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

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

[J Aguilar]

The Ministry of Interior reports on the explosives two weeks later.
ETA Used Amonal or Amosal Mixed with Hexogen to Increase the Destructive Power in the Attack at T-4 [Barajas Airport Terminal #4]

The attack at the parking of the T-4 terminal in the Barajas airport, that perpetrated ETA the last December 30th, was carried out with a mix of explosives, one of inorganic nature, with a nitrate base, like amonal or amosal [or ANFO], and the second, hexogen, as a multiplier of the detonating effect with the objective of increasing the destructive power, according to the information provided this Saturday by the Ministry of Interior through the General Director’s Office of the Police and Civil Guard. The hexogen, which is a high power explosive, has been employed in several occasions since 1994 by the terrorist organisation ETA as charge as well as in detonators.



LD (Europa Press) Since the attack, the specialists of the General Offices of the Scientific Police and the Technicians in Explosives Deactivation (TEDAX) have collected +200 samples in the affected area, which are being processed.

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By J Aguilar,

Why is this so important? Because the explosive used in 3/11 is still unknown, and according to the main expert on explosives present that day at Atocha station, it was used a high brisance one, such as hexogen.

For instance, amonium nitrate has an approximate detonating speed, related to power and brisance (fragmenting capacity), of 4000 meters per second, Goma-2 ECO 5300 m/s, Tytadin 50 6500 m/s, TNT 6900 m/s and pure hexogen 8300 m/sec.

After such big discussion among the Black Pawns, the private citizens that are investigating the 3/11 massacre, on explosive composition, explosive power, brisance and the effects of the shock wave in metal sheets... is ETA sending a message inside another message to the Zapatero government?

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Other news from the Spanish Free Media concerning 3/11:

Another poll from EL MUNDO regarding 3/11. 800 Spaniards nationwide asked between December 26-28th 2006.

3/11 Attacks. The Search for the Truth. Poll from EL MUNDO-SIGMA DOS

Right column

Between brackets, October 2006 results.

1. Do you think essentially that all the truth about 3/11 is already known?
No: 70.4 %..... (67.5 %)
Yes: 21 %..... (24.3%)
No answer/don’t know: 8.6 %..... (8.2 %)

2. Who do you think has been more interested in finding all the truth about 3/11?
The Press: 57.5 %..... (43.7 %)
Justice: 14.6 %..... (15.8 %)
NA/DK: 13.4 %..... (22.1 %)
Parliament: 8.2 %..... (8.4 %)
Police: 6.3 %..... (10.1 %)

3. Do you think that the Zapatero government is interested in that the public knows all the truth about 3/11?
No: 50.9 %..... (43.1 %)
Yes: 39.7 %..... (46.3 %)
NA/DK: 9.4 %..... (10.6 %)

Left column

4. Do you think the 3/11 trial will essentially clarify what happened?
No: 58.7 %
Yes: 30.3 %
NA/DK: 11 %

5. Do you think that the press should keep investigating what happened in 3/11?
Yes: 77.6 %
No: 18.4 %
NA/DK: 4 %

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By J Aguilar,

Indeed last months’ efforts have contributed to an increase in people thinking that the truth about 3/11 is not known, now reaching seven of ten Spaniards. The Justice, Parliament and Police loose confidence, which are close or into single digit values.

The confidence of the Spaniards in the will of the Zapatero government to fully investigate the massacre shrinks, with only the group of people between 45-64 years old, majoritarily thinking so, which well portrays the age group that supports Socialism in Spain. Finally it is especially shameful for our Third Branch that not even the Socialist voters think the 3/11 trial will clarify anything.

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I haven't published the temporary conclusion of this issue yet:

Thousands of donations “from Spain and abroad”.
The two police officers jailed for talking to EL MUNDO go home for Christmas after collecting the CEP their bails.

The two civil servants from the Police jailed for talking to the newspaper EL MUNDO have been released this Sunday, after collecting the bail of 150,000 euro that judge Juan Del Olmo imposed to each one of them. The collection carried out by the Spanish Police Confederation (CEP) [a police union] provoked a massive response, with donations coming “from all corners of Spain, from the European Union and even from Latin America”, pointed out to LIBERTAD DIGITAL Rodrigo Gavilán. After remaining in Alcalá-Meco prison for 24 days, the police officers that helped to uncover the Goma-2 trafficking plot inside the Police, will stay for Christmas Eve with their family, as it was the objective of the CEP. The Ministry of Interior, however, continues its harassment campaign and had suspended them.

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By J Aguilar,

It is a nice Christmas tale. The CEP police union collected the first amount, 150,000 euro, in a few days, and came to pay it in order to free its associated, inspector Jesús Parrilla. However, he refused to leave prison if agent Celestino Rivera, associated to SUP pro-socialist police union, remained there. Therefore, CEP set the objective of reaching 300,000 euro collected before Christmas Eve. It seemed impossible in so short amount of time, however, on Saturday 23rd, a businessman, reader of EL MUNDO newspaper, offered to add the remaining 70,000 euro. A Caja Madrid branch office was opened on Sunday only to pay the bails. The checks were on Judge Del Olmo’s table that same day.

Now both police officers have the problem of feeding their families while they are suspended for defending the goodwill Spaniards from this National-Socialist regime.

More news on 3/11 investigation here:
Volunteers for the investigation of 3/11
English Thread @ Fondo Documental

More data on 3/11 here:
The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 1
The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 2
The Mystery of 3/11 - Part 3
3/11 Revisited - Part 1

More data on 3/11 in Spanish here:

Luis del Pino's blog
Kickjor's blog

[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.)