Raytheon offers $10,000 reward after 5th bomb threat at depot site

This story was published Thu, Mar 16, 2000

By Terry Hudson
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The contractor building the chemical weapons incinerator here is offering a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for a series of bomb threats at the facility.

Yet another threat was called in Wednesday - the fifth since Feb. 28 at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility construction site. The threat forced another evacuation of about 1,000 workers.

Raytheon Demilitarization Co., which is under contract to build and operate the incinerator, responded with frustration and the reward offer. Anyone with information is asked to call an FBI tip line at 541-278-6004 or the Portland FBI's 24-hour phone line at 503-224-4181.

"It's fair to say that everyone around here is getting a little tired of this," said Raytheon spokesman Chris Early. "We're frustrated. A lot of us would like to get a day's work done. We're disappointed that we're being kept from doing the job we're supposed to be doing out here."

Early said senior management officials met after Wednesday's threat and decided to offer the reward.

Similar threats were called in on three straight days last week. Like the past two incidents, Wednesday's threat was called in around 7 a.m.

"The time he's chosen to do this causes the most disruption at the site," said Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn, commander at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. "People are just moving to the work site and have to be told to do an about-face. It's designed to cause maximum disruption and confusion."

Work stopped for about two hours Wednesday while search teams checked the site. Raytheon and Army officials sent about 1,000 craft construction and site administrative employees home as a safety precaution shortly after receiving the threat. Woloszyn was not involved in the decision to offer a reward but agreed with it.

"Anything that can be done to apprehend this person is a step in the right direction," he said.

The FBI is the lead investigative agency in the case. Gordon Compton, a bureau spokesman out of Portland, said the FBI had no hand in deciding on the reward.

"This was strictly a Raytheon situation," Compton said. "This is something they wanted to do to try to identify this person and if it works that's great. We've offered rewards for various things in the past, but this was strictly Raytheon's call."

During Wednesday's incident, the depot emergency management team assembled at the Emergency Operations Center. It notified county and state emergency operations centers, law enforcement agencies and the media.

The depot fire department responded to the construction site and the depot's gates were closed to incoming traffic during the search. Depot administrative area employees continued to work.

"It's a serious disruption to the highly essential work of completing the incinerator facility so we can begin destroying the chemical munitions stored here," Woloszyn said. Making bomb threats is a felony that carries a possible penalty under federal law of up to 10 years in prison and a fine.

The depot, seven miles west of Hermiston, stores more than 220,000 munitions and containers filled with 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents.

 

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