Explosives traces found on 1 of Russian planes

cnn ^ | 8/27/04 | CNN

[Kornev]

Russian officials say traces of explosives have been found in wreckage of one of two crashed jetliners. Details soon.

[AdmSmith]

if you put a bomb on a plane, why do you need to send along five guys with it

Maybe they planned to take it to a special place and blow it up there.

[brothers4thID]

Bad hydraulics or bad fuel mixture does not cause catastrophic mid-air separation at cruising altitude. The planes were very far apart when they crashed (100's of miles) so that rules out mid-air collision with each other. They took off an hour apart yet both disappeared from radar within minutes of each other with no pilot indication of trouble except for the squawked hijack code.

You'll have a hard time convincing me this was anything but bombs on an aircraft.

[lizol]

Of course.
It's just impossible, that two planes crushed simultanously in two different places of Russia.

[gipper81]

Anyways, none of this will stop Russkies from doing business with Iran and other Islamic renegades.

Exactly.

[capitan_refugio]

No link. It was a report I heard on the radio as I drove home.

[capitan_refugio]

here is a related web article I found. it may have been overtaken by newere reports.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,10579260%255E663,00.html

[fire_eye]

There's no question that Putin is serious about fighting terrorism, Islamic terrorism, and probably Islam itself. Russia is not nearly as geopolitically isolated from Islamikazi infiltration as are we.

However, that said, his failure to ally with the U.S., particularly considering his personal friendship with GWB, is "Interesting". He does have to consider Russia's interests first, but I for one find it very difficult to imagine that anyone in Russia gives a flying Feinstein about what the French or the Germans think. The Russians certainly take America a lot more seriously than they do Europe, in every sense except possibly economically from the standpoint of foreign trade (and I'm not even sure about that).

I suspect that Putin's fancy footwork is the result of internal pressure from his military and other influences in Russia who don't want to see him aligned with the U.S., are really uneasy about U.S. influence in the Middle East, etc. His military was up to their neck in "deals" with Saddam Hussein, and they DO NOT want the U.S. occupying the Middle East. (Frankly, I'm not even so sure I care if Russia occupies the Middle East - if the Islamikazis got a dose of what Russia will do to them in the aftermath of Afghanistan and Chechnya, they'll be be looking back nostalgically on merely having Americans in their back yard...).

That said... I want to see Putin instruct his security people to communicate every shred of evidence from the two plane bombings to the FBI. The Islamikazis smuggled some RDX onto those planes, and they will try it here if they can. If they've figured out some way to get an Islamikazi with an explosive belt onto a plane, we need to know immediately how they did it and institute countermeasures here *immediately*. (My guess is that FBI is already on the scene in Russia...)

[Imperialist]

"if you put a bomb on a plane, why do you need to send along five guys with it?"(B0wman)

You bring the bomb on the plane in 5 seperate pieces to avoid detection. Then you assemble it once in flight? Ramsey Yousef taught them that sort of.

[Imperialist]

Please check out Ramsey Yousef's device at google if you have not seen it before. It was quite a nasty little thing and he even tested one on Singapore Airlines(could be dif. airline). His was a leave behind device that he could set and then get himself off the plane at a planned stopover. One person can not pull that off anymore probably, but multiples might be able to get it together.

[fire_eye]

Okay... here:

---

US prosecutors said the device was a "Mark II" "microbomb". Casio digital watches were used as the timers, stabilizers that looked like cotton wool balls, and an undetectable nitroglycerin liquid as the explosive. Other ingredients included small amounts of sulfuric acid, nitrobenzene, silver azide, liquid acetone, and nitrate. Two 9-Volt batteries taken from children's toys were used to heat light bulb filaments and detonate the nitroglycerin. The wiring was attached to the arm of the watch using a tiny space under the calculator. The cavity was so small that the watch was worn normally. Yousef smuggled the batteries past airport security in the hollowed out heels of his shoes. He smuggled the nitroglycerin on board using a contact lens solution bottle.

---

I have not flown since 9/11. But, before that, I flew in and out of the San Jose airport frequently.

The airport screeners would usually check my briefcase by rubbing the seams with a sampling patch which was then applied to what I took to be a portable gas chromatograph or NMR analyzer, ostensibly to sniff for traces of nitrates.

Again, that was pre-9/11. By now, one would assume that the TSA (in addition to searching old ladies in wheelchairs) will have (a) improved our chemical-sniffing capabilities to the point that the Ayatollah Ramsey's "contact lens" solution would not escape, (b) have deployed such facilities all over the U.S.

Yes, no?

Traces of bombmaking chemicals have very distinct signatures and if we're not to the point of being able to detect them on passengers and luggage, Bush and his lieutenants have failed us - "Big time". That should have been an even higher priority than ensuring that all grandmothers in wheelchairs get thoroughly searched, even!

The fact that the Islamikazis *haven't* pulled another stunt like Youssef did, is actually rather encouraging.

[cmsgop]

WOW! When I was at San Jose in July 2001 they did not even turn on my cell phone.

[fire_eye]

They never seemed to worry about anything electronic... I always wondered about that too. But the ability to sniff for nitrates and other Bad Things is much more important, and much more effective (if it works... which it should - the technology is more than capable, if they'll use it).

[Shqipo]

WHY is this getting so little attention? Drudge, Fox, the rest of the media seem disinterested. It took one nut on a plane trying to light up his sneakers for everyone to be inconvenienced.., now cavity explosives? The cost of having every airport with technology to scan for this terrorist ploy would be staggering, and the lines for airport security checks ever longer.

It just goes to confirm that hermetically sealing America in some impenetrable bubble is as foolish a concept as the French Maginot Line. Bush is pursuing the absolutely right strategy: drain the swamp that is the Middle East once and for all.

[RussianConservative]

However, that said, his failure to ally with the U.S., particularly considering his personal friendship with GWB, is "Interesting".

The same is saidable about Bush in reference to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Bush even use UN, Germany and fRance to pressure Putin from bombing Taliban in spring of 2001...gooood idea that was.

[fire_eye]

Actually, that makes some sense, at least in the context of American policy as Bush is conducting it. All of Afghanistan was united against Russia during the Russian occupation. After we occupied Afghanistan, the Afghanis were still so mad at the Russians they didn't even want to accept *humanitarian aid* from Russia. Bush probably figured, with good reason, that if Russia became involved there, it might become impossible to get the support of any non-Taliban Afghanis against the Taliban.

Now, if you want to argue that instead of trying to salvage Afghanistan and Iraq, we should have simply obliterated them (with Russian help, even), all I can say is, history may prove you right. I hope not, but Rome was never able to obtain peace with Carthage by any means other than wiping them out. I'm not so sure we're in any different situation with these Islamikazis - and the Russians have a longer history of dealing with them than we do, and may therefore have a better idea of how to go about it...

[RussianConservative]

All Afghanistan except the northern alliance whom it is Russia who supplied and allied to Mosud. Russian hospital still there.

[ApesForEvolution]

I can't disagree with that. I see Muhammadan terrorist nations' cities flashing with large mushroom clouds over them in the not so distant future. I hope we haven't seen them here first...

[ApesForEvolution]

Very good points...thanks for the post.