Posted on 10/04/2005 8:53:21 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Sources Identify TATP As Component Of Bomb TATP Same Component Used By Infamous Shoe Bomber
POSTED: 9:56 pm CDT October 4, 2005 UPDATED: 10:11 pm CDT October 4, 2005
NORMAN, Okla. -- Sources confirmed Tuesday night that at least one of the components in the bomb used by Joel Henry Hinrichs III Saturday night was a product called TATP.
Technically, TATP is triacetone triperoxide. However, it's called the 'Mother of Satan' by Islamist extremists. Experts say it is made by mixing common household items such as drain cleaner and bleach to create a white powder with a strong smell.
It's so volatile that it can explode even if it's merely dropped. It can even explode spontaneously, experts say.
There have been very few reports of TATP being used in the United States; however, there have been more documented cases overseas -- including Richard Reid, who was arrested after he used TATP in his shoe and tried to light it on a flight.
The FBI is testing materials from the OU student's backpack, and from Hinrichs' apartment. Sources said a chemist from FBI headquarters was flown to Oklahoma to help with the gathering of evidence to be used for testing.
However, FBI officials will not comment on any aspect of the investigation, including what sources have told Eyewitness News 5.
Sorry about the blank post...PING to new members.
Awwwwwww...the pighumpers named an explosive chemical after Virginia Clinton. How sweet.
turning in. 'night.
It would be a good idea for you to not discuss HMTD on FR or anywhere else on the web (post #11).
Ammonium nitrate is generally pretty difficult to work with in the sense that it is very hard to get a sustained detonation without the proper setup and a little competence. While very popular in the mindshare of the public, it is quite a bit safer in that rank amateurs will have a hard time getting results out of it. TATP is much, much easier for an amateur to deploy successfully.
Will you put me on the bomber's ping list?
Do not overpsych yourself. Acetone peroxide is indeed makeable from acetone, hydrogen peroxide and mild acids, but like every other peroxide it is seriously unstable. Stabilization is possible to a limited extent, but is non-trivial. The probability of the stuff going off on it own volition is always pretty high. Thus it is a kind of experiment young pyrotechnically-inclined kids will always try to perform, but rarely more than once.
Israeli invention detects TATP explosives
By: Israel Insider staff and partners
Published: January 27, 2005
Researchers from Israel's Technion in Haifa have developed a device to detect the kind of improvised explosives increasingly used by Arab terror groups.
The new detector, named the Peroxide Explosive Tester (PET), looks like a three-color ball-point pen. The device releases three chemical mixtures that change color upon interaction with the suspected explosive materials.
A relatively new difficult-to-detect explosive material called triacetone-triperoxide (TATP), commonly known as acetone peroxide, is one of a group of explosives based on the unstable peroxide group of compounds. It is increasingly being utilized by terror groups, who used it in the Dolphinarium Disco massacre, several bomb attacks in downtown Jerusalem, and the failed attempt to down a passenger plane by Muslim shoe-bomber Richard Reid.
One of the most alarming attributes of TATP is that it cannot be detected by bomb-sniffing dogs, making it easier to smuggle into airports and onto airplanes. It is also very easy to synthesize in clandestine labs, using readily available chemicals.
"To our great surprise," PET's inventor, Prof. Ehud Keinan, Dean of the Technion's Faculty of Chemistry, wrote in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, "we discovered that TATP is very different from all other conventional explosives in that it does not release heat during the explosion. It explodes by rapid decomposition of every solid-state molecule to four gas-phase molecules. This rare phenomenon, scientifically known as 'Entropic Explosion', is reminiscent of the rapid reaction that produces gas in the safety air-bags of cars during accidents."
=======================================================================================================
{My goodness, now this is just an interesting little chemistry project isn't it?}
In addition to Prof. Keinan, the research that made PET possible was carried out by Prof. Yehuda Zeiri of the Nuclear Research Center in the Negev, and Professors Ronnie Kosloff and Joseph Almog of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, together with their research teams.
Unless you let the mixture sit around to long, then the slurry can become very unstable.AWB
Acetone peroxide (triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, TCAP) is an organic peroxide. It is a high explosive that can be made from common household items: acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfuric acid. Other strong acids such as hydrochloric acid may also be used as a catalyst. Since its precursors are readily available, it is commonly used by amateur chemists and explosive makers, often for detonators, and is sometimes found in improvised explosive devices. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder with a distinctive acrid smell.
It is highly heat, friction, and shock sensitive. Professional chemists have been injured attempting to use it. Once manufactured the material can degrade during storage, becoming less likely to explode. For its instability, it has been called the "Mother of Satan".
http://tinyurl.com/almxp
******
The explosive was triacetone triperoxide (TATP), commonly known as acetone peroxide, one of a group of explosives based on the unstable peroxide group of compounds. TATP is one of the most sensitive explosives known, being extremely sensitive to impact, temperature change and friction. The TATP was blended with a second explosive called pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), which is also a key ingredient in Semtex.
According to the FBI agent Margaret Cronin, an expert witness on air crime, in a much used quote from her testimony at Reid's trial, the explosive "if placed beside an outer wall could have or would have created a large hole in the fuselage of the plane".
snip
The delicate nature of TATP might warn off sensible people, but not terrorists. TATP comes with two big advantages. First of all, unlike other types of explosive, it cannot be detected by sniffer dogs, so it is easier to smuggle into airports and onto airplanes. The second advantage is one of the main reasons that this explosive is used at all - it is very easy to synthesise in clandestine labs.
TATP is prepared from three ingredients that are readily available in local stores. All you need are acetone, hydrogen peroxide and any mineral acid (such as hydrochloric acid). The method of manufacture is so well-known that it appears in terrorist cookbooks and on many different sites on the World-Wide Web
******
On 7 July, four bomb blasts on London’s transport system killed at least 54 people and injured hundreds more. Evidence led investigators to search houses in Leeds, where three of the four suspected suicide bombers lived. In one house they found traces of triacetone triperoxide (TATP). The white crystalline powder is so unstable that police immediately widened the cordoned-off area and employed a no-fly zone around the site.
The substance is extremely shock-sensitive – knocking or grinding the powder can cause it to explode – and is also highly flammable. Even trained chemists have been injured while attempting to use it. Because of this, experts believe that a stabiliser was used to allow it to be transported.
Reid claimed that his explosives were obtained from a Czech or Slovak contact in Amsterdam. The source of the London bombers’ explosives is currently unknown, though Blair says that Pakistan is among the countries included in the search.
"One of the most alarming attributes of TATP is that it cannot be detected by bomb-sniffing dogs, making it easier to smuggle into airports and onto airplanes."
I didnt know that - OK I can see where it's more of a threat than I thought.
TATP is what the London Underground bombers used.
It is relatively common knowledge to anyone who does anything but the barest research, nobody looks at FR for advice on explosive selection, and mentioning that it exists hurts nothing and nobody.
More succinctly, HMTD uses the same organic base as RDX (used in plastic explosives) and HMX, and anyone doing research on that family of explosives will see them linked -- Google returns 2000 results for an intersection of RDX and HMTD. Let's not over-react here.
Cindy - fyi ping to new info thread
The peroxide group is quite unstable as are the idiots who play with them; but they are not WMDs by any stretch of the imagination.
Recipes are all over the internet for all sorts of destructive devices that can be made from household chemicals, if the security net is stretched to cover this panopoly of possibilities, we will have already lost the reason for winning the war.
Leni, More information and a picture......You might want to get on Indcons ping list.
"TATP is what the London Underground bombers used."
I didn't realize that either. Apparently these decisions are being based on factors other than stable chemistry - I guess I was wrong.
We adapt to information better than our enemy does. It is better that knowledge is out there.
Eh? What is in your slurry that makes it unstable? AN in its various basic forms is very, very stable for long periods, hence its popularity. It is used as filler for gelpacks and slurries because it is very cheap, but AN is not the only ingredient in those.
They frequently spike slurries with other less stable explosives precisely because AN is a pain to set off, particularly in small charges. Raw AN is often classified as a tertiary explosive because it takes a fat high-explosive booster to get something resembling a proper detonation.
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.