Dad turns in son accused in abortion clinic plot

updated 4:39 p.m. ET June 10, 2006

GREENBELT, Md. - The father of a man accused of plotting to bomb an abortion clinic said he felt he had no choice but to contact police about his son's activities.

Robert Weiler Sr. told The Washington Post for an article published Saturday that the decision was agonizing, but that "our concern was just to make sure nobody got hurt."

Weiler, 49, said that like their son, he and his wife, Catherine, oppose abortion, but they do not condone violence.

"It's just something that he believed in very fervently, and in my opinion he went way over the top," the father said. "We became aware of what he was doing, and we felt obligated to contact the police."

He declined to say specifically how they knew about their son's alleged plans.

Robert Weiler Jr., 25, was arrested Thursday and is expected to appear in federal court Monday to face four weapons charges.

The pipe bomb authorities believe Weiler made for an attack at a clinic in the Washington suburb of College Park went off while technicians tried to defuse it Thursday, setting fire to the house where it was stored. No one was hurt.

Weiler planned to use the bomb and a gun to "shoot doctors who provided abortions," according to an affidavit filed Thursday in federal court by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He called the ATF from the rest stop where he was arrested and later confessed to the plot, authorities said.

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