http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,920581,00.html Student, 14, arrested after explosives found in backpack
Published in the Asbury Park Press 3/07/04
By NAOMI MUELLER and JOE ZEDALIS
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
BRICK -- A 14-year-old Ocean County Vocational Technical School student was arrested Friday after police found his backpack filled with homemade explosives left unattended in the school's hallway, Brick Lt. Doug Kinney said.
The backpack was found by a group of students who were discussing its contents when a teacher overheard them. The teacher called the school's administration, which called police at 8:23 a.m., according to a news release from police.
William P. Hoey Jr., superintendent of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School, said he was told by bomb squad members that the device, which he described as looking "like large, homemade firecrackers," was actually an improvised incendiary device.
Lt. Jack Oakley of the State Police Homeland Security Brach-Technical Response Bureau said device had pyrotechnic powder inside.
"It's the same material found in fireworks like an M-80 or and M-100," Oakley said. "Instead of detonation, it is a substance that burns rapidly. If it was close enough to a combustable material, it would generate enough heat and flame to initiate a fire and cause serious damage or injury to anyone or anything in close proximity."
Oakley said information on how to build a device like the one found can be found on the Internet.
"The information is easily accessible," he said.
Students were evacuated to the neighboring Brick Township High School, while Brick police, members of the State Police bomb and K-9 squads and the Ocean County Sheriff's K-9 Unit recovered the devices and searched the rest of the school.
Meanwhile, the student, whom Hoey believed to be a freshman, was interviewed at police headquarters and eventually released to his parents' custody. Hoey said the teen will not be in school tomorrow. He said the teen "was not a disciplinary problem."
"After the police complete their investigation, then we will determine what will happen to the student," Hoey said.
Oakley said Brick police exacuted a search warrant at the student's home Friday, but could not confirm what, if anything, was found. Brick police also declined comment on the results of the search yesterday.
Kinney said "additional items" were found in the student's locker but declined to say what those items were. Police said no other explosives were found in the school. The teen's locker at Brick Township High School also was searched but nothing illegal was found there, police said.
The Ocean County Vocational School was reopened at 11 a.m., although the afternoon sessions were canceled. Hoey also said the school officials "will review and debrief on exactly what we did and what our security measures are."
The teen was charged with three counts of possession of a destructive device and three counts of risking widespread injury or damage. Kinney said the investigation is ongoing and that additional charges are pending.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1101251/posts Morocco to Madrid, A Bomb Suspect Grew Radicalized
The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 19, 2004 | Keith Johnson and John Carreyrou in Madrid, David Crawford in Berlin and Karby Leggett in Tangier
Posted on 03/19/2004 11:03:09 AM EST by presidio9
Three years ago, Spain's national police stormed the apartment of Jamal Zougam, a 30-year-old Moroccan immigrant who ran a cellphone business in Madrid. Among items they seized: phone numbers for suspected terrorists, a video of Islamic warriors fighting Russian troops near Chechnya, and four books in Arabic on aspects of jihad, such as how to treat prisoners of war.
The raid followed a request by a French magistrate who suspected Mr. Zougam was involved in terrorism. But the Spanish police figured the evidence wasn't strong enough to arrest Mr. Zougam, or even to seek a judge's permission for a wiretap.
Now Mr. Zougam is the prime suspect in last week's bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid, which killed 202 people and injured many more. An unexploded bomb had a trigger that used a cellphone police traced to Mr. Zougam's store, which Spanish authorities have reason to believe had long operated as part of an al Qaeda cell that provided logistical help to Islamists across Europe.
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