Where There's a Will...

imported post

Homemade Bottle Bomb Packed With Hooks, BBs Explodes at California School

Tuesday , April 29, 2008


CHICO, Calif.— Authorities say a crude bomb containing fish hooks and BBs packed inside a plastic bottle exploded this weekend at a Northern California junior high school. No one was injured. Police found the homemade device Sunday night on the basketball court of Bidwell Junior High School.

Chico Police Sgt. Dave Barrow says officers also found two unexploded bottles near the court.

Authorities don't believe anyone was in the area at the time of the explosion.

Barrow says homemade devices are showing up more frequently on house porches and mailboxes in the Chico area. This was the first time the bottles have contained dangerous shrapnel.

[line]

So in one of the least gun friendly states, in a "gun free zone", people can easily kill people. It's not the guns that are evil, it's the people. So when you take away the guns, the people just find another tool to kill others. :banghead:

imported post

I think :banghead: really does sum it up very well.

imported post

Tang Bomb: Liquid Explosives Are the New 'Weapon of Choice'

Saturday , May 17, 2008

By Allison Barrie

Tang, peroxide and a disposable camera — items you may very well have in your home — can be a deadly mix.

Far-fetched as it sounds, bombs made from hydrogen peroxide and the breakfast powder drink Tang could have taken down seven planes bound for the U.S. and Canada — using flash cameras to trigger the explosions.

A British court saw video evidence this week of the "liquid explosives plot," an alleged terrorist cabal British police say they thwarted in August 2006. The suspects allegedly had planned to use common household chemicals to mix bombs while aboard jets flying over the Atlantic.

The alleged plot, and the excellent police work that went into busting it, resulted in the tough carry-on restrictions passengers face before boarding an airplane. Knowing the dangers of liquid explosives should make the hassle of tossing your bottles when traveling a lot easier to bear.

Peter Wright, a lawyer prosecuting the case in London against eight of the 18 accused suspects, called the bombs "a deadly cargo." It's a simple one, too.
Prosecutors say the alleged terrorists intended to carry the components on board each plane to form a bomb.

One was a mix of hydrogen peroxide and Tang. The citric acid in the Tang acts as a catalyst, making the mixture deadly.

The other component is a mixture known as HMTD — hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, a chemical cocktail made from readily available household and commercial ingredients. HMTD is extremely unstable and can be set off by heat, movement and even contact with metal.

Prosecutors say the suspects had planned to hide the Tang-and-bleach mixture in plastic soda bottles and the HMTD in hollowed-out AA batteries. The initial charge would have been set off in the HMTD, causing a larger explosion.

According to Erroll Southers, the chief of intelligence and counterterrorism at Los Angeles International Airport, peroxide-based bombs are on the rise all over the world.

"Peroxide-based explosives are the weapon of choice in the Middle East," he said. "They leave no residue, they’re extremely volatile, they’re easy to make and they’ve been quite effective."

Just one bottle-sized bomb could be powerful enough to rip a hole in a plane’s hull — certain tragedy for the passengers aboard the seven targeted flights.

Prosecutors say the attack was planned for between August and December, two of the busiest months of the year for air travel. Had the planes been full, nearly 2,000 people would have been killed.

Jurors in the trial were shown video of what those explosions would have looked like. Scientists at the Forensic Explosives Laboratory in London re-created the device, but as a precaution they left the testing area and had a robotic arm mix the deadly chemicals.

It was a smart move: The tiny bomb destroyed one of the video cameras and sprayed the lab with pieces of the protective walls meant to contain the blast.

Next time you're feeling inconvenienced because you can't take a bottle of shampoo or soda pop through security, think again. Those restrictions at the gate are there to ensure that you'll reach your destination safe and sound.
[line]
I'm wondering how much of this is fear-mongering, and how much is actually true...

imported post

There's hydrogen peroxide and there's hydrogen peroxide. What you can get is inoccuous. What the Navy uses and monitors with bubble counters is not.

But...safety is a tyrant's tool because no one can be against safety.

imported post

Doug Huffman wrote:

...safety is a tyrant's tool because no one can be against safety.

Click to expand...

+ 1


Tarzan

imported post

I'm wondering how much of this is fear-mongering, and how much is actually true...

Click to expand...

Probably about the same amount as the fear of being shot by a crazed student in a college classrom.

imported post

Doug Huffman wrote:

There's hydrogen peroxide and there's hydrogen peroxide. What you can get is inoccuous. What the Navy uses and monitors with bubble counters is not.

But...safety is a tyrant's tool because no one can be against safety.

Click to expand...

And what you can get can be purified. You can get up to about 10% hydrogen peroxide. That's enough right there. However, how do you think theNavy gets the 98%pure stuff? Just like you can distill ethanol, you can do the same with peroxide; the problem then becomes storage as the stuff becomes quite corrosive.

imported post

http://www.h2o2.com/

http://www.h2o2.com/USP_DHS_Ruling_Statement_Q&A.pdf

imported post

Thanks, I have a better idea now...

imported post

Fishing hooks??

Damn it, now everybody with a fishing license will be on a BATFE watch list too!!

If your boat has a tackle box with fish hooks in it, a first aid kit with hydrogen peroxide and a soda pop bottle, you my friend, are a floating threat to society.

Did anybody else get McGyver flash backs when reading the original post?

imported post

No. The 'POP' of bursting plastic from gas overpressure does not make it an explosive device. An explosive device depends on the rapid evolution of gas.

Once, in my work, I heard a loud noise that shook the office building. A McCann Rescue Chamber was being leak checked with a lot of interior pressure and a hold-down failed, launching the many ton chamber into the air and killing a mechanic. That was not characterized as an explosion.