[sig226]

No. The reaction used to release the cyanide in a gas chamber is a classic reduction-oxidation reaction. Sodium cyanide plus sulfuric acid produces hydrogen cyanide and sodium sulfate.
Na(CN) + H₂(SO₄)=2H(CN)+Na₂(SO₄)
You need the highly reactive hydrogen ions in the acid to get the lethal gas. If he ate the sodium cyanide pellets, they would have killed him, but the stuff he had would not cause a lethal gas attack. This may mean he really was suicidal, or that he was poorly informed like the idiot with the Times Square bomb.

[sig226]

I haven’t got the equation balanced right. Oh well.

[a fool in paradise]

The Times Square bomber had been trained. Either he made some substitutions or was fed misinformation so that he could be caught, and his investigation monitored as research for covering the tracks on a bigger strike.

I am not proposing this conjecture, others have already put it out in the arena of ideas.

If you are picked up with the components you BELIEVE to be a bomb or gas attack (but really are not enough to do any harm at all), your case could result in a lesser charge of criminal mayhem. At any rate, the media coverage (blaming tea partiers over Islamists even when Pakistan’s terrorists took credit for it) and subsequent investigation and government talking points are something to consider.

The Islamists WANT attention. They kept amping up attacks when Bill Clinton was president. The WTC 2001 attacks came before of little response to the Khobar Towers and USS Cole bombings. Those anniversaries are coming up. Will the media remember?

They neglected to cover the 40th anniversary of the Weather Underground’s Greenwich Village bomb factory apartment murders this March.