"Patriot" erkänner att han planterade bomber

A man who described himself as a "patriot" confessed to placing homemade bombs in a Georgia park to help people realize "that this type of activity could happen anywhere," according to court documents obtained by TPM on Tuesday.

Michael Conrade Sibley, a resident of Marietta, Ga. was charged last week in a federal court in Atlanta with attempting to damage federal property.

Documents filed in the case said Sibley built improvised explosive devices and left two of them in a backpack on Nov. 4 at the Vickery Creek Park in Georgia. The Park is part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, according to the documents.

In an affidavit, FBI special agent Bridget Brock said Sibley was first interviewed by investigators on March 16. He then asked to meet with FBI agents again on March 20 at their Atlanta office and confessed, according to the documents.

67-year-old Michael Sibley of Marietta, Georgia is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly leaving a “potentially explosive device” in a backpack along a hiking trail last November. The backpack, which was discovered by a mother and her daughter, contained two “partially-constructed” pipe bombs, a listing of Atlanta Falcons football games, a schedule for the Atlanta-area subway system, and documents that named the Marcus Jewish Community Center nearby.
Police also found a Qur’an and a copy of the book The Rape of Kuwait in the backpack, but Sibley confessed to investigators earlier this month that his actions weren’t inspired by religious extremism. Instead, Sibley, who told investigators that he “viewed himself as a patriot,” suggested that he planted the bombs and the items in an attempt to convince his neighbors that they could be targets of global terrorism.