$4 Million W-b Bond Gets 1st Ok 
Mayor Tom Leighton Says The Money Is Needed To Pay This Year's Bills.

Genevieve Sollami January 9, 2004

By LANE FILLER lfiller@leader.net
 Wednesday, January 14, 2004 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1A 





Two area men were arrested on charges of threatening to plant bombs in busy
public places in Philadelphia, in separate incidents. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Justin Seersma, 22, of 60 Monroe St., apartment 306, Wilkes-Barre, is
accused of threatening to blow up a Greyhound Bus Lines terminal at 1001
Filbert St., in Philadelphia. Seersma made the threat in an Internet chatroom. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; James Alan Moore, 20, of 521 Alter St., room 6, Hazleton, is accused of
making phone calls stating that the Philadelphia International Airport was
about to be blown up with eight bombs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Seersma allegedly commented in a Yahoo chatroom, in part, ``I'm going to
take a pipe bomb to the bus station at 11th and Filbert in Philadelphia.
Hopefully take out 30. I'm not kidding, you'll hear it in the news, but I'm
taking plenty of people with me. Sick from this country of ignorant bliss.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Seersma allegedly typed the message on Christmas Day, and was reported when
several people participating in the chatroom, which is normally dedicated to
the playing and discussing of the card game ``spades,'' notified the FBI,
after messaging Seersma that they were going to. According to an affidavit,
Seersma was using the screen name ``civilizedgambit.'' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Seersma was identified through Yahoo registries and through phone contact
by FBI agent Karen Feeney, who Seersma told he was a computer science student
at Luzerne County Community College. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 When FBI agents, with Wilkes-Barre police officers, went to Seersma's home,
Seersma let them in and told them he was expecting their call or visit because
of the posting he made, and asked that they search his home to verify he had
no bomb-making equipment, according to the affidavit. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Seersma told officers that he made the threat when depressed, but would not
have gone through with it. He has been charged with two Patriot Act violations
involving threatening a mass transportation structure or vehicle and
threatening to commit an act that could cause serious harm or death to mass
transportation passengers or employees. Seersma is also charged with
transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure another person. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If convicted of the Patriot Act violations, Seersma faces up to 20 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine. A conviction of the third count would carry a
maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Moore is accused of phoning in six bomb threats received by Delta
reservations specialist in Miami; Montgomery, Ala.; Atlanta; Dallas, Texas;and
Salt Lake City; telling of the fictional bombs, and in one case, saying there
was a bomb at the Indianapolis airport. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The calls were made Jan. 7 between 5 and 6 p.m., allegedly from a phone
belonging to Moore's mother, Lana Gasiorowski, of Philadelphia. She told FBI
agents her son had the phone in Hazleton, and when Moore was interviewed
several hours later, he admitted he had made the calls, according to
affidavits. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Moore allegedly told the FBI that he made the threats because he was
lonely, had no friends, was forced to live in a little room in Hazleton all
day, deaths in the family, not taking prescribed medications, being suicidal,
thinking he would be famous on the news, and not thinking he would be caught. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Moore is charged with maliciously conveying false information concerning an
alleged attempt to destroy the Philadelphia International Airport. He faces a
maximum of ten years in prison if convicted. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Both men are being detained at the Lackawanna County Prison, according to
the U.S. Attorneys Office in Scranton. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

2 Locals Charged In Philly Bomb Threats Justin Seersma Of Wilkes-barre And James Alan Moore Of Hazleton Were Arrested In Two Separate Incidents.