A New Terror Threat (explosive floating beer coolers)

[PfcHammer]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040705-658292,00.html

A New Terror Threat
This holiday, watch out for those floating beer coolers
By ELAINE SHANNON
Sunday, Jun. 27, 2004

...

Along with this now familiar general warning, the FBI has introduced the specter of a new terrorism threat: booby-trapped beer coolers. A lightly classified bulletin sent to 18,000 state and local agencies last week advised local authorities to look out for plastic-foam containers, inner tubes and other waterborne flotsam commonly seen around marinas that could be rigged to blow up on contact. Also, the bulletin warned, terrorists might attach bombs to buoys. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials say no such devices have actually been discovered, nor is there any current intelligence that terrorists are hatching plots involving floating bombs. But some officials believe al-Qaeda may be focusing on harbors and shipping channels in an effort to replicate the success of the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden, in which suicide bombers used a small launch laden with explosives to rip a 40-ft. hole in the warship's hull, killing 17 sailors.

[Cheneys_former_heart]

1. Time to "fear up" the Bubbas of the country

If we have exploding Pabst Blue Ribbon beers floating around what has the world come to?

[struggle4progress]

2. Great use of tax dollars: Imagine new terrorist gambits, then publicize!

[Yogi]

3. All fear all the time!

Be on the lookout! This is almost laughable!!

[Tosca]

4. The Onion? Satire?

Sounds like something the wags at The Onion would cook up.

[amazona]

5. they have been found in lake ponchartrain near the causeway

I don't have the links but they found two of these devices in the lake a couple, three months ago or so. They were like pipe bombs but floating because of the coolers. They did not go off, they were seen and recovered before they could hit the Causeway, but they were floating around there during morning commute hours. I was surprised at the time that more wasn't made of this -- they downplayed the danger and said the devices most likely wouldn't have damaged the Causeway or created a major explosion.

This would be the lake near New Orleans, and the Causeway is a 24 mile bridge over that lake.

I'm really not sure if the story got any internet play or if it was just a local news item.

But, yeah, sure, these kind of bombs exist. Just don't know what you could possibly do about them except phone them in if you see one.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Some links to the Lake Pontchartrain story

Homemade bomb fished from Lake Pontchartrain 4/22/04
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/042204/new_pontchbomb001.shtml

Homemade bomb found in Lake Pontchartrain
http://hullabaloo.tulane.org/story.php?sid=2621§ion=news&date=20040430

Officials found a homemade bomb floating in Lake Pontchartrain April 21. The bomb was discovered by members of a tugboat crew, who immediately reported it to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard then called in the Jefferson Parish sheriff's office, who safely detonated the bomb. The sheriff's office was unsure of the bomb's purpose, as it was too crudely constructed to be the work of a terrorist, yet was strong enough to severely damage a boat if hit. Officials are also unsure whether the bomb was placed in the water or dropped from the Causeway bridge.


Sounds Like Nothing:
http://whopundit.blogspot.com/2004_04_18_whopundit_archive.html

I'm not sure why the local media didn't at least comment upon this, but it looks like my initial worries about John Kerry's New Orleans trip were groundless. Local writer Paul Greenberg tells me:

Actually the bomb was in Lake Pontchartrain and Kerry was not scheduled to be in that area at all. He was on a waterway in Louisiana today in a boat, but not even remotely near where the bomb was. As for the bomb, it has been labeled "amateurish" and "crudely made," a product of all home-made materials. It was fueled by gunpowder. So, when they recovered the bomb from the water and accidentally blew it up on the deck of a coast guard ship, it did almost no damage at all. It would seem there is no connection between Kerry's presence in the city and the bomb in the lake.

AND
more following the above WHOPUNDIT story above...


Happy Start-The-Fear-Factor-Mongering Fourth!
...and for the rest of us...Happy Independence Day! O8)

[amazona]

19. thanks, links much appreciated

Clearly there were some errors in my recollection of events.

At the time I wondered if some of the local teens had been playing a prank. In years gone by we've had mailboxes blown up by pipe bombs and that sort of thing but it had quieted down after 9-11 when such traditional pranks no longer looked so amusing.

[struggle4progress]

21. Well, I'm confused again:

The "sheriff's office .. safely detonated the bomb" and "accidentally blew it up on the deck of a coast guard ship," where "it did almost no damage at all," despite being "strong enough to severely damage a boat."

If I find a bomb, I guess I won't be calling the Jefferson Parish sheriff's office for help: my notion "safely" carries a meaning different from "accidently" or "almost no damage." Did the professionals in the sheriff's office also determine that the bomb was "strong enough"?

[amazona]

23. i wouldn't call jeff parish to tinkle on a campfire...

...just be glad no one was hurt in this debacle.

[sandnsea]

34. Exploding Whale

Yes, you should be careful who you call to blow up what and where!

http://www.snopes.com/critters/disposal/whale.htm

I love to live in the town famous for the exploding whale. :eyes:

[struggle4progress]

35. Yow! It sounds like Homeland Security needs a color code ...

indicating a whale on the beach near Florence.

[Tosca]

8. Sure these bombs exist...

But I don't think Osama and Co. would waste time with something like this. They like spectacular results.

This smells homegrown to me, if indeed, it's true.

[burrowowl]

15. Pipe Bombs!

A piss poor way of doing anything. They consist of stuffing matchheads into a thin-walled pipe.
Plastics or dynamite plus a motion sensitive detonator I could understand.
PIPE BOMBS!? Hell gangster type used them in the '50s and I knew a non-gangster teenager at the time who was a bit off who blew severval fingers off both hands making one. Stuffing matchheads in a small container is not a good idea.

[HereSince1628]

6. I just erased what I was about to say...

although I've been working on the novel for months, I am not wanting to lose my hard disk to the FBI!!!!!!!

[havocmom]

9. But they wanna go ahead with the "Star Wars' satellite missile defense

program... We are facing killer styrofoam boxes and they wanna write checks to their buddies for satellites with missile killer beams which so far don't seem to work well.

Terrorists don't need to break a sweat. We are doing ourselves in with out gullibility.

[peterh]

10. Oh the horror….

[Tosca]

13. Terraista! Terraista!

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

[ParanoidPat]

18. They said BOMBS not BUMS!

Geesh! :eyes: Although they might be bombed. :evilgrin:

[riverwalker]

11. Citizens Alert!

Be on the lookout for beer coolers on the 4th of July weekend! Report anyone seen with a beer cooler at your local beaches, picnic areas, and fishing boats to the authorities! If you see anyone with a beer cooler call 911 immediately, and be sure to mention that John Ashcroft told you to. It is your duty to protect our freedoms.
That is all. :evilgrin:
:smoke:

[Obamarama]

12. Like the commentary in Farenheit 9/11 said.....

If you scare people, you can get them to do/believe anything.

Do you find this warning the least bit suspicious considering:

- We are on the cusp of the biggest summer holiday and Red, White and Blue fest in the country - July 4.

- Multitudes will be flocking to state parks, national parks, lakes,oceans, rivers, beaches, etc...

The message is simple: beware...your neighbor's cooler could be the WMD we are looking for.

Oy fucking vey. Just when you think you've seen/heard it all.

[The Commie]

16. Of course it is suspicious.

Asscrap's scrare mongering, as usual.

:grr:

[Kinkistyle]

31. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to confiscate all your beer and pretzels.

Sorry sir, I'm a card-carrying member of the Homeland Security T.I.P.S. program, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate your beer cooler and all the beer inside of it. While you're at it, thrown in the pretzels too - those things are dangerous.

[TahitiNut]

14. It's because of those scuba divers from last year.

:eyes:

[daleo]

17. At this very moment

Terrorists could be filling balloons with dangerous helium gas (a material known to be associated with nuclear reactions). These balloons may even end up in the hands of innocent children. Run for your life!

[burrowowl]

20. OMG!

Don't go to parties with ballooons!
Image tricking children into being TERRAISTS!
OMG!

LOL!

[Don_G]

22. They're Selling Dangerous Ammunition Too

[Just Me]

24. Which "terrorists" would that be: domestic or other?

There have been 23X more domestic acts of terror in the USA than other acts of terror.

If another American extremist succeeds in a terror act,...must we prepare for martial law and,...bombing of Kansas or Texas or West Virginia,...or what?

[fishnfla]

25. 'flotsam' made a news story!

that alone is worth the price of admission! This is just too funny!

[Cocoa]

26. also beware suicide beer hats

[Kitsune]

27. So we're supposed to ph34r the b33r? *nt*

[Nlighten1]

28. Get out your duct tape and plastic!

It is the only thing that will save you from this horror!

[despairing optimist]

29. Does this mean that my rubber ducky could be booby-trapped?!

From now on, it's showers only. It's a matter of national security.

Does anyone know what color code this warning falls under?

[psychopomp]

30. What about the scuba bombers?

S-c-a-a-a-r-y.

But seriously, the biggest threat to ordinary people is probably shopping malls (chemical bomb/gas), but you don't hear anybody telling you to stay away from those, do you?

[PartyPooper]

32. surfboards, sailboats, and jet skis are ALL dangerous WMD's!

Somebody, please protect me from those evil-doers on the high seas!

:scared:

[pinniped]

33. Hey what kind of beef does Al Qaeda have against pinnipeds?

Because if they rig buoys with bombs our ocean dwelling friends will be the first to make headlines.:(

[democracy eh]

36. A New Terror Threat (explosive garden gnomes)

ahh the ridiculous

they now have Mad Magazine writers working at Homeland Security