• British authorities say they have disrupted a massive, imminent midair terror plot involving suicide bombers carrying liquid explosives in their carry-on baggage on U.K.-to-U.S. commercial flights. “Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale,” says Scotland Yard.
• According to Sky News, the plot involved six planes. Earlier reports had said “as many as 20 planes” were involved. Scotland Yard would not confirm the number of planes. The planes were to be blown up en route to America (or possibly “over UK and US cities,” according to one early report).
• Fox News reports that a knowledgeable U.S. official says this plot had a “serious Al Qaeda connection.”
• Police know of specific flights on which the terrorists were booked, according to Sky. “They were not yet sitting on an airplane, but they were very close to travelling,” says a U.S. intelligence official, according to Fox.
• 21 would-be terrorists were arrested overnight in London. At least 2 others are still at-large, possibly “many others,” according to Fox. “We believe that these arrests have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted,” says Michael Chertoff. (Here is the full Homeland Security statement.) The arrested individuals are British-born young male Muslims, possibly of Pakistani origin, according to Sky.
• The U.K. is at its highest terror alert level, indicating an “imminent” threat. The U.S. terror threat level has been raised to red for flights from Britain to the United States, and to orange for all U.S. domestic, U.S.-bound international, and U.S.-to-U.K. flights. It is the first time the U.S. terror level has ever reached “red” for any part of the country.
• Because the plot involved “liquid chemical devices” to be smuggled on board via carry-on bags, incredibly strict new security measures have been instituted in Britain. Virtually no carry-on baggage is being allowed on board flights in Britain. Electronic devices, e.g. iPods, are reportedly banned and must be checked as luggage. What few items are allowed, reportedly must be carried in transparent bags. Because of the unprecedented security measures, there are extremely long lines and massive, crippling delays at British airports. All in-bound flights to Heathrow have been cancelled if they are not currently in the air. Many airlines and airports elsewhere are cancelling all flights to the U.K., and British passengers are asked not to come to the airport “unless absolutely necessary.” Heathrow is a madhouse.
• Some of the new security measures are being instituted in the U.S. as well. Virtually all liquids are being banned from all planes. The only exception is for baby formula, and it is allowed only if the parent drinks some of it him/herself, in front of a security agent, to prove that it’s not a liquid explosive (!!). According to the TSA:
NO LIQUIDS OR GELS OF ANY KIND WILL BE PERMITTED IN CARRY ON BAGGAGE. ITEMS MUST BE IN CHECKED BAGGAGE. This includes all beverages, shampoo, sun tan lotion, creams, tooth paste, hair gel, and other items of similar consistency.
Exception: Baby formula and medicines must be presented for inspection at the checkpoint.
Beverages purchased in the boarding area (beyond the checkpoint) must be consumed before boarding because they will not be permitted on board the aircraft.
• Prediction: this will have long-term ramifications for airline passengers, much like the “shoe bomber” case did. Obviously the strictest of these emergency measures cannot remain in place indefinitely, but security measures for carry-on baggage will be more stringent for the foreseeable future. (The publicly-drinking-baby-formula thing, however, will not last.)
NOTE: This post was originally published at 10:22 PM; it was bumped to top of homepage at 12:17 AM. The original post, and sequential updates, are after the jump.
***** ORIGINAL POST & SEQUENTIAL UPDATES BELOW *****
BBC Breaking News alert: “Anti-terror police in the UK say they have foiled a plot to blow up aircraft mid-flight with devices hidden in hand luggage.”
UPDATE: Details here:
A terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage.
Hmm. Sounds kinda like the plot that Richard Reid was an advance scout for… except with carry-on bags instead of shoes. Anyway, the article continues:
Police have arrested about 18 people in the London area after an anti-terrorist operation lasting several months.
Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical - the highest possible.
According to MI5’s website, critical threat level means “an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK”.
Confirming the perceived seriousness of the threat, the security measures they’re taking are very drastic:
Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.
Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.
“We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only,” the statement said.
Yikes.
UPDATE 2: The Guardian has more, including additional details on the newly enacted security measures.
This is also now CNN’s top story, though no e-mail breaking-news alert has been sent out.
The 24-hour news networks are all over it, and now it’s finally Drudge’s top story, with red text. (Took him a while, by Drudge standards.)
UPDATE 3: Sky News: “Police say they have disrupted a major plot to blow as many as 20 planes over UK and US cities with explosive devices smuggled aboard as hand luggage.” Jesus H. Christ! Well, that explains why they’re going to high alert for an “imminent” attack. They’ve arrested a bunch of people, but there could be others still out there, if the plot is that massive.
Nothing much yet from the blogosphere, but I expect Malkin to be all over this when she wakes up.
UPDATE, 12:04 AM: The plot was expected to cause “considerable loss of life,” says Britain’s home secretary.
“Could have been bigger than 9/11,” says the Fox News anchor.
Fox News TV reports that now the U.S. government has also raised its alert level to the highest level — red alert — specifically for commercial flights flying between Britain and the United States. The overall national threat level remains the same.
U.S. airlines will soon be implementing the “no hand luggage” rules for flights to U.K. as well, according to Fox.
UPDATE, 12:25 AM: Brussels airport has cancelled all flights to Britain. Massive lines at U.K. airports because of stringent security measures.
Long term, this is going to seriously f**k air travel. Just like Richard Reid forced us all to take off our shoes at the airport, this is going to result in seriously enhanced carry-on security measures. The current emergency measures in Britain are of course unsustainable in the long term, or even the medium term, but I think we will definitely see more stringent bag checks, longer lines, etc. in the coming days and weeks, which will ultimately, in some watered-down form, become part of the “new normal.”
UPDATE, 12:31 AM: ALL LIQUIDS BANNED FROM AIRLINES in the United States — including beverages, hair gels and lotions.
UPDATE, 12:52 AM: Now Sky News sources are saying “all those arrested were British Muslims.” Conflicting reports about whether there were 10-12 or up to 20 people arrested. Police are still looking for two more terrorists. They were all booked on consecutive flights heading out from London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester airports. They were operating in cells.
The entire U.K. is now closed to all inbound flights!
UPDATE, ~1:00 AM: British police say the scale of the plot, if executed successfully, “would have surpassed 9/11.” But Sky News is now reporting that only six flights were involved, so that seems wrong, at least in terms of the numerical death toll.
UPDATE, 1:11 AM: Sky News is calling the heightened security measures “unprecedented,” even including the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Mothers are being asked to publicly drink their baby’s formula to prove that it’s really not a deadly liquid chemical. (Prediction: that particular security measure won’t last long.)
UPDATE, 1:17 AM: Fox says the plot was in the works for 8 or 9 months.
UPDATE. 1:32 AM: Fox News is reporting that “dozens” of would-be terrorists have been arrested — perhaps as many as 50 — according to an intelligence official. The plot had “a footprint to Al Qaeda,” the official says.
UPDATE, 1:52 AM: Scotland Yard holding a press conference
“Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”
[added later] “We have been very successful in arresting those we were targeting but this is a lengthy operation, and no doubt there will be further developments … We think this was an extraordinarily serious plot.”
“We are confident that we’ve prevented” the plot from going forward, apparently imminently (though he didn’t say that outright). But he says he can’t give very many other details at this point, e.g. the number of planes, whether the terrorists are “homegrown,” etc.
“The action being taken, which is causing severe disruption, is absolutely necessary.”
UPDATE, 2:05 AM: Bush & Blair have known about the plot for quite a while — at least 10 days, probably more — according to Fox/Sky.
Scotland Yard says there were 21 arrests, mostly in London, but some in the Thames Valley and Birmingham. Arrests began last night.
FINAL UPDATE, 2:10 AM: Unfortunately, I have work in the morning, so I have to stop blogging this story now. I also will not be able to update it much, if at all, during the work day tomorrow. If anyone reading this post is in a position to continue blogging this story throughout the day, and would like to sign up as a guestblogger, please e-mail me at (address removed).
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Categories: Terrorism & Homeland Security, Ireland & the U.K.
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August 10th, 2006 at 12:45:39 am
BBC Radio 4 is reporting that ALL electronic devices are banned on UK flights. Which means people must leave their iPods, computers, etc at the airport if they wish to board their flight.
Good job on your summary of events.
August 10th, 2006 at 12:45:51 am
So hard to know what to make of this. Maybe the security services really have just stopped a seriously evil plot. But from a government that has cried wolf so often in the past, who knows whether the whole thing isn’t just some massive PR exercise?
August 10th, 2006 at 1:45:09 am
[…] mela at Atlas Shrugs, Dread Pundit Bluto, High Country Conservative, Brea Canyon Monument, Irish Trojan, and Riehl World View. UPDATE 4: Al-Reuters wastes no time in tryi […]
August 10th, 2006 at 4:50:11 am
Brendan - nice work! I’ve searched the web this early morning and overnight, and your roundup is likely the best. Thanks!
August 10th, 2006 at 5:01:54 am
I’ve searched the web this early morning and overnight, and your roundup is likely the best.
I don’t know, the round-ups on CNN.com, Foxnews.com, Nytimes.com, and Washingtonpost.com seemed much more thorough and were actually being updated continuously throughout the night.
August 10th, 2006 at 5:11:57 am
Adam, don’t be a putz.
August 10th, 2006 at 5:14:47 am
Adam, it’s unthinkable that this level of heightened security - this level of inconvenience bordering on bringing air travel to a virtual standstill - could be a PR stunt. At minimum, Britain believes, and US intelligence confirms the belief, that something very huge and very hard to catch was about to go down.
August 10th, 2006 at 5:50:55 am
“At minimum, Britain believes, ”
Good grief! Yesterday, The Home Secretary (he’s the guy all over the TV screens today) made a speech stating that we need to give up some of our freedoms in hte UK in order to beat terrorism.
Today, they announce a plot which they state they’ve know about for months. They also severely tighten security at the airports at the same time as they claim to have captured everybody.
I’m normally pretty level headed and no prone to conspiracy stories but this one smells to high heaven.
Just try reading around the UK blogs. Almost no one believes a single word of it.
August 10th, 2006 at 6:32:15 am
Ahh, election season in the states again. Or as Doonesbury put it two years ago, the terror alert level has been raised to, “Severe: Severe risk of losing the election”
I mean, I’m fighting this degree of cynicism, but the truth gap with the Bush administration, well it is rather difficult to believe these guys anymore. It might be true, but it also might not we won’t know until some time after 7 November…
August 10th, 2006 at 6:55:19 am
So the UK is arresting 21 people because it’s election season in the US. It fits together so perfectly. Glad I read the brilliant thoughts among the comments on this blog.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:05:14 am
My wife (an occasional air traveller) flew out of our mid-size midwestern city this morning, on a journey to another mid-size US city.
The security was IMMENSE. Security delays were long but not outrageous; largely because every inspection terminal was in use.
She arrived at the airport 1:20 minutes before a domestic flight and barely got on, even with security running full bore.
Oh, and, BTW - she called me to let me know she got on the plane.
From the plane.
On her cell phone.
Even with the massive security in the building.
dcl, I may be thinking similar thoughts today…
August 10th, 2006 at 7:13:55 am
Guys -
For those questioning the timing, there are people under arrest. Be skeptical if you like, by all means, but if the only thing you got making you skeptical is timing, than perhaps your being a bit cynical.
And dcl, this is the BRITISH government that caught the suspects. Not the Bush Administration. Different country, ya see. And its not like terrorist attacks DON’T happen during election years. Talk to Spain on that matter.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:20:23 am
If the terrorists succeed in destroying an airplane, commenters here will no doubt explain that it occurred because the Administration wasted its efforts in Iraq instead of stopping Al-Qaeda. Or allowed it to happen to influence an election in the US. Or the UK. Or both. Or all three. Or something else altogether. I’ve become just a bit cynical myself … about the conspiratorial “explanations,” that is. Talk about crying wolf.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:32:32 am
This sounds like a legitimate threat to me. However, the only election-type grand-standing I have seen so far is from Mitt Romney, who has already held a bunch of press conferences and who is calling up the National Guard. I don’t see that shit happening in New York, Virginia, etc. Could it be ol’ Mitt is planning on running for something in, I don’t know, two years?
August 10th, 2006 at 7:37:02 am
Jay-
Regarding your comment, this is apparently the same plot Al Qaeda tried in 1995 over the Pacific. If this is the case, I think it is reprehensible that the authorities have ignored for five years the fact that terrorists knew how to mix liquid explosives that are undetectable by TSA and they have done nothing to put in safeguards to prevent these kinds of explosives getting through airport security.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:50:11 am
MSNBC is reporting that an attempt to hijack a Qatar airliner has been foiled. If this is true, the plot could be much bigger than originally thought.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:50:51 am
Whatever. Bush is the real terrorist. This is just a PR stunt, and these poor suspects’ civil liberties were violated to just to take attention away from Bush’s falling poll numbers. Or Blair’s. Doesn’t matter, I hate them both. And is it just coincidence that this “plot” was uncovered days after Lieberman lost to Lamont? Man, I suck.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:53:23 am
Partisan Putz-
Yeah. Nothing like “if you don’t blindly support everything Bush says or does, you are a blame-America firster.”
Yep. Those Dems are so partisan and those Republicans are just so misunderstood.
August 10th, 2006 at 8:30:56 am
Max -
Astute observation on Romney.
On the previous ‘95 attempt, the structure of the plot was similar, but with what I have read, it sounds like the actually materials are not.
For those who are curious, the ‘95 attempt was to have terrorist catch flights headed to US from foreign countries. BUT, all the flights had a layover in some asia country somewhere. Terrorist catches the first leg of the flight. Assembles the bomb (its in 2-3 components) and stashes it on the flight (plan was in life preservers I believe).
Then, when they hit the layover, the leave, catch a flight back to whatever country they came from and continue. That way, they don’t need a american visa or passport.
I do not know if liquid explosives were used in that plot though, but that was not my impression.
August 10th, 2006 at 8:33:43 am
Yeah, they SHUT DOWN HEATHROW as a PR exercise. That darn Rove!
August 10th, 2006 at 8:38:05 am
Explosives in shampoo bottles? I understand Homeland Security has put out a new poster for “Enemy Number One”…
http://www.eringray.com/images/jpgs/Erin-Gray-Breck-girl-640.jpg
August 10th, 2006 at 8:42:26 am
LOL Ted Stevens -
That Farrah swoop hairstyle could hold untold number of explosive devices.
August 10th, 2006 at 8:52:40 am
Nothings says exploding liquid like a young Erin Gray. Mmmmm.
August 10th, 2006 at 8:54:55 am
At least a America can now look to the fearless leadership of Ned Lamont in these trying times. Lead us to safety Ned!
August 10th, 2006 at 8:54:59 am
Max -
I stand corrected:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14280416/page/2/
“As part of the foiled Bojinka Plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1990s, terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef planned to put together an improvised bomb using liquid in a contact lens solution container.”
From the same MSNBC story:
“In June 1995, U.S. and Filipino authorities uncovered a plot very similar to the one revealed Thursday in the U.K.
In that plot, called the “Bojinka Plot,� bombs were to be placed aboard 11 jumbo jets and detonated by timing devices as the planes flew over the Pacific Ocean, killing an estimated 4,000 people.
Most of the jets were to be American carriers and most of the dead would have been Americans.
The bombs were small, using a Casio watch as a timer and contact lens bottles filled with nitroglycerine. They were to be secreted behind the wall panels in the plane’s lavatory.
The bombs would have been timed to go off over a number of hours to heighten the terror.
The plan, also called the “Day of Hate,� was conceived by Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing, and his uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11.
Only a fire in Yousef’s Manila apartment thwarted it. Mohammed later modified the plan, took it to Osama bin Laden, and it became the blueprint for the 9/11 attacks.”
August 10th, 2006 at 8:58:17 am
Some more partizan putzes, and this crap isn’t tongue in cheek:
“As I write, I can hear from my kitchen the media blare about the “plotters” arrested in London. Let’s try not to forget that we have our own half-mad plottersâ€â€?with names like Cheney, Hadley, Libby, Perle, Wolfowitz, and Abramsâ€â€?and that it is thanks to their peculiar madness (and blindness) that we now live in a far more dangerous world than we would be living had we faced the future with intelligence and candor following 9-11.”
Al Qaeda’s Predictable Return to the Stage: You Can Thank Dick Cheney
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-laarman/al-qaedas-predictable-re_b_26938.html
August 10th, 2006 at 9:23:07 am
Godwin’s law is alive and well on the HuffPo too (as if there was any doubt).
August 10th, 2006 at 9:27:00 am
From a 2005 GAO audit of Homeland Security regarding implementation of 9/11 Commission recommendations…
“For example, TSA delayed the development of a device to detect weapons, liquid explosives, and flammables in containers found in carry-on baggage or passengers’ effects, as well as the development and testing of a walkthrough
portal for detecting traces of explosives on passengers.”
August 10th, 2006 at 9:28:55 am
This is very scary for me, considering I flew out of Heathrow on Tuesday. That aside though, I think that our airport security needs to be drastically increased and improved. On my flights over to the UK in June, I carried on a three and a half inch hunting knife in my backpack that I had forgotten was in there. I flew from Minneapolis to Toronto, Toronto to Montreal, and Montreal to London without a single problem. I only found the knife in my bag two weeks later, and it scares me to think that no one noticed it was there. I mean, this thing was not a fingernail clipper or manicure scissors. This was a big knife that could easily do damage. I think there’s something wrong with airport security when something like that can happen.
August 10th, 2006 at 9:31:40 am
A girl who carries a hunting knife? That’s the marryin’ kind right there . . . love will follow, trust me ;-)
August 10th, 2006 at 10:23:29 am
Max -
Do they have reliable tools for detecting liquid explosives? I mean I can understand the sniffers on solid state stuff, but the liquid explosives seem more perplexing to me.
Regardless, until they get these tools in place (and Chertoff and/or Congress and/or Bush need to all get off their asses and get them going), TSA workers better be held to a high level of competency.
August 10th, 2006 at 10:26:33 am
Kudos to the authorities for foiling this plot, but honesty to goodness the over-reaction about what you can and can’t take on is getting annoying. So they can’t take on liquids now? Guess what if they are REALLY determined they will find another way. How far do we let this go? No carry ons, you have to change into airport provided jump suits on the plane, you are put to sleep as soon as you get on and woken up at the destination? Temporary mesaures are one thing, but it sure seems like they don’t stay temporary these days…
August 10th, 2006 at 10:39:46 am
David -
“you are put to sleep as soon as you get on and woken up at the destination?”
Hey, I like that. Could never sleep well on planes, but a little sedative and six hours later, hello West Coast.
You are right in that it is a little silly, and I agree with the permanency issue with these measures, but keep in mind that from what we are hearing, they picked up 21 out of 50! possible suspects. That’s not even half.
Also,
http://www.nbc4i.com/news/9660092/detail.html
“MARIETTA, Ohio — Investigators in southeast Ohio said they were working to unravel how two Michigan men charged with supporting terrorism came to have airplane passenger lists and airport security information.
Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, were being held at the Washington County Jail on $200,000 bond each, which could be raised at a Thursday afternoon court hearing. Each was charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism.
Deputies stopped the two on a traffic violation Tuesday and found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in their car, Sheriff Larry Mincks said.”
Temporary (stress the temporary) security measures banning the liquids and gels on CARRY-ON luggage do not seem over-the-top given that the full extent and players in this plot are not completely known yet.
Now if we are still talking about these measures in 6 months, like the taking off of shoes, then that is an issue.
August 10th, 2006 at 10:48:04 am
To Lojo’s point, it seems like the same kind of hyper-spectral imaging used by NASA could be used to detect dangerous chemical compounds. We are talking about spectral signatures, right?
August 10th, 2006 at 11:24:20 am
Just heard on the radio news over lunch why the Brits moved today:
They felt their surveilence operation was about to be compromised, and that if they didn’t move now, they’d lose their suspects. Which makes sense to me.
August 10th, 2006 at 11:30:31 am
So I can’t bring my mini-bottles of scotch on the plane?
Fine. YOU go visit my sister-in-law and her five kids.
August 10th, 2006 at 11:54:01 am
I believe this is all a conspiracy to make you buy your liquor on the plane.
Have you ever flown from DC to Anchorage? Do you know how long of flight that is? Do you know how many little bottles of JD that is? By God, the American taxpayers should not have to pay retail for that!
August 10th, 2006 at 11:56:40 am
B Minich - did you read/hear if it was the NYT or the WaPo or the Grauniad that was about to compromise the surveillance ?
Anyone else thinking that, if this had happened last Sunday, Mr Lamont would have had difficulty achieving a single digit percentage in the CT Primary ?
August 10th, 2006 at 12:59:30 pm
“They felt their surveilence operation was about to be compromised, and that if they didn’t move now, they’d lose their suspects.”
Sounds like the NYT found out about it.
August 10th, 2006 at 1:27:05 pm
Freeze Dried Terrorism. Just adds liquid and “sheiks.”
August 10th, 2006 at 2:27:26 pm
Alasdair-
Actually, I thought we were in Iraq to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Law enforcement and the intelligence community stopped this, not the U.S. military in Iraq. Seems to me this blows one more rationale for being in Iraq all to shit.
August 10th, 2006 at 3:06:09 pm
The impression I got was that this impending compromise was something more along the lines of the terrorists figuring out the Brit’s mole, or that something was about to happen anyway that revealed the government’s hand.
Although maybe the Guardian was going to publish something, but I doubt it. I don’t think the NYT would have figured this one out - London is too far away from New York. ;)
Keep in mind, this was a blurb on a 5 minute top of the hour newscast, so I don’t have many details.
August 10th, 2006 at 3:07:44 pm
Mad Max: this doesn’t do anything to the war rationale one way or the other, in my opinion. This would have happened regardless of whether we were in Iraq or not.
August 10th, 2006 at 3:12:11 pm
B Minich - yer trying to ‘teach the pig to sing’ again …
Mad Max - as far as we know, the current arrestees were not training at the camp in Iraq with the airliner hull, so it actually looks like being in Iraq *did* prove useful … whoulda thunkit ? Thanks for pointing out that detail which we otherwise would have missed …
August 10th, 2006 at 3:18:26 pm
Alasdair-
We can agree to disagree. But history will prove me right.
August 11th, 2006 at 12:26:36 am
Mad Max - an easy prediction …
Of course, so far, history has proven you and your ilk wrong, again, and again, and again …
So, statistically, ya gotta get it right *one* of these times, dontcha ?
August 11th, 2006 at 5:14:42 am
The plot definately seems to be a carbon copy of Operation Bojinka. I’ve written a fairly detailed account about Bojinka. It can be found here: - Operation Bojinka
August 12th, 2006 at 10:39:25 am
MPAC False Claim: Local Muslims Foiled UK Terror Plot
http://www.terrorfreeoil.org/videos/MS081106.php - video
August 30th, 2006 at 7:29:48 am
An article posted last Thursday in the British online outlet The Register raises a very good question I haven’t seen posed anywhere else, certainly not in our sycophantic American media: was the exposed British “plot” to bring down commercial airliners by mixing harmless household chemicals in the lavatory even remotely possible from the standpoint of basic chemistry?
To address that question, it’s worth quoting from The Register’s article:
“We’re told that the suspects were planning to use TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a high explosive that supposedly can be made from common household chemicals unlikely to be caught by airport screeners. A little hair dye, drain cleaner, and paint thinner — all easily concealed in drinks bottles — and the forces of evil have effectively smuggled a deadly bomb onboard your plane. … Making a quantity of TATP sufficient to bring down an airplane is not quite as simple as ducking into the toilet and mixing two harmless liquids together.
First, you’ve got to get adequately concentrated hydrogen peroxide. This is hard to come by, so a large quantity of the three per cent solution sold in pharmacies might have to be concentrated by boiling off the water. Only this is risky, and can lead to mission failure by means of burning down your makeshift lab before a single infidel has been harmed.
But let’s assume that you can obtain it in the required concentration, or cook it from a dilute solution without ruining your operation. Fine. The remaining ingredients, acetone and sulfuric acid, are far easier to obtain, and we can assume that you’ve got them on hand.
Now for the fun part. Take your hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and sulfuric acid, measure them very carefully, and put them into drinks bottles for convenient smuggling onto a plane. It’s all right to mix the peroxide and acetone in one container, so long as it remains cool. Don’t forget to bring several frozen gel-packs (preferably in a Styrofoam chiller deceptively marked “perishable foods”), a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You’re going to need them.
It’s best to fly first class and order Champagne. The bucket full of ice water, which the airline ought to supply, might possibly be adequate — especially if you have those cold gel-packs handy to supplement the ice, and the Styrofoam chiller handy for insulation — to get you through the cookery without starting a fire in the lavvie.
Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the peroxide/acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you’ll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you’ll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.
After a few hours — assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven’t overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities — you’ll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.
The genius of this scheme is that TATP is relatively easy to detonate. But you must make enough of it to crash the plane, and you must make it with care to assure potency. One needs quality stuff to commit “mass murder on an unimaginable scale,” as Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson put it. While it’s true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it’s unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that’s about all you’re likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.”
I’m no chemist, but if The Register’s description is true, it raises another question: was the dramatic inconveniencing this month of untold hundreds of thousands of air travelers around the US, and probably millions around the world, justified as a reaction to such an unlikely threat? Or is this all about the politics of fear, yet another in a long line of overhyped terrorist “plots” that got tons of government hype and, thus, media attention, but which in reality never got much farther than the fertile yet bumbling imaginations of a few would-be jihadists?
The fact is, a number of the British plotters didn’t even have passports yet (which in Britain, take months to obtain), let alone plane tickets, so not only was a “catastrophe” not likely, but it also wasn’t “days away.” Even if they had the technical know-how to develop the bomb as described, which seems like, um, a stretch. Certainly, the plot was not developed or imminent enough to justify the panicky overreaction of US and other Western authorities.
These plots and lurid announcements accumulate; each necessarily has to be a bit more lurid than the last, as in this year’s Miami, Canadian, and now British busts, so as to properly frighten a public plagued by a short attention span. In most cases, the “plots” turn out to be far less credible than originally advertised (remember Jose Padilla, the dirty bomber?), with charges quietly either reduced or dropped entirely. Their fantasies become fodder in a still larger war, the endless war for political power.
Meanwhile, a truly well-trained team of commandos could probably commandeer an airplane with their bare hands. And if you truly want to smuggle explosives on board, all you’d really need is to blow yourself up –- literally. Line up a sympathetic jihadist surgeon and anesthesiologist, and insert the bomb in your abdominal cavity. Let it heal a bit, don’t forget your cell phone detonator, and happy travels. Good luck stopping it. Or, forget a plane; T-bone a boatful of explosives into one of those floating cities called cruise ships, somewhere in international waters. That’s the sort of serious, militarily-minded terrorist activity authorities should be worried about.
There have been credible reports that British authorities, unconcerned about any imminent threat, wanted to wait and let the plot unfold, so as to gather more information and evidence regarding the people involved, but that Washington pushed hard for early arrests. Gee, I wonder why? A November election that is likely to turn on Republican mismanagement of the so-called “Global War On Terror” wouldn’t have anything to do with the timing of arrests and the unprecedented (and helpfully color-coded) security alert, would it?
Would it?
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December 18th, 2006 at 5:49:00 pm
This topic should be resurrected.