Planes vulnerable to bombs built on board, ingredients hidden in daily objects: Experts

The Hindu News ^ | August 10, 2006 | Staff

[wyattearp]

There was a terrorist shooting at the Air Israel counter at LAX a couple years back.

The Air Israel counter at LAX isn't in Israel, and it wasn't protected by Israeli security procedures or personnel.

[TChris]

I agree profiling is fine. But don't restrict the scope of that profile.

Agreed. I'm all for putting the emphasis of the anti-terrorist effort where it belongs.

[usurper]

Heck with some explosives, you don't even need an electrical circuit to set it off.

Yep and there is still no way to detect matches is someone’s pocket.

[MonroeDNA]

In most airline bathrooms I've been in, there is a 120VAC outlet for electric razors.

But all you would need is, perhaps, 3 bottles of nailpolish remover (purchased after security), and a pack of matches, to light a plane on fire from the inside.

The inside has a lot of carpeting and plastic, which would burn like the dickens.

Black smoke choking people to death in a couple minutes. And God help you if you drop down the oxygen masks.

[bereanway]

Yeah, I thought it was maybe a year ago there was a lot of talk about explosives being carried on by several different hijackers via body cavities. And it wasn't just males that were the mules.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Abut 20 years ago, the Israelis stopped a redheaded, pregnant Irish woman from getting on a plane with a bomb that her Palestinian boyfriend put into her luggage.

==> I wonder if she was humming Come Out Ye Black And Tans to herself.

I dunno... she sounded like a dupe, more than anything else. She was probably a lefty, though. I don't recall that story, but then again, I was only 6 years old at the time!

[omega4412]

So search all persons from the Islamic world plus a random selection of others.

[jla]

Aren't all Shinners dupes?
And in fairness, the Orange side has their share of Pali-terrorists supporters too.

[livius]

the airlines will hand out identical jumpsuits and paper booties.

LOL! And as for the Muzzies, give them paper burkhas all around.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Aren't all Shinners dupes?

No, Shinners know exactly what they are doing - that's what makes them dangerous - those who vote for them in elections are the dupes.

And in fairness, the Orange side has their share of Pali-terrorists supporters too.

I think most of them would lean to Kach, though.

[KingofZion]

It works very well for El Al.

[CORedneck]

Time to require aircraft to have materials that are fire resistant. This is something that should have been done years ago ! It is time to listen to the engineers to design the planes for a change instead of the marketing execs who insist on doing things cheaply and vetoing safety items as suggested.

But all you would need is, perhaps, 3 bottles of nailpolish remover (purchased after security), and a pack of matches, to light a plane on fire from the inside.

The inside has a lot of carpeting and plastic, which would burn like the dickens.

[ASOC]

LOL The Army has a whole series of Field Manuals (FM) on improvised explosives - all of which are worth reading to avoid some of the more obvious ones.

I won't list the titles or names for obvious reasons - I refer to them collectively as "dead cat bomb books"

Bottom line as pointed out by Heinlein years ago

There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous people!

[Myrddin]

Timing of this event is just wonderful. My sister and niece are on vacation in the UK. It's the first time they have traveled outside the US. I'm in Jacksonville, FL this week with a large suitcase, laptop and typical carryon bag. I left my Sony F717 camera and ham radio at home to lighten the carryon. If I can't take the laptop as carryon to fly home, I'm facing a long drive from Jackonville to Pocatello Idaho. I had to make a similar drive from Birmingham, Alabama in September 2003 as Hurrican Ivan was bearing down on me. I can't risk damage to the laptop, so driving is the only way around it. Arrgghh!

[Arthalion]

Nah, she was a patsy. The story was that the pali boyfriend knocked her up, but didn't want to marry a white woman. He had some Syrian friends, and they concocted a way to solve both his problem and help the Syrians hit the Israelis. He told the girlfriend that his parents lived in an Arab-Israeli village, and that if she got their approval they could get married. She hopped the next flight to Israel, not knowing he'd stuck a bomb in the bag.

By all accounts, the guy didn't care so much about Israel as he did killing his girlfriend. His Syrian friends saw it as an opportunity, and used his hatred for her to further their own hatred for Israel.

The girlfriend lives in Ireland today, and the Pali lives in a British prison...he won't be eligible for release for another 20-odd years.

[Alouette]

My husband used to teach 9th grade chemistry. He had one experiment, which he performed for his class out on the playground, in which he created a raging fire by mixing two common ingredients that can be purchased at any hardware store and drugstore. The fire could not be put out with water, in fact pouring water on it would make it burn hotter.

He stopped doing the experiment about 15 years ago, saying he didn't want to give kids any ideas about trying this at home.

I am not going to say what the two common ingredients are.

[Arthalion]

Yeah, I thought it was maybe a year ago there was a lot of talk about explosives being carried on by several different hijackers via body cavities. And it wasn't just males that were the mules.

That "talk" followed the downing of a Russian airliner by several Chechnyan women. From what the Russians were able to piece together, the women hid high explosives in their V-jays, pulled it out onboard, combined their packages into one large bomb, and blew the thing out of the sky. Short of requiring an internal x-ray of every passenger on an aircraft, I can't see HOW you would block that kind of terrorism.

[taxcontrol]

LOL "Dead cat bomb books".... I like that!

[Arthalion]

I am not going to say what the two common ingredients are.

Salt and muriatic acid probably. I can understand your reluctance to identify the chemicals, but the reality is that there are sites on the Internet that can tell you how to create plastic explosives out of aspirin. With that kind of information floating around, I'm not so worried about a low grade chemical reaction that most of us learned in junior high.

[RunningWolf]

Great article, and reading it made plain to see how even the latest security countermeasures could be defeated by a terrorist team desiring to build the bomb on the airplane. This is underlined even more if they have the technological and manufacturing support. And it sure looks that they in fact do have that support.., IRAN

They might succeed again and soon too.

W.