high up on the FBI's Christmas wish list, too, once upon a time -- and they captured him just before the holidays.

DECEMBER 5, 2001

Arrest of Anti-Abortionist Clayton Lee Waagner

On December 5, 2001, Clayton Lee Waagner was arrested without incident by the Springdale (Ohio) Police Department at a local copy center. On September 14, 2001, Waagner had been placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, stemming from a series of crimes related directly and indirectly to his violent anti-abortion activism.
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Waagner was apprehended as a result of a nationwide manhunt; he has been accused of mailing hoax anthrax letters to reproductive health clinics nationwide during September and October 2001. On September 18, 2001, Waagner was indicted for firearms violations in Tennessee and a carjacking in Mississippi. Additional charges may surface against him in connection with additional bank robberies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Photo: FBI

Since the still-unknown perpetrator of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks was also at large in late 2001, it isn't hard to figure out which of Waagner's crimes elevated him to the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. The Special Agents from the Counterterrorism Division made that quite clear to us . . . once upon a time. And for mailing those fake anthrax threats, he is still extolled as a "hero of the faith" by the Army of God, as well as by Neal Horsley, who now -- five years after publishing his own account of his thinly veiled collusion with Waagner -- is free to rub elbows with such luminaries of the Christian right as Dr. James Dobson.

Let's review the FBI's own definition of terrorism, taken from the same FBI source that features an account of the agency's all-out manhunt for Clay Waagner.

Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as "...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)
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Domestic terrorism refers to activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. [18 U.S.C. § 2331(5)]
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A terrorist incident is a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States, or of any state, to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Now let's review what happened in Davenport, Iowa, on September 11.

"He was using his car to torch the building," Davenport police Detective Mike Bowers said.
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"He drove into the clinic and set his car on fire using an accelerant. He knew what he was doing. He planned it. It wasn't an accident," Bowers said.

Bowers said McMenemy has no ties to the Davenport area and has been driving around the Midwest since August.

"He has admitted looking them (abortion clinics) up in phone books and online," Bowers said. "I have no idea why Iowa."

And no one else has any idea, either.

McMenemy is being held without bond, and has been charged with second-degree arson, a Class C felony for which he could be sentenced to a maximum prison term of 10 years and a fined up to $10,000. On October 5, he will be arraigned on that charge in Scott County District Court.

However, Prosecutor Bill Davis is of the opinion that federal charges should be filed, since McMenemy traveled across three states before he rammed his car through the front doors of a women's clinic in Iowa. And last Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Iowa, Davenport, and the Rock Island office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms consented to assist local authorities in the investigation and prosecution of David Robert McMenemy.

But as far as the FBI is concerned, those agencies will be pursuing this case all on their own. The U.S. isn't hosting the Olympics this year, and it isn't as though McMenemy had a vial of anthrax stashed under the front seat or anything. Hey, all the guy wanted to do was use his car to fire bomb an abortion clinic.

And for the FBI -- as already has been noted in some quarters -- antiabortion violence just doesn't seem to qualify as terrorism anymore.

[Title photo: Quad-City Times]