Posted on 01/08/2007 1:19:20 PM PST by areafiftyone
MIAMI - The Port of Miami was hit by its second terrorism scare in two days Monday when a package that was to be loaded onto a cruise ship tested positive for plastic explosives. Authorities later determined it was harmless.
The package was initially tested six times, and each time it came back positive for the military-grade explosive known as C4, the Coast Guard said.
The package was then destroyed, and a Miami-Dade County police bomb squad determined it contained sprinkler parts, said Zach Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami.
Thanks for the info.
Possible incompetent security personnel more like.
The "dry run" fantasy seems to be the last refuge of people that were really really hoping this would turn out to be a bomb, and have been bitterly disappointed.
What if it was the box itself that tested positive? As in in picked up residue from the pallet or was next to a package containing C4?
And if it was, where is that package now?
Detonators for the sprinklers still have not been found... ;)
Okay, assuming that the inspector can't tell the difference between C4 and a sprinkler part, why was this leaked to the media?
How about "we're evacuating the port of Miami for security concerns" instead of "we suspect C4 is at the port?" I'm starting to get the "boy who cried wolf" mentality about all these alerts, especially since they are generally end up as punchlines populating Jay Leno's monologue.
It was a false positive. Nothing was really positive for explosives.
So? A broken clock is right twice a day. I do not consider a station that spends incessant time on the same story for hours on end simply to fill up airtime as a relevant news station. They did with that kid in Aruba, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, and more recently the climbers and yesterday the port story as well as the avalanche in Colorado. Granted they are all news stories but many of them are very localized and not all the time
CNN and MSNBC covered the story as well
If yesterday is any sign, not as much as Fox. They are not much more than a tabloid news station.
Uh huh. I had a pregnancy test like that once. Her name is Erin. ;-)
LOL My boyfriend had brought some metimucil one time on a trip (he had a problem with his bowels). LOL! You should have seen the panic it caused. We just stood there laughing because it was in it's container and was not even opened yet.
Eh, this happened multiple times with both Anthrax and Ricin.
Identifying substances accurately is really advanced-degree chemistry work in a lab - but you have all this equipment issued for field use now used by people that don't REALLY understand its capabilities.
Field anthrax tests test for substances that MIGHT be anthrax or MIGHT be ricin - and we saw false positives time after time, but also local agencies issuing press releases or giving press conferences that were leaving out the "might" and maybe."
Presumably this test simply test for nitrogen compounds, as virtually all explosives contain nitrogen compounds..however the users of the tests or spokesmen literally thought it was a test for "C4."
It wasn't six different tests, it was six tests, most likely keying on the same chemical compound (and most likely not the actual RDX in the explosive).
This could happen from having the detector set too high. I've seen someone at a trade show run a bag of spinach through one of these detectors, and it dutifully screamed "EXPLOSIVE" when it got a hit from the naturally-occuring nitrates in the spinach.
Why were they going to load sprinkler parts on a cruise ship? Does cruise ships also carry cargo? Wouldn't a cruise ship already be fitted with an (anti-fire) sprinkling system?
Exactly. Crank up the sensitivity on the detector, it will tell you that that bag of spinach you just tossed in is really enough explosive to level Miami.
But nothing was found. All they know is how we will react when nothing is found.
I'm sure Cruise ships take on some freight and mail.
Could be a fantasy, but I don't think anyone has been bitterly disappointed because it was not a bomb, no matter what they believe personally.
Or, it could have been a dry run. No way to tell who's right on this one ;)
Either way, it is better to keep aware of what the enemy is capable of, better to keep worst case scenario front and center - or risk apathy, disbelief, and another 9-11.
Spare parts for that system.
If those sprinklers had any trace of nitrogen compounds on them, and the detector was set to maximum gain, it would go off.
Want to have some semi-harmless fun? Stick a bag of spinach in your luggage next time you go flying. You'll get hauled into secondary for intensive questioning, your luggage will be blown up, and you'll be on the no-fly list. All for a bag of spinach.
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.