Posted on 09/13/2006 7:12:08 PM PDT by World_Events
September 13, 2006 -- Two undercover NYPD cops in a sting operation used $7,000 and the Internet to build a truck bomb big enough to blow up a skyscraper, officials revealed yesterday. In what was dubbed "Operation Kaboom," every purchase the cops made was legal - and aroused little suspicion - even driving their simulated truck bomb throughout the city.
Although the two cops had no specialized knowledge of bomb-making, they were able manufacture an explosive more powerful than the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
"We did it with no difficulty whatsoever," said James Falkenrath, the NYPD's top anti-terror cop, who testified at a congressional hearing yesterday and disclosed the making of the bomb.
When the operation was complete, the officers drove the simulated bomb around the city's bridges and tunnels, sources said. They were not detected and the bomb was not functional.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Who was supposed to get suspicious?
I read the full article, and the ammonium nitrate distributor did in fact get suspicious about the purchase the undercover cops made, and contacted the ATF. The "plot" was able to progress past that point because the NYPD told the ATF that it was an undercover op and basically called them off.
$7000 worth of Ammonium Nitrate will not bring down a skyscraper. Shameless fear mongering.
But $7000 worth of political donations close to the elections may bring down the government according to McLame /FindGold!
At twelve cents a pound for bulk delivered ANFO, that's 58,000 pounds worth, very roughly. I could pop about 10,000 tons of quarry rock with that. Sure it's more efficient in a 6" blast hole, but I would not want a family member in the building when it went off.
Exactly. Well said.
"At twelve cents a pound for bulk delivered ANFO, that's 58,000 pounds worth, very roughly. I could pop about 10,000 tons of quarry rock with that. Sure it's more efficient in a 6" blast hole, but I would not want a family member in the building when it went off."
I'm bettin' they were buying sacks.
Well I suppose if some overzealous law enforcement agents caught on to these guys and a gunfight broke out in an effort to capture them, there would be a bit of explaining to do up in headquarters.
Double the cost, it's still a hell of a pop.
Given 7000 bucks at $.25 a pound, and figure on an average specific gravity of 1, that works out to about 64 each 55 gallon drums of anfo.
Damn, very conservatively figure half the cost went to caps & detonaotrs, etc, you still have 30 plus drums full of ANFO.
Still sticking with your bet?
They bought them in *at least* two establishments, and one of them *still* reported the sale to the BATFE. 25 bags of fertilizer is probably close to a single pallet of it.
25 years ago, I used to buy such yard chemicals at a suburban "farm, yard and garden store" which was a sort of left over from when the area was more rural. They'd have 10 of pallets of the stuff, or similar stuff on hand.
If you are worried about dangerous stuff, don't forget the thousands of gallons of gasoline in that fuel truck next to you on the freeway.
What purity were they able to buy?
I was told by an explosives expert that simply by diluting down the ammonium nitrate to about 95% purity would essentially negate its usefullness as an explosive.
"This is entirely plausible except that it wouldn't work"
The stupidity of all this is mind boggling. Your average engineer could do some exceedingly nasty things but has absolutely no motivation to do so.
Fortunately, those with motivation are seventh century barbarians who could only accomplish what they did because our political leadership and security bureaucracy steadfastly refused to acknowledge what was going on in plain sight.
Ammonium nitrate is harmless compared to political skulduggery and bureaucratic incompetence.
Why would that be considering that dynamite is stabilizer with nitroglycerine diffused through it?
"Your average engineer could do some exceedingly nasty things but has absolutely no motivation to do so."
For whatever reason I'm ALWAYS seeing new ways of creating havoc and mayhem and distruction. It wouldn't be hard, expensive, or too risky of getting caught. Even back in the old PLO plane hijackings and stuff I was always amazed that as open as our country is we don't have more terrorist attacks. I honestly wonder why that is.
Exactly! Their so-called 'undercover-operation' was over at that instant. All the additional driving and talk was useless bullshit. They were busted..................FRegards
"Still sticking with your bet?"
I respect your figures but I still don't think it would bring down a skyscraper. Maybe something smaller. You'd have to CUT the support beams and ANFO is really slow. It pushs instead of slices. It would certainly crack the concrete around them. You'd have to place it around every support beam not just put it in a big pile.
I've never used ANFO only stick and binary so I'm no expert.
Sounds like a 'rice bowl' stunt.
As in "Give us more Homeland Security money"
Had the ATF not been called off, would they have been able to track down the buyers?
Blech
Because historically there is pretty much no upside to it. Look at Pearl Harbor. Look at 9/11. Timothy McVeigh. Whatever your goal, you have to be completely blind to think you can kill indiscriminately and get what you want.
Bin Ladin and his ilk are delusional. Sure, we might end up electing a democrat who will tuck tail and run, but every time they have a successful attack on the scale of 9/11, they will infuriate people even more and make them that much slower to forget.
It is worth pointing out that the democrats a playing a losing game as well. If they win, their platform pretty much guarantees another attack, which will only destroy their credibility.
The bottom line is that almost anyone smart enough to get the education to do something really bad just has better things to do than kill people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.