3/11: ETA Used Hexogen in the Bombing of Barajas Airport.

Libertad Digital ^ | 13 January 2007 | Libertad Digital (transl. J Aguilar)

[tanuki]

Four years on, and we still don't know basic things like the explosive used on 3/11. No one can be that incompetant. It really sounds like Madrid wants 3/11 to go away, now that the Socialists have gotten all the mileage they're going to get out of it.

[stm]

Stuff like this is not found at your ordinary terrorist hardware store. Lemme guess.....Iran?

[expatpat]

What is Hexogen?

[J Aguilar]

More 3/11. It seems ETA sends another message to Zapatero.

By the way, a popular joke these days in Spain is that Zapatero arrived through Atocha station and will leave through Barajas airport.

[stm]

It's one of the main components of C-4. It is mixed with oils or waxes to make plastic explosives.

[J Aguilar]

Hexogen is the active principle behind military explosive such as RDX and C4.

A very powerful explosive, also known as cyclonite, obtained from methenamine, which also played a role in the 3/11 case.

It develops a very sharp shock wave, that causes metal sheets, such as the ones of the walls of a train carriage, to be rather cut, not teared appart.

This kind of damage was observed by the chief TEDAX (Technicians of Explosive Deactivation) at Atocha station.

Military explosive have to develop a high brisance in order to bust reinforced structures such as concrete ones, whilst commercial ones, such as the dynamites, like Goma-2 ECO, usually exhibit lower brisance in order to be employed in quarrying, that is, to break the rock in big pieces instead of fragmenting it.

[OldFriend]

Good grief. I entered hexogen into google. This explosive has been used in more than a few terror acts over the past decade.

[verum ago]

hexogen = RDX. And as stm noted, it is the explosive component of C-4. The implication is that the explosives being used aren't the homecooked crap that many terrorists use but is (taking a cue from General Motors here) "professional grade"

[Ramius]

Zapatero arrived through Atocha station and will leave through Barajas airport

Heh. I take it you're in Spain, or have contacts there?

Is there any discussion that maybe ETA is colluding with other terrorist organizations, like Al Queda?

[spunkets]

"Four years on, and we still don't know basic things like the explosive used on 3/11."

Sure they do. It was traced to an explosives(dynamite) theft from a mining op and the person(s) that diverted the mat'l were IDed and arrested. The 3-11 attack was a jihadi op(N African muslims) and they obtained the dynamite from the diverter(s) that worked at the mine op.

[Ramius]

Military explosive have to develop a high brisance in order to bust reinforced structures such as concrete ones, whilst commercial ones, such as the dynamites, like Goma-2 ECO, usually exhibit lower brisance in order to be employed in quarrying, that is, to break the rock in big pieces instead of fragmenting it.

Yah learn sumpthin new every day 'round here. Interesting.

[Criminal Number 18F]

The word "Hexogen" will mean little to English-language readers. But this substance is most well-known in the Anglosphere by its British name, RDX. It's also called "Cyclonit" or "Zyklonit" in the Germanic languages.

It is a WWII-era explosive that is relatively easily synthesized. It's never used alone in military explosives any more because it is hazardously sensitive in low temperatures, and the military of all nations prefers its stuff to be stable in all terrestrial climates. It is bound into numerous plastic and molded explosive compounds, especially ones that are expected to be molded or cast, including Comp B and C (think the stuffing of bombs and grenades, which are usually cast inside).

It indicates that the terrorists are a step up from the ones using TATP. It is more powerful than TATP (or TNT for that matter). But then, neither the ETA nor Al-Qaeda are exactly new at blowing stuff up.

Neither am I ;)

(But I only use my super powers for good).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

What is Hexogen?

Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, also known as RDX, cyclonite, hexogen, and T4, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications ...

Regards,
GtG

[expatpat]

Thanks

[AmishDude]

A six-sided geometric object.

Although I don't see how it's so dangerous...

[stm]

"It's never used alone in military explosives any more because it is hazardously sensitive in low temperatures.....

Quite true, but a small amount of it works great to heat your cup of joe first thing in the morning. During the war we used to open claymores and cut off a small piece of the C-4 and use it like sterno. It burns for a long time and is not dangerous at all unless it struck. One of our soldiers placed his canteen cup on two rocks and lit a small piece of it to warm his hot chocolate. The cup slid off the rocks, landed sqare on the piece of burning C-4, detonating it. It blew a hole the size of a quarter in the steel cup and sent it about 10 feet in the air. After that, no more adhoc sterno (heavy sigh)

[31M20RedDevil]

I saw some guys breathing the fumes from that C-4 to get high.
Heard people tried to put out the fire stepping on it too

You had to make sure those guys had the Claymore faced the right
direction.

just curious,how in the world does one open a Claymore?

[Albert Barr]

Please excuse my ignorance. Do our troops still use claymores?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Triangles are far more dangerous, after all!

(Pointy corners.)