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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sirens & Gavels

Clarkston bomb maker jailed w/o bail

A Clarkston, Wash., man will remain in the Spokane County Jail without bail after federal agents found explosive materials at his home during an investigation into online posts advocating jihad.

Investigators believe Joseph Jeffrey Brice, 21, posted comments advocating suicide bombings on YouTube and discussed through email plans to rob a bank in Lewiston, Idaho after planting bombs near a school to district police.

Authorities began investigating Brice after he was injured when a bomb he made exploded on April 18, 2010. Whitman County deputies didn’t pursue charges, but federal investigators probed Brice further after learning he posted videos of explosions on YouTube under the name “StrengthofAllah.”

Investigators used search warrants to access identifying information on Brice’s email accounts and IP addresses.

They discovered videos Brice posted to an extreme video website that depict suicide bombings in Pakistan, and also links to a terrorism magazine with instructions on how to make explosives, according to the search warrants. Investigators believe Brice also registered an email address under the name of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

In February, Brice wrote on YouTube that he found an “FBI or ATF tracking device on his vehicle” and that the FBI had singled him out in their investigation into the explosive device left along the planned route of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity march in Spokane on Jan. 17, according to the warrants. The only suspect in that case, Kevin W. Harpham, was arrested near Addy, Wash., on March 9 and remains in jail.

Brice was arrested on a federal charge of manufacturing an unregistered firearm May 9 after a search at his apartment, 538 Riverview Blvd., in Clarkston.

U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno ordered him held without bail after a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Spokane.



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