US senator calls bomb plot 'domestic terrorism'
Oklahoma's senior US senator says law enforcement authorities "prevented a hateful act of domestic terrorism" by foiling a plot to bomb an Oklahoma City bank.
Sen. Jim Inhofe said Monday the plot that ended Saturday with the arrest of a 23-year-old man could have mirrored the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. Inhofe says he's grateful authorities prevented it without putting the community at risk.
Officials arrested Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Oklahoma, for allegedly attempting to detonate a vehicle bomb. Undercover FBI agents prevented the attack from actually taking place.
Varnell is charged with attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
