Detroit Explosive Common, Easily Detectible

[Purveyor]

(12-27) 16:52 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The explosive device used by the would-be Detroit bomber contained a widely available — and easily detected — chemical explosive that has a long history of terrorist use, according to government officials and explosive experts.

The chemical — PETN — is small, powerful and appealing to terrorists. The Saudi government said it was used in an assassination attempt on the country's counterterrorism operations chief in August

---CLIP---
PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert. It's also used in military devices and found in blasting caps. It's the high explosive of choice because it is stable and safe to handle, but it requires a primary explosive to detonate it, he said.

Crippin and law enforcement officials said modern airport screening machines could have detected the chemical. Airport "puffer" machines — the devices that blow air onto a passenger to collect and analyze residues — would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab.

However, most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/27/national/w133438S17.DTL#ixzz0axTB57VF

[pnwmom]

1. "would probably" doesn't translate to "easily detected."

I've read elsewhere that the machines currently available aren't that reliable. State of the art is a trained dog, but we don't have nearly enough of them.

[Warpy]

2. Right, and Nigeria is still a poor country

without the infrastructure to support either.

[Romulox]

3. Unrec. for a bullshit headline (as well as copy.)

"Detroit Explosive"? :puke:

[clear eye]

4. "Chemical screeners". No xray virtual strip machines necessary.

That's what I wondered about in my reply to the first DU post on this terrorist. Thanks for confirming what I suspected. Why aren't we all required to walk through chemical screening machines? We should be writing to the DHS and the WH w/ that question.

[amborin]

5. the Puffer machines are $$$$, even Schipfol only has a few, not enuf to thoroughly screen n/t