August 10, 2006 6:15 PM PDT
Liquid explosives threaten air travel
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In a series of public statements, government officials in London and Washington blamed the new restrictions on a terrorist plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, which has led to at least 24 arrests.
"The terrorists' aim was to smuggle explosives onto aeroplanes in hand luggage and to detonate these in flight," Paul Stephenson, Scotland Yard's deputy commissioner, told reporters.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff added later in the day that the alleged plotters "planned to carry the components of the bombs, including liquid explosive ingredients and detonating devices, disguised as beverages, electronic devices or other common objects."
Liquid and gel explosives are hardly new, of course. Inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel began manufacturing nitroglycerin in 1865 in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, calling the explosive mixture by the brand name "blasting oil." Later, Nobel found that if nitroglycerin were diluted with nitrocellulose, it became a more stable, glutinous substance he dubbed "blasting gelatine."
Terrorists have used liquid explosives before, with mixed results.
Ramzi Yousef, who was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, concocted a plan a year later to attack 11 flights traveling from central Asia to the United States. The plot was uncovered in the Philippines in January 1995, two weeks before its execution date, after Yousef and others accidentally started a fire in their apartment and police showed up.
Before he was arrested, Yousef did a trial run with a lower-power bomb. He assembled it in the lavatory of a flight from Manila to Japan and left it on board after he departed on a connecting flight. The bomb exploded, but the Boeing 747 limped to an emergency landing with only one casualty.
Documents found on Yousef's computer that emerged during his trial (Click here for PDF) showed that the plotters had filled bottles of contact lens solution with nitroglycerin and planned to use Casio digital watches as the timers, coupled with two 9-volt batteries in the bomb as a power source. The 9/11 Commission's report said Yousef also had prepared dolls wearing clothes containing nitrocellulose, an explosive compound.
That kind of stealth explosive seems to be what provoked the dramatic reactions by Homeland Security and other officials on Thursday. Some reports said the plotters would conceal their peroxide-based explosives in a sports drink and detonate it with a disposable camera's flash. Others said, however, that the bomb would be "detonated by using heat or friction."
"Travelers are going to be inconvenienced as a result of the steps we've taken," President Bush said while traveling in Wisconsin. "I urge their patience and ask them to be vigilant. The inconvenience...occurs because we will take the steps necessary to protect the American people."
Air travelers flying inside the U.S. are still permitted to bring laptops and electronic devices as carry-on items, though both U.K. and U.S. passengers were generally prohibited from bringing liquids or gels into the passenger cabin.
Nitroglycerin may be one of the easier liquid explosives to create in a rudimentary laboratory, but it's not the only one that could be employed by bomb makers. Other candidates are nitromethane (sometimes used as a cleaning solvent), dithekite, nitroethane, and methyl nitrate (derived from nitric acid). Fixor is a commercial two-component explosive, based on a flammable liquid that's designed to replace plastic explosives, but one which requires a detonator cap.
Saboteurs are believed to have used liquid explosives smuggled on board in a bottle of alcohol to attack Korean Air flight 858 in 1987. The bomb, apparently left on board by passengers who deplaned, killed 115 people and has been attributed to North Korean agents.
Because conventional X-ray machines used at airport security checkpoints can't reliably differentiate between innocuous beverages and liquid explosives, the explosives are difficult to detect.
A report last year from Congress' research arm says that chemical traces often can be detected through screening devices at airports that use puffs of air to dislodge debris, but warned that the "portals" already in use at some airports are expensive and slow.
In addition, the report said, "novel explosive materials will probably not be detected by these systems." Also, if a bomber takes proper precautions, such as carefully sealing containers and not wearing contaminated clothes, those screening devices may not help.
See more CNET content tagged:
plotter, bomb, flight, London, U.K.
59 comments
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rebel without a cause!!
Second, they put less on board with the "sky high" fuel prices. It costs money to move water, just as it does the paying passengers.
Even the pull tabs of the drink cans might not be clean. Have you ever seen a sanitary wipe before opening your soft drink or beer?
country that much further with your attitude, which just supports
the terrorists goals.
This Threat Ought to Make Conservative Fear-Mongers Really Happy... Nuff Said.
Next time, try to think instead of kneejerk.
ENOUGH SAID.
A terrorist is a terrorist, no matter where they come from. That includes the good 'ole USA.
The problem is not that religion at all. The real problem is some brainiacs who abuse it to give a swing to their political/economical goals. Those criminal organizations depend on 2 classes of people:
1) In those countries, people who are poor, disillusioned, ... which want to give their children a future, so they send them to a FREE school where they don't learn to read, but become brainwashed.
2) In Western countries, they depend on people who have some screws loose so they can direct them to where they want them to go.
The problem isn't what's in the book. The problem is what they conclude from it. It's just twisted to their needs. It's the same problem as the crusades. Christianity is also very peacefull unless you give to much power to an organization.
It is done in every walk of life in USA. It is just that people don't like to talk about it or complain if they find out that they are profiled.
The fact is it is done in USA whether we like it or not.
First the shoes, now the liquids. Even without the lube I predict a quick slide down this slippery slope. How stupid are these airlines? If they keep this up they are going to lose a ton of business, and all for a purely optical measure. None of the stuff they're doing works. They keep focusing on what happened already instead of worrying about future threats. Lightning isn't going to strike twice; duh.
They better not ban carry-on electronics in the states, or that will be the end of air travel for me... and I'll probably try to start a boycott.
Who's with me?
The latest terror plot facade is nothing more than an exercise to assess how subservient the general population has become and a primer to making permanent the panicked and ridiculous freedom crushing security measures we are seeing being rushed into implementation at the moment.
"Sir, I'm going to have to take this bottle of water away from you since it might be a liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to mix it with all of these other bottles of possibly liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to dump them all in this trash can... together. Nevermind that the plot specifically mentions mixing chemicals and/or nitroglycerin... which explodes if handled too roughly."
The only conclusion you can reach here is that airport security are not looking for terrorists because if they truly believed terrorists were attempting to board planes with liquids they wouldn't be mishandling the liquids in this way.
Dave
The gun happy crazed british policemen, must have been put on full leash with either threat of instant dismissal on the spot or permanent midnight guard shift duty until retirement, from the encumbent police commissioner Sir Ian Blair as he is apparently fighting a losing rearguard action to prevent early dismissal from the various incompetent actions by those of lesser rank, which ranges from the deliberate murder of an innocent man(complete with an illegal coverup by all those involved and outright lying by those who are employed to serve and protect) to the deliberate wounding of an innocent man in Birmingham by an armed police moron!
The affair is just another probable total hoax Birmingham style, by the security forces seeking even greater authority than they are legally entitled too, as the alleged perpertrators were never near any plane period and the idiots whilst claiming binary liquid weapons(alluding to a hydrogen cyanide gas generation and explosives were emptying all liquids from thier containers into common bins in front of the passengers)
This is obviously Tony Blairs very last chance to ram through the national id card and other freedom stripping draconian legislation thus creating a new police state in Britain, and divert the public attention away from other very questionable possible illegal activities by his governement ministers in the current middle east war on Lebanon, the British Armaments Industry and other illegal activities by it's so called security forces!
The British Labour Party is about to dump Tony Blair big time!, because of his inability to do the right thing since signing up as GW Bush's bootlicker and assorted fatal errors of judgements in the past 3 years!
As Benjamin Franklin once said "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Sadly, we now live in the world where propaganda rules at the behest of our questionable democratically elected leaders, unable to do the right thing by all in this new century!
You ARE prolific.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://infowars.net/articles/August2006/110806liquid.htm" target="_newWindow">http://infowars.net/articles/August2006/110806liquid.htm</a>
And I WILL keep posting this as cnet keep CENSOR this. Truth hurts huh?
And deleting my account will do nothing as I'll only open more accounts.
muSlimes and cnet just LOVES CENSORSHIP. These scums never realize that if they have to silence people, maybe, just maybe, these scums are in the wrong.
Where do you get off insulting ALL muslims and calling them "muslimes"? Would you advocate rounding up all muslims and putting them in concentration camps? Gassing them and putting them in ovens? That sure sounds like what you're getting at here. Very reminiscent of the scapegoating and propaganda generated in Germany circa 1930s. Perhaps you're one of these Christian Evangelicals who are waiting for (or moreso insisting upon) rapture. Maybe when the US decides to nuke Iran you'll get your wish.
Dave
*Having to open my laptop at airports and government offices,
*Taking off my shoes at airports, and
* Leaving sharp objects at home.
BUT, some substances that come in liquid or gel form are
necessities, Those of us with allergies can die without our drops
and inhalers. My iPod is also necessary since I use it to back
up data when I am not carrying an external hard drive.
If I can't drive to a place, or take the train, I will be staying home.
More fool the English Authorities, for believing these idiots, and mindlessly following their directives without thought or verifying the garbage supplied!
As for the those whose flights were deliberately cancelled and delayed by these obsequient incompetents, me I would be demanding the instant dismissal of the senior English Public Officials, starting with Sir Ian Blair, Dr John Reid(Home Secretary) and Tony Blair(Primeminister)! As throughout this affair, they have consistently displayed a less than brilliant comprehension skills and a total lack of reality skills!
Ah, the British Police versus Terrorism, 3 strikes and have now lost all credibility! What strange times indeed, to lose both one's head and direction simultaneously at the behest of so called allies and friends!
The "Peter Principle" and 'Chicken Little' rocks!