Texas authorities said on Friday that they had opened a criminal investigation into last month’s deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed 14 people and injured some 200 others. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/us/west-tex-emt-faces-charges-of-having-bomb-parts.html?ref=us  An affadavit sworn out by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the authorities had found the parts of a pipe bomb, including potassium nitrate powder, which is used in fertilizers and gunpowder. Investigators have said the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, which was being stored at the fertilizer plant, but have not said whether a fire that preceded the blast had ignited the chemical. Ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used as a fertilizer, is difficult to ignite if handled carefully and properly stored, but it has also been used in a number of terrorist attacks, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The Texas explosion, so powerful that the United States Geological Survey measured it as a 2.1-magnitude earthquake, left a trail of devastation over a wide area.The Texas fire marshal’s office, which has been investigating the case along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has not said whether the fire appeared to have been accidental or intentionally set.

The suspect, a Mr. Reed, spoke of traveling through Dubai and Europe or working at the Pentagon, and once mentioned that he was a SWAT officer in Waco. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/us/paramedic-bryce-reed-denies-role-in-west-texas-blast.html?ref=us