Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : FBI Arrests Man After Alleged Threat to Bomb Air Force Base

FBI agents arrested a 60-year-old man who allegedly telephoned the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., to say he planned to place a bomb at Edwards Air Force Base, federal officials said Monday.

After security guards were alerted by the call, they stopped Glen Harmon Baker of Tehachapi, when he tried to drive onto the base on March 27 with a liquid he claimed was nitroglycerin, said Gary G. Auer, an FBI supervisor. Air Force explosives experts later determined that the liquid was harmless.

FBI agents took Baker to the Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster for a mental evaluation, Auer said. Agents arrested Baker at the hospital Friday on a warrant charging him with using interstate telephone lines to threaten someone with injury.

At a hearing in Los Angeles before U. S. Magistrate Judge Elgin Edwards, Baker pleaded not guilty and agreed to have his case transferred to a Fresno federal court. That court has jurisdiction over Tehachapi, where the threatening phone call allegedly originated.

The extortion charge stems from a call Baker allegedly made to the military academy. During the call, he identified himself and said he was taking a bomb to Edwards to harm a base security guard, whom he also identified by name, Auer said.

Investigators determined that a security guard with that name worked at the base, and base police were alerted. Baker was stopped at an entrance to Edwards, and inside his vehicle security officers found a loaded ammunition magazine for an M-16 rifle, but no rifle, Auer said.

They also found several bottles of a clear liquid that Baker said was nitroglycerin. Auer said it was uncertain why Baker sought to harm a base security officer.

Baker was awaiting transfer to a federal detention center in Fresno, where the U. S. Attorney’s office is expected to seek an indictment within 10 days. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison and a $1,000 fine, Auer said.

More coverage of the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys appears today on B14.