Re: Shoe bomb and how to defeat spyware

[Ken Brown]

http://www.idaho-post.org/Special_Notices/homemade_explosive.htm implies
that triacetone triperoxide can be home-made, and has intriguing
reference to ping pong balls dissolved in acetone. Interestingly,
despite scare stories, a simple google search doesn't turn up details on
how to make the stuff (neither does the Science Citation Index, which
might have been a better bet, though I imagine anyone with access to a
University library could get the information)

It also says that police in Quebec have orders to withdraw immediately
if  hydrogen peroxide, acetone and sulphuric acid are found in a
building, because it is used as a booby trap by illegal hemp growers.
Obvious cross-link to the other thread abut physical security here. IT
seems TATP is the chemical of choice for the sort of thing some posters
were thinking about.

And google has just told me that the husband of a colleague of mine has
published a paper on PETN - thousands of tons of which are apparently
manufactured every year and used in industry and medicine (it is a
vasodilator and cardioactive drug). So it might not be too difficult to
find that for sale.

So the argument that he wasn't acting alone boils down to we think he
was too stupid to think it up or else we want you to think there are
lots of conspiracies so you give us lots of money to investigate them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1631000/1631755.stm
is the BBC report of an appeal by two Palestinians who are in jail in
London for (amongst other things) making bombs out of TATP in London in
1994, there is a website about the court case at:
http://www.freesaj.org.uk/Appeal01_judgement.htm

Of course maybe the stuff really is hard to make  the Canadian police
are dealing with unusually sophisticated drug dealers and hemp growers.
I think Reid lived in South London, as do I. (he attended Brixton mosque
for a while). Of course there are no drug dealers or hemp growers in
South London. Really. Honestly. And the shop in my neighbourhood that
sells hydroponic kits is frequented only by little old ladies with
serious orchid collections.  

Ken

Eugene Leitl wrote:

[...]

 
 The following article is pretty unsettling, in that it makes the case that
   - the technique is carefully thought out, and
   - there will be more of these attacks, and
   - there aren't good ways to stop them.
 
 -Olin
 
 ---
 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/06/MN222117.DTL
 Shoe-bomb flight -- a trial run?
 U.S., British officials fear similar attacks in the works
 Simon Reeve, Special to The Chronicle

[...]

 These bombs are sophisticated devices, said the British intelligence
 official. They would have been difficult and dangerous to produce. Reid could
 not have done this himself -- he would have trouble tying his own shoelaces.
 It seems we may have an expert bomb maker on the loose in Europe.

Re: Shoe bomb and how to defeat spyware

[Eugene Leitl]

On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, Ken Brown wrote:

 that triacetone triperoxide can be home-made, and has intriguing

HMDT is another alternative. Really fun to work with:

Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics
Subject: Re: HMDT
Date: 10 Mar 92 04:53:20 GMT
Organization: Tampere Univ. of Technology, Finland.
:
:
  Well, I put a small piece of HMTD into a brick, and hitted it with a
hammer, and it didn't detonate. I also tried a 'spark-test' from a
lighter, and didn't managed to detonate HMTD. ( Indeed in ntp, and in
normal condition, HMTD wont detonate If you light it, It'll burn like
cellulose nitrate - with a yellow flame. Well, I was more than
Happy to see, That I'd found A PERFECT Primary-explosive to detonate
high-explosives.
  Well At the July of 1989 It happened, I was damping HMTD into a .22
LR copper cartridge, with a standart match, you see holding that
cartridge in my left hand ,when it suddendly detonated, A HUGE explosion,
and I found that for some reason, my hand was bleeding abt 1/2 liter
of blood per min ( 1/9 gallon per min ) , and I could see my bone
'shining' through scraped human tissue.

   Epiloque. Never NEVER load B-caps in your hand, Always use special
tamping device when loading Blasting caps - any other use for HMTD is
silly - Believe me, I had hitted HMTD with a Hammer, It didn't
detonate, and now, when I try to load that stuff from same batch into
a copper container, It detonates, even I press with maybe 1/2 kg
( = 1 pound ) force it.
   Maybe the batch was impure, but believe me, It really explode
without no reason. I must say that HMTD is a good explosive, but It's
truly unpredictable. I'm sure that there are many others in this
newsgroup who can tell the same thing - months of hard handling, and
then, a explosion by a minumum force.
:
:

 reference to ping pong balls dissolved in acetone. Interestingly,

They're made (or used to be made until very recently) from celluloid,
nitrocellulose of low degree of nitration plasticized with camphor. It is
soluble in acetone, but diethylether/ethanol is a better solvent. I don't
see this being anything else than binder, stabilizer or desensibilizer for
the organic peroxides/PETN.

 despite scare stories, a simple google search doesn't turn up details
 on how to make the stuff (neither does the Science Citation Index,
 which might have been a better bet, though I imagine anyone with
 access to a University library could get the information)

A simple Google search should pull up dozens of links on how to make it.

Don't. If you don't know how to make it, it means you can't handle it
safely. Quantities of organic peroxides in novice's hands will quickly
make them missing digits, or Worse. Organic peroxides are much too
instable to be safely worked with, period.

 And google has just told me that the husband of a colleague of mine
 has published a paper on PETN - thousands of tons of which are
 apparently manufactured every year and used in industry and medicine
 (it is a vasodilator and cardioactive drug). So it might not be too
 difficult to find that for sale.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sci/chem-faq/part3/section-2.html
See: 13.8 What is the chemical structure of common explosives?

-- Eugen* Leitl a href=http://leitl.org;leitl/a
__
ICBMTO: N48 04'14.8'' E11 36'41.2'' http://www.leitl.org
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