FBI On Alert for Clinic Violence

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WASHINGTON: TIMEs Elaine Shannon reports that law enforcement authorities across the U.S. are on heightened alert, watching as intensively as they can to prevent violent attacks on women's clinics as abortion proponents and pro-lifers on Wednesday commemorate the 24th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973. Federal agents, who have investigated 175 clinic attacks to date, continue to search for leads as to who is responsible for two bombings at abortion clinics in Atlanta and Tulsa last week. "There is evidence, and it's evidence that could identify a suspect at some point," cautioned a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent scouring the firebombed clinic in Tulsa. Especially worrisome to the ATF and the FBI are the two bombs that went off outside a suburban Atlanta clinic last Thursday. They were powerful pipe bombs, explosive devices anybody with some expertise can easily assemble. Shannon notes: The Atlanta incident is particularly worrisome because of the timing of the second bomb, which was clearly intended to injure rescue workers and law enforcement officials responding to the first blast. It sensitizes the investigators, because they are being targeted as well.