Accused Pitt bomb threatener reportedly claims responsibility
Adam Busby, the man accused of disrupting campus life at Pitt with emailed fake bomb threats between March 30 and April 21, 2012, reportedly has admitted to The Scottish Sun newspaper that “I alone was responsible for these threats.
“Pittsburgh was simply being used as a testing ground for a cyber warfare attack,” Busby claimed. “I was staggered by the amount of disruption and damage the emails caused and the seriousness with which the Americans took the whole thing. I’d demonstrated how effective emailed threats could be.”
Facing a potentially long sentence on a 36-count federal indictment, Busby asserted that “I am terminally ill and unlikely to ever serve even one day in prison for these offences.” Busby has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair.
Busby was released from detention in Ireland on March 21 while appealing Scotland’s attempt at extradition; he had been jailed on a European Union warrant on terrorism charges since July 2012. Today he lives in a Dublin hostel, where the terms of his bail bar him from Internet access.
United States Attorney David J. Hickton issued a statement, reiterating that “the United States Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to press for [Busby’s] extradition to the United States to face justice, in Pittsburgh, for his crimes in the spring of 2012 occurring in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
“The statements being attributed to Adam Busby, wherein he admits responsibility for the bomb threat hoaxes involving the University of Pittsburgh in 2012, underscore the exemplary international investigation” following the Pitt threats, Hickton added.
—Marty Levine