Q&A: A liquid explosives primer

umm.. i was surprized to find this on the front page.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/280901_liquid11.html
Friday, August 11, 2006

Q&A: A liquid explosives primer

By BOB DEANS
COX NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON -- British authorities who thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up American airliners over the Atlantic said Thursday that the plan relied on smuggling liquid explosives aboard the aircraft in carry-on luggage. Here are some questions and answers about the threat posed by such explosives.

Q. What are liquid explosives?

A. The most common is nitroglycerin, a powerful explosive that is the key ingredient in dynamite. As little as a few ounces is sufficient to blow a hole in a window or the fuselage wall of an aircraft. Planes flying at high altitude use pressurized cabins for passenger comfort. A relatively small hole in such a cabin can cause a plane to essentially blow apart at high altitude because of the difference in pressure inside and outside the cabin. more...............

they could have said nitroglycerin instead of not having any name for the non existent "liquid explosives".

First off, the liquid explosive that the British are claiming at the center of this plot isn't nitro glycerin, it is a peroxide compound, TriAcetone TriPeroxide, also known as TPTA.

Like nitro, a little bit can blow a big hole. Also like nitro, it is dangerously unstable in liquid form, probably more so than nitro even. And unlike the speculation being bandied around the press, you can't just mix up a batch in the airline bathroom by squeezing tube A into bottle B. It takes a pretty sophisticated set of lab gear in order to mix it up, and such equipment wouldn't fit in your ordinary house bathroom, much less those wearable closets that pass for bathrooms on planes.

All of this leaves me a little suspicious of the MSM claims that liquid explosives were at the heart of this plot. They're just too damn unstable to be trying to bring onboard. Hell, given the average rough ride in a taxi, the perps would probably get their asses blown up on the ride to the airport. Much, much easier and safer to deal with explosive solids that one conceals.

Notice the wording: "nitroglycerine mixture" "Peroxide detonators" “Because of the instability of these substances, spontaneous detonation can occur during the production process,” " liquid explosives ingredients"

Apparently Ressam was planning on doing his chem work once he got settled in the US, he didn't cook the shit up and then bring it over in his trunk:shrug: He would have blown sky high if he did.

Thanks, but I'll stand by my own knowledge, and that of my biochem friend, on explosives, what can and can't be handled safely, and what action is just asking to die prematurely. Carrying liquid TATP or liquid nitro is just asking to die, quickly.

Thu Aug-10-06 09:27 AM
Original message
British Lose Their Minds: By Larry C Johnson
Edited on Thu Aug-10-06 09:28 AM by kpete
British Lose Their Minds
by
Larry C Johnson

I'm sitting in Europe, scheduled to take British Air back to the states on Friday, and I'm watching British Authorities meltdown in the face of an alleged terrorist plot. Rule of thumb--initial, panicked reports are usually unreliable. The Brits reportedly have taken at least 18 people into custody--all residents of Great Britain.

The last significant, successful plot to bomb a plane was in January 1995, when a group linked to Osama Bin Laden (this group included Ramsi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Khalid Sheik Muhammed, nephew of OBL) had devised a way to carry on a liquid explosive disguised to look like water. The detonator was a combination of gun cotton (looked like cotton balls), a small light bulb, a nine volt battery, and a Casio data watch. Ramsi Yousef conducted a successful dry run of this device and planted one on board a Philippine Airline flight in December 1994. That bomb killed one man (a Japanese citizen) and almost brought down the plane. The plan was to blow up twelve US jets transiting the Pacific basin. It was disrupted when an informant, Ishtiak Parker, walked into the US Embassy in Pakistan and ratted out Ramsi Yousef.

...................

In the back of my mind I worry that this threat might be trumped up in order to divert attention from the disastrous US and British policy (or lack of policy) in Lebanon. More likely, we have an informant in the UK that identified a potential plot that was in the dreaming stage but had not progressed to actual implementation. Rather than act like security professionals, the Brits are acting like panicked nannies. Very sad.

more at:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/british_...

that's what it sounds like to me.

The wrong concentration. H2O2 over-the-counter is puny, low concentration. We're talking much more concentrated stuff, where hydrogen peroxide serves as a kick-ass oxidizer, a source of oxygen in a state ready to rip electrons off of anything it can.

If they had access to hydrazine, they'd have a much faster and nastier brew, IIRC.

rocket fuel?

Jamie and Adam busted that a couple seasons ago. It took a hole the size of a door to actually cause structural damage. A bullet hole or a blown out window didn't do anymore than cause very rapid decompression.

Of course that would still constitute a major in-flight emergency, but would not make the aircraft "blow apart".

And the decompression doesn't suck all the people out either.

I wish these "news" people would deal in facts.

It thertainly is fwuth twaiting. :rofl:

Had to do it. :patriot:

He can't help it if his keyboard has a lisp. :D

Edited to fith my mithtake.

this plane landed safely, one unfortunate flight attendant was sucked out.

NetFlix and Blockbuster logs will be confiscated. Liposuction clinics are under 24/7 surveilence.
:sarcasm: