NYT: Military-Quality Explosives Suspected in London Blasts

[DeepModem Mom]

Military-Quality Explosives Suspected in London Blasts
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: July 12, 2005


LONDON, July 11 - British investigators believe that the 10-pound bombs used in the coordinated terrorist attacks here contained "military quality" high-grade explosives, British and European counterterrorism officials said Monday.

Investigators said they still did not know whether the explosives contained plastic materials, or were made some other way. But they said the material used in the bombs was similar to the kind manufactured for military use or made for highly technical commercial purposes, such as dynamite used for precision explosions to demolish buildings or in mining.

Because of the small size of the bombs, some investigators initially said last week that they were relatively crude.

On Monday, a senior European-based counterterrorism official with access to intelligence reports said the new information on the material indicated that the bombs were "technically advanced." The official added: "There seems to be a mastery of the method of doing explosions. This was not rudimentary. It required great organization and was well put together."

Counterterrorism and law enforcement officials interviewed for this article said they would only speak on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the investigation. They said it was still unclear whether the attacks were carried out by local terrorists, a group from outside Britain or a combination of the two....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/international/europe/12intel.html?ei=5094&en=f85fb3bc823eb879&hp=&ex=1121140800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1121139228-YbKbcoI+RVxY/zSTU8gZzw

[aquart]

1. Like from an unguarded Iraqi munitions dump?

Or something more sinister?

[DesEtoiles]

2. yes-from Al Qa Qaa????

[Maple]

3. Here's a quibble with a news report

I found today, about 'high' explosives.


"This is simply not accurate. Perhaps the reporter meant to say it was a commercial explosive. But, high explosives can be made in the privacy of one's home. A favorite explosive of Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists is TATP, which stands for Triacetone Triperoxide. This is a high explosive. It can be manufactured at home using acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfuric acid. The product is a white crystalline precipitate that can explode violently on heating, impact, or friction. According to the Encyclopedia of Exploisves and Related Items, Picatinny Arsenal, it is one of the most senstive explosives known. It has a detonation velocity of approximately 5290 meters per second when detonated in a clumn 6.3 millimeters in diameter (TNT has a detonantion velocity of 6940 meters per second by comparison)."

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/07/the_london_bomb.html

[longship]

4. Al Qaa-Qaa!!

Now that's what I call blow-back!!

[bemildred]

5. Must be al Qaaqaa, or else a "state actor", and that's "ridiculous".

:tinfoilhat:

[kestrel91316]

6. Hmmmmmmmmm .................is this why ...........

US military personnel are now banned from London as I saw elsewhere here???

[leesa]

7. Did they have a Made in the USA stamp on them?

Damned CIA always forgets to file them off!

[nolabels]

9. LOL

:D

[daleo]

8. I expect there will be a link to Iran or Syria claimed eventually.

The story has been changed twice (from not high explosives to high explosives, and from not simultaneous to simultaneous). I can't help but think the facts are being framed around a developing policy. Regardless of who actually planted the bombs, the events will be used to advance neo-con policy.

I will take half a tin-foil hat.

[deacon2]

13. No tin-foil required

This has been the quickest "facts" shift since 9/11 in terms of damage control and being told what we're "seeing." But what I'm seeing is what you're seeing too - facts being framed around the policy. The first reports had the explosions further apart on the timeline and the orientation was assumed to be remote detonation from OUTSIDE the cars, which would hold with the relatively small number of casualties (I'm not saying they aren't horrific or don't count, like that moron Limbaugh). If the explosions emanated from inside the cars, would there not have been many more fatalities from shock waves alone? It is difficult to comprehend the sheer force of an explosion inside a sealed system like a train. Add in the remarkable COINCIDENCE of the "bomb exercise" at precisely the same time - just like 9/11 with the hijack simulation - and you have to set the Reynolds wrap aside and seriously consider heading down to the shelter. Permanently.

[Fleshdancer]

10. Looks like the Times Online agrees:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1690391,00.html

Terrorist gang 'used military explosives'
By Michael Evans, Sean O’Neill and Philip Webster

A SINGLE bombmaker using high-grade military explosives is believed to be responsible for building the four devices that killed more than 50 people last week, The Times can reveal.

Similar components from the explosive devices have been found at all four murder sites, leading detectives to believe that each of the 10lb rucksack bombs was the work of one man. They also believe that the materials used were not home made but sophisticated military explosives, possibly smuggled into Britain from the Balkans.

“The nature of the explosives appears to be military, which is very worrying,” said Superintendent Christophe Chaboud, the chief of the French anti-terrorist police, who was in London to help Scotland Yard.

[nolabels]

11. The line "smuggled into Britain from the Balkans" would indicate..........

They are losing ground somewhere, thought they wanted to blame Al-cac-ca or something. Maybe some have fingered a few guys with lighter skin tones as planters of one or more of the devices. Got to get that word 'muslim' in there some where don't ya know.

In the Oklahoma City bombing there were FOUR trucks with explosives but they fingering just two guys, go figure

[Pallas180]

12. Funny you mention OK bombing, cause

if they said it was "military issue" explosives or something like that

why couldn't it have been ex soldiers (brit) who served in Iraq,(ala McVeigh) the same way we have muslim american soldiers and that's how they happen to have military explosives?

of course, it could have been what "http://prison planet" suggests -

or it could be for real.

Shows just how much trust the people have for their governments,
doesn't it?

[nolabels]

14. Oh boy, that is a very interesting angle of thought

They say the more time passes the harder to solve the crime with these circumstances. Sick minds no doubt but what helped them get that way and what is the real motive behind it would be my questions.

Thinking about it though, what kind of reason would a ordinary military guy have for blowing up people for the country he serves?

The whole thing does say a lot though, sophisticated bombs, little or no evidence of the on site perpetrators and military issued explosives. Also strange timing and circumstances for the incidents.

[Pallas180]

15. Motive given by GOP's Rasputin:

Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburg
meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss
delegate to the meeting.


"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful.

This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil.

The one thing every man fears is the unknown.

When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."

[nolabels]

16. The same chump who said power is an aphrodisiac

Like screw that load a whale shit in the ear already. The world is a much more complex place than when the fool grew up and it's about time put all them kind of wet dreams to bed. We all may get a world government but it will be mostly to keep check on mass-murderers of his ilk. In true fashion most conservatives are afraid of (the change) of the unknown. Often it makes more work for the conservative, building up their walls, barricades and such.

Better to die free, fighting on ones feet, than of starvation begging on ones knees. Some may be weak, but not everybody.

That vacuum created by secrecy that existed in the last century is closing up rapidly. The only way they can hope keep that space in the vacuum open is through engineered chaos, which is not real chaos at all.

The politics of fear is a card that is losing it's credit and the more they try to inflate it, the faster it deflates. Humans greatest asset and what sets them apart more than anything else is their ability to adapt and over come their circumstances, the need to be free in short.

When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." is statement of appeasement from an apologizer. That kind apolitical place no longer exists

Frankly I think they picked the wrong people and city to bomb if they wanted to make people fearful.