Posted on 08/11/2006 10:12:57 AM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
(Excerpted)
LIQUID explosives ... are not difficult to obtain or make from raw ingredients could have been involved in the terror plot.
One candidate, nitromethane, is used to fuel model aeroplane engines as well as being an explosive and an industrial solvent.
Dr Sidney Alford, an explosives technician, said it was quite easy to get hold of in fairly small quantities, but it would have to be combined with a "sensitising" substance to make a bomb.
An alternative, nitroethane, was less well known but just as effective, and there were fewer restrictions on obtaining and transporting it, he said.
Another substance, methyl nitrate, is unusual in that it will explode as soon as it is combined with another substance. It does not need a detonator.
... Methyl nitrate has been used as a component of an anti-personnel mine. When you step on the mine, you break a container which causes the substances to mix.
Despite being the best known "liquid bomb", nitroglycerine will not detonate with the slightest movement. "This idea is a myth," Dr Alford said. "It will not explode unless you whack it quite hard."
It is usually mixed with another material, such as nitroglycol, and would have to be ignited with a detonator.
Dr Alford, chairman of the explosives company Alford Technologies, said other possible chemicals included astrolites, based on hydrazine, which is used to make rocket fuel.
He said liquid explosives would not necessarily be picked up by "sniffer" type security scanners if placed in carefully sealed and cleaned containers.
"It's right that they're not allowing liquids to be carried on to planes other than milk for a baby, which the mother has to be prepared to taste," he said. "I think a good move would be to ban all duty-free alcohol on planes."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...
I'm wondering about the convert - apparently he just converted a few months ago - that's awfully quick to get into the biggest terror plan since 9/11. I'm wondering if he wasn't the informant they've been talking about.
Amen to that!
Indeed...
Oh... and this doesn't help.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1681927/posts?page=12
Thanks - I had missed that thread.
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