Posted on 09/30/2003 10:10:24 AM PDT by knighthawk
LESS than one-third of the deadly vehicle bomb outside the Sari Club in Bali actually exploded, a Herald Sun investigation has found.
Experts believe none of the 500 people in the Sari Club and Paddy's bar that night would have lived if the bomb had gone off as planned.
They said the toll could have been in the thousands.
Poor preparation resulted in most of the 1.1 tonne mix of chemicals burning instead of blowing up.
But even this bomb – coupled with the smaller Paddy's bar device – was deadly enough to kill 202 people and injure 168.
Eighty-eight Australians were killed in the blasts, which happened a year ago this month.
The findings of a two-month Herald Sun investigation into the attack will be revealed in a 20-page report tomorrow.
The Herald Sun has learned:
SHRAPNEL removed from former AFL star Jason McCartney at a Melbourne hospital helped police establish what the Paddy's bar bomb was made of.
CHRISTIAN-hater Ali Imron chose Christmas tree lights when looking for something to convert into detonators to explode the Sari Club bomb.
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police chief Mick Keelty fears it could only be a matter of time before another attack is committed by three Bali bombers who have evaded capture, especially if it is found they played a role in the August 5 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta.
THE Bali plot twice nearly came unstuck in the days before the blasts.
The first time was when police stopped the bomb vehicle on its way to Bali when it was filled with the filing cabinets that would later house the device.
The second time was when those building the bomb in a Bali house alerted neighbours by accidentally exploding some of the chemicals they were using to construct it.
BALI bomb commander Imam Samudra had well advanced written plans for another terrorist bombing at the time of his capture in November 2002.
THE suicide bomber who parked the vehicle bomb outside the Sari Club could only drive in a straight line and only learned how to do that on the night before the blasts.
JI'S head man in Australia – Abdul Rahim Ayub – has been identified to police by fellow JI member and Bali bomber Mubarok. Ayub fled from his Perth home three days after the Bali bombings and has not been found since.
A JI manual seized by Bali bombing investigators reveals the terrorist organisation is highly structured, well organised and has a constitution aimed at ensuring the creation of an Islamic state.
THE JI textbook also urges members to have a love of jihad and a love of dying as a martyr.
Experts using computer modelling have worked out the net explosive quantity of the vehicle bomb outside the Sari Club was between 150kg and 300kg – as opposed to a potential 1150kg.
Australian Federal Police general manager (counter terrorism) Tim Morris said the death toll could have been in the thousands if the Sari Club bomb had worked as designed.
He said aerial photographs of the blast site showed even the reduced bomb damaged buildings over a radius of hundreds of metres. "All of that would have been obliterated if it had gone off as planned," he said.
AFP forensic specialists have analysed the make-up of the Sari Club bomb and been talked through its construction by Bali bomber Ali Imron.
They discovered the following: there was no quality control during the chemical mixing process; assemblers failed to follow instructions left by bomb expert Dr Azahari; chemicals were incorrectly handled, mixed and stored; the powdered TNT and detonating cord malfunctioned, and the bulk of the explosive mixture burnt rapidly, instead of exploding as planned.
The experts concluded that while the bombers demonstrated knowledge of bomb-making procedures, their understanding of the dynamics of explosive force was lacking.
Federal agent Morris said only about 30 per cent of the vehicle bomb actually went off.
"If the bomb had exploded as planned then we suspect that there would have been no survivors from the Sari Club and the immediate vicinity," he said.
"Who knows what the final death toll could have been, but easily around the 500 mark.
"Quite clearly, possibly more. Most of those that had spilled onto the street from Paddy's would also have perished."
The bombers were equally sloppy in their preparation of the detonating switches – they forgot to attach a mobile phone to the Sari Club bomb.
It was intended that terrorist Idris would ring that mobile phone to detonate the bomb if suicide bomber Jimi chickened out of detonating it himself.
Just as he was about to use his mobile phone to remotely detonate the small bomb outside the US Consulate, Idris told Ali Imron the phone had mistakenly been left out of the main Sari Club bomb.
Jimi did not chicken out, but even if he had the Sari Club bomb had been wired to explode as soon as anybody opened the detonation box lid.
It also had a delayed time switch that would have detonated it in 45 minutes if Jimi had not pressed the direct detonation switch before then.
The vest bomb used in the Paddy's pub bombing was also booby trapped to explode even if suicide bomber Iqbal failed to flick the detonation switch.
They said the toll could have been in the thousands.
This is what one calls a 'hint.' Since the Indonesian police seemed interested in 'warmly shaking the hand' of the Bali bomber and getting face time with him, we can conclude that the Indonesian govt was not too motivated in catching terrorists in the first place.
Man, would I like to see the term "Christian-hater" show up in US media in reference to some of these Muslim creeps. Of course the description fits the media too.
Prairie
The idiot writer then proceeds to give hints on how to improve the bomb for the next time.
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.