List of terrorist incidents in Seattle

The United States city of Seattle has been the site of occasional, small-scale terrorist incidents.^[1] Though several locations in the city have been discovered on target lists of known terrorist cells, as of 2014 the city's Office of Emergency Management believed that a "large-scale attack seems like a low probability event".^[1] A 2006 report by the United States Department of Justice indicated that the Washington State Ferries, which have several facilities in Seattle, was the leading "target for maritime terrorism in this country".^[2]

List of terrorist incidents

 

The attempted assassination of Mayor Ole Hanson was carried out by Galleanists with a mail bomb in 1919.

 

The University of Washington's Clark Hall, pictured here in 2009, was the target of an unsuccessful bombing attempt in 1970 by the Seattle Weather Collective.

 

Authorities originally believed the Space Needle, pictured foreground, was a target in the 2000 millennium attack plots by an Al-Qaeda-linked cell.

Name	Date	Outcome	Group	Motive	Means	Description
Ole Hanson Mail Bomb	April 19, 1919	Not successful	Galleanists	Anarchism	explosives	A mail bomb sent to Mayor Ole Hanson, part of a nationwide bombing campaign, failed to detonate.^[3]
Theater bombings	1928 (various dates)	Successful	none (lone wolf)	Labor unrest	explosives	Six movie theaters were bombed over the course of a year.^[4]
Sniper attack	July 30, 1968	Successful	Black Panther Party	Black nationalism	firearms	Two police officers were injured after their vehicle was hit by sniper fire. In riots that followed, snipers injured two additional police officers and three civilians.^[5]^[6]
UW Administration Building bombing	June 29, 1969	Successful	unknown	unknown	explosives	The University of Washington Administration Building (later renamed Gerberding Hall) was bombed, causing an estimated $300,000 in damages. There were no casualties and no claims of responsibility.^[7]^[8]
Clark Hall bombing attempt	January 1970	Not successful	Seattle Weather Collective	Communist revolution	explosives	Silas and Judith Bissell attempted to bomb the University of Washington's Clark Hall, the campus ROTC building. They were arrested after the explosives failed to detonate.^[9]
First 1975 Safeway bombing	September 14, 1975	Not successful	George Jackson Brigade	Black nationalism	explosives	Ralph Patrick Ford, a suspected George Jackson Brigade member, was killed when the explosives he was trying to plant at a Safeway grocery store detonated prematurely.^[10]
Second 1975 Safeway bombing	September 17, 1975	Successful	George Jackson Brigade	Black nationalism	explosives	Seven people were injured in the bombing of the same grocery store in a failed attack on September 14.^[11]
Laurelhurst City Light bombing	December 31, 1975	Successful	George Jackson Brigade	Black nationalism	explosives	The Laurelhurst sub-station of Seattle City Light was bombed by the George Jackson Brigade as part of a string of regional attacks that included bombing two different Safeway properties in Bellevue, Washington. There were no injuries.^[12]^[13]^[11]
John Sherman escape	March 10, 1976	Successful	George Jackson Brigade	Black nationalism	firearms	Mark Cook, a member of the George Jackson Brigade, ambushed and shot a police officer escorting John Sherman, another Brigade member arrested previously following a shoot-out with police in Tukwila, Washington.^[14]
anti-Pahlavi theater attack	December 1, 1983	Not successful	none (ad hoc)	Iranian Revolution	arson	A group of anti-Pahlavi students planned to lock the doors to a theater in which 500 pro-Pahlavi Iranians and Iranian-Americans had gathered, prior to setting it on fire. The attempt was thwarted by the FBI and local law enforcement.^[15]
The Order armored car robbery	April 23, 1984	Successful	The Order	White supremacism	firearms, explosives	Seven members of the white supremacist group The Order stole $536,000 from an armored car at the Northgate Mall. Prior to the robbery, a diversionary bombing at a nearby business was staged.^[16]
Jamaat ul-Fuqra bombings	June 17, 1984	Successful	Jamaat ul-Fuqra	Islamic extremism	explosives	The Integral Yoga Society, a Hindu religious institution, and the Vendanta Society were bombed. Stephen Paster, a Jamaat ul-Fuqra member, was later arrested and convicted of the attacks.
Millennium Bombing	December 31, 1999	Not successful	Al Qaeda	Islamic extremism	explosives	Authorities believed a Montreal-based terrorist cell connected to Osama bin-Laden planned to destroy the Space Needle during New Year's Eve celebrations. The plan fell apart after Ahmed Ressam was arrested attempting to cross the United States-Canadian border with explosives. New Year's Eve celebrations near Seattle's Space Needle were canceled as a precaution. It was later learned the actual target was the Los Angeles International Airport.^[17]
University of Washington firebombing incident	May 21, 2001	Successful	Earth Liberation Front	Eco-terrorism	explosives	A firebomb detonated at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture resulted in between $1.5 and $4.1 million in damages. There were no casualties. By 2012 four of five accused conspirators behind the attack admitted their guilt in plea bargains. A fifth committed suicide in federal detention while awaiting trial.^[18]
McDonald's arson	January 20, 2003	Successful	Earth Liberation Front	Eco-terrorism	arson	A New Jersey man, who was later arrested, set fire to the McDonald's corporate logo on the roof of a McDonald's restaurant near the Space Needle. In a subsequent voicemail to authorities, the man claimed the action was an "E-L-F ... hit" and "there will be more".^[19]
Molly Norris hit	July 11, 2010	Not successful	Al Qaeda	Islamic extremism	unknown	Anwar al-Awlaki issues a call for the killing of Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris.^[7] As of 2015, Norris remains in hiding.^[20]
MEPS attack	July 5, 2011	Not successful	none (ad hoc)	Islamic extremism	explosives, firearms	Two men planned to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) on East Marginal Way in Seattle on July 5, 2011. The plan fell apart after they attempted to recruit a third man who informed police.^[21]^[7]

Terrorist incidents in fiction

• The 2001 film Greenmail involves a radical environmentalist bombing locations in Seattle.^[22]
• An episode of the television series Reaper, set in Seattle, has presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz escape from Hell.
• In a 2014 episode of the TV series Grey's Anatomy, a reported terrorist attack against a Seattle shopping mall turns out to be a gas main explosion.^[23]
• In the 2016 TV series Shooter, the President of Ukraine is assassinated while visiting Seattle.

See also

• 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shooting
• List of terrorist incidents in New York City
• Seattle Police Department

References

1. "Terrorism" (PDF). Office of Emergency Management. City of Seattle. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
2. Barber, Mike (April 20, 2006). "Ferries a top terror target, FBI cautions". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
3. Dougherty, Phil. . HistoryLink. HistoryInk. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
4. "Sixth Theater Bombing this Year Attributed to Labor Disputes". The Corsicana.
5. Hewitt, Christopher (2005). Political Violence and Terrorism in Modern America: A Chronology. Greenwood. pp. 36–37. ISBN 0313334188.
6. "Race Violence Erupts". Chicago Tribune. July 31, 1968. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
7. Mickolus, Edward (2014). Terrorism, 2008-2012: A Worldwide Chronology. McFarland. pp. 45, 139, 193. ISBN 1476614679.
8. "Bomb explodes at UW on June 29, 1969". HistoryLink. HistoryInk. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
9. "Timeline of UW incidents". UW Emergency Management. University of Washington. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
10. "197509140003". Global Terrorism Database. University of Maryland. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
11. "Group Claims Credit for Seattle Bombing". Times Recorder. UPI. January 2, 1976. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
12. "Seattle Has Three Bombings". The Daily News. January 3, 1976. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
13. "George Jackson Brigade". The Vault. FBI. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
14. "The Evolution Of A Revolutionary -- John Sherman, Radical-Turned- Robber, Now Follows A Spiritual Guru". Seattle Times. June 24, 1999. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
15. "Tehran's Unlikely Assassins". washingtoninstitute.org. Washington Institute. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
16. McClary, Daryl. "Robert Jay Mathews, founder of the white-supremacist group The Order, is killed during an FBI siege on Whidbey Island on December 8, 1984". HistoryLink. HistoryInk. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
17. Sale, Richard (March 4, 2001). "US: bin Laden planned to drop Space Needle". UPI. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
18. Levin, Dan (November 27, 2009). "China Jails Environmentalist Wanted in U.S." New York Times. New York, NY.
19. "Count 1 Arson" (PDF). justice.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
20. Almasy, Steve (January 14, 2015). "After four years, American cartoonist Molly Norris still in hiding after drawing Prophet Mohammed". CNN. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
21. Frieden, Terry (June 24, 2011). "Two men charged with plan to attack military recruiting station". CNN. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
22. Cettl, Robert. Terrorism in American Cinema: An Analytical Filmography, 1960-2008. McFarland. pp. 137–138. ISBN 0786454423.
23. "'Grey's Anatomy' Season 10 Spoilers: What Happened During The Season Finale? [RECAP]". International Business Times. May 5, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2017.