Posted on 09/08/2006 5:28:21 PM PDT by indcons
With virtually no questions asked, an undercover ABC News team was able to purchase a half ton of one of the world's most dangerous bomb-making materials and move it into a storage shed only a few miles from the White House and the U.S. Capitol.
Despite its use in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, there are still no federal laws restricting the purchase of ammonium nitrate, a chemical fertilizer, widely sold at farm supply stores.
The ABC News undercover team made the purchases, in cash, at farm supply stores in North Carolina and Virginia and were never once asked for any valid ID.
Legislation requiring buyers of ammonium nitrate to be registered by the federal government have been blocked by the agricultural industry, according to the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Pete King (R-NY).
The results of the ABC News investigation are "a wake-up call that the American people and the Congress needs," King said. A law requiring sellers to record purchases has passed King's committee and is awaiting a vote by the full House.
Brian Ross' full investigative report will air Monday on World News with Charles Gibson and as part of an ABC News Special Report on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. (10pm EST/9pm Central)
If fertilizer is banned from the White House, the Bolshecrats will never get in.
The thrust of the article is that it is of deep concern that the media was able to pull off this plot and no one knew about it.
Of course, it might be possible that telephone conversations between the co-conspirators of ABC might have been monitored... except that the Media would howl about government monitoring of communications.
Of course, once the NSA found out about it, they could have passed the information to the FBI... except that the Media would howl over violation of the Gorelick "Firewall" between intelligence agencies.
Of course, once the FBI found out about it, they could have infiltrated ABC with one of their informants... except that the Media would have howled over the fact that someone with an IQ of over 72 was now loose in the bowels of the news industry. Who knows what havoc that might have caused.
The informant could then have reported his information on national T.V., ... except that Clinton and his cronies would then have demanded that ABC pull the story... because of the bad light it would shed on... ABC? This is beginning to resemble the eerie, bizarre, twisted sort of script that a bad episode of "Lost" might have.
Fertilizer... a subject the media can speak of with authority!
Yeah, huh. So a bunch of "rag heads" (racist much?) rent a unit at the self-storage and put 10 or 20 bags of fertilizer in there. SHUDDER!
I mean, sure, there a point to the story: Being able to buy the nitrates without having to demonstrate an agricultural usage. If they'd stuck to that, then fine. But this silly business with the storage shed? Well, they're begging to be ridiculed. It would be rude to ignore such a plea.
arrest ABC news and charge them under the Patriot act.
+_+
A few miles from the White House? If it is a few miles from the White House and it went off, it wouldn't hurt the White House.
Buy it? ABC doesn't need to buy it. They manufacture it by the ton every hour of every day.
Twenty sacks of 38-0-0 is supposed to be some sort of "HUGH" amount? LOL
The next thing you know, the ATF will have their shorts all up in a bunch about a toy pistol that has to be actuated with a paper clip and shoots one pellet of #8 bird shot at 400 fps...........
Prosecute them.
" most of it is 10-17%and the rest of bag is inert filler"
which is why they could buy it with no monitoring.
The "instant cold packs" used in sports contain several ounces of pure, prilled ammonium nitrate and you can probably buy a few within a few blocks of the WH, if there's a Walgreens.
Actually, the ammonium nitrate used an a legal explosive in quarries and construction projects is also in prill form.
What they don't mention is that ammonium nitrate is usually combined with fuel oil to make explosives. There are thousands of tanks of fuel oil all over the country. Why, I have 250 gallons of that "dangerous explosive" right outside the house I live in, and so do most of my neighbors!
there needs to be better safeguards.
What do you suggest?
(Keep in mind that farmers buy megatons of this stuff every year.)
The tendancy for a writer to convert any weight or volume into TONS in order to make it sound bigger.
See: "Environmental Junk Science"
This writer is no different than any enviro-whack writer who uses "TONS" instead of pounds, ppm (parts per million) or ppbv (parts per million by volume) to express weights and volumes.
"Di-Hydrous Oxide - which, if inhaled in sufficient quanities leads to certain death."
Worked with that for one job I had. Had to wear tanks of air, a mask, and special suits. Had to be certified, too.
Do you realize that that stuff has a pH much higher than concentrated sulfuric acid?
would you rather then pack it into a rental van and drive it near a government building?
What's a "large amount?" Half a ton is 1,000 pounds, or 20 50-lb. bags, a piddling amount for large agricultural operations. Instead of outlawing it, it's easier to just outlaw ABC and Brian Ross. At least ammonium nitrate is useful.
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