Friday, August 18, 2006

Can ordinary household liquids be easily mixed together to make a bomb?

Craig Muray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, has another article about the alleged plot to blow up airplanes with liquid explosives:
This brings us to one particuarly sinister aspect of the allegations - that the bombs were to be made on the plane.

The idea that high explosive can be made quickly in a plane toilet by mixing at room temperature some nail polish remover, bleach, and Red Bull and giving it a quick stir, is nonsense. Yes, liquid explosives exist and are highly dangerous and yes, airports are ill equipped to detect them at present. Yes, it is true they have been used on planes before by terrorists. But can they be quickly manufactured on the plane? No.

The sinister aspect is not that this is a real new threat. It is that the allegation may have been concocted in order to prepare us for arresting people without any actual bombs.

Let me fess up here. I have just checked, and our flat contains nail polish remover, sports drinks, and a variety of household cleaning products. Also MP3 players and mobile phones. So the authorities could announce - as they have whispered to the media in this case - that potential ingredients of a liquid bomb, and potential timing devices, have been discovered. It rather lowers the bar, doesn't it?
Read the entire article

2 comments:

Saul said...

Here are another couple of interesting articles related to this case.

Pakistanis find no evidence against ‘terror mastermind’

22:46pm 19th August 2006

The Briton alleged to be the ‘mastermind’ behind the airline terror plot could be innocent of any significant involvement, sources close to the investigation claim.

Rashid Rauf, whose detention in Pakistan was the trigger for the arrest of 23 suspects in Britain, has been accused of taking orders from Al Qaeda’s ‘No3’ in Afghanistan and sending money back to the UK to allow the alleged bombers to buy plane tickets.

But after two weeks of interrogation, an inch-by-inch search of his house and analysis of his home computer, officials are now saying that his extradition is ‘a way down the track’ if it happens at all.

It comes amid wider suspicions that the plot may not have been as serious, or as far advanced, as the authorities initially claimed.

Analysts suspect Pakistani authorities exaggerated Rauf’s role to appear ‘tough on terrorism’ and impress Britain and America.

....

William Blum has an article listing a number of "bogus "terror plots" announced by the Bush administration over the past few years.

Dave Barrett said...

saul,
Thank you for keeping us apprised of what the corporate media is not telling us about this case.

It sounds as though the case may fall apart more quickly than it at first appeared. Of course, if the arrested are innocent of any wrong-doing even a week or two of imprisonment is inexcuseable, but at least they will not have been throw in jail for years like some innocents caugut up in the so-called "War on Terrorism."