White supremacist Mr Leo Felton - accusedof plotting to ignite ``a racial holy war" by blowing up the NewEngland Holocaust Memorial in downtown Boston - is awaiting arraignment at federal court.
Mr Felton was indicted with fellow ``skinhead" Ms Erica Chase on 11counts, including firearms violations and conspiracy to obstructjustice.
The head of a Boston-area cosmetic surgery clinic, meanwhile,said that Mr Felton, who has spent 11 of his 30 years in prison, mayhave rid himself of conspicuous telltale tattoos in an effort togain a new identity.
During a court-ordered search of the couple's apartment inBoston's North End, federal agents found 50 pounds of ammoniumnitrate, which, when mingled with diesel fuel, becomes ANFO, thesame explosive used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma Citybombing.
Also found was wiring removed from an electrical coffee makerand 10 ``bird bombs", which can be adapted to fuse and fire explosivedevices.
Agents also discovered literature and hand-written notesregarding the assembly and construction of bombs, as well asclippings about a service at the Holocaust Memorial and plans forBoston's newly constructed Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, namedfor the late long-time Jewish activist.
According to government prosecutors, Mr Felton's ultimate plan wasto bomb his targets and then vanish, assuming a new identity. Amethodical checklist in Mr Felton's notebook outlined steps needed tosecure a new identity, including identification cards anddocuments.
The effort to go incognito could have proved perplexing, agentsnoted, given Mr Felton's 6-foot, 7-inch, 225-pound frame bearing manyneo-Nazi tattoos.
Most evident were the words ``Skin" and ``Head" indelibly markedon the sides of his hairless head. Federal investigators said thatin the weeks before his April 19th arrest for attempting to pass acounterfeit $20 bill at a doughnut shop and the subsequentsearches of his apartment, Mr Felton had been attempting to erase thetell-tale marks.
``He could partially have avoided detection through use of anage-old method," offered Mr Anthony Thatcher, tattoo removal specialistat the Cosmetic Laser Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts.
According to Mr Thatcher, the body etchings were removed in ancienttimes through salabration, a method of rubbing salt over a tattoo.The method would be repeated up to six times over several weeks butwould result in a discernible blanching of the area.Given that Mr Felton probably acquired his tattoos inprison, where inmates use pins and needles to apply India inkimpressions to the skin, the salabration method could have provenhelpful although painful.
AFP