12/28/09

WHY CAN'T PROFESSIONAL BOMB MAKERS MAKE A BOMB THAT WORKS?

My body is under attack by microbes right now(virus) so I am a bit slow and whiny, but I am still able to get my tin foil hat on. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian who tried to bomb an airplane coming into Detroit was an engineering student, apparently not a chemical engineering student. After the attempt people on the plane noted he was very calm, yet was shaking. This is strange. He also apparently did not call out to Allah before his suicide/homicide attempt which is odd for a Muslim. Was he sedated, mind controlled, or just scared shitless.

So, this attempted bombing used the same chemical as the shoe bomber. Since, it was hidden in his underwear in his genital area (It‘s MSDS says it is not irritating to the skin), can we call him the Crotch Bomber, Undie Bomber, Testicle Bomber or my favorite the Bollox Bomber, especially since he did bollox the whole thing? Will we have to take off our underwear at the airport now? We had to start taking off our shoes after the Shoe Bomber, Richard Reid. The government is calling this a device, underwear with a plastic type of container sewn in them and a syringe of most likely nitroglycerine or some kind of acid. It is interesting to note that PETN will biodegrade when exposed to urine and feces, maybe he was incontinent. This rather bungled attempt at using a chemical which already failed on another flubbed bombing has set off some alarms for me. The government claims it was made by Al Qaida’s best bomb maker. If this is the case do we have much to fear from them? I have to wonder if this could also be an attempt to focus our attention away from something either by Al Qaida or the government.

Did he make this chemical compound himself and just say Al Qaida gave it to him because he wanted the notoriety? Is this attempt a rogue CIA operation to stage an incident to justify more war or less civil rights? Is this another Lee Harvey Oswald or Sirhan Sirhan MK-ULTRA type of situation? In fact everything I have read about PETN says it is highly explosive, not incendiary, so I have to wonder if he even had PETN. If he did there was something seriously wrong with it or the detonation attempt. Is this an exercise to justify invasion of Yemen? The military started a covert war in Yemen about a year ago. This sounds very much like what happened with Afghanistan. How many countries are we going to invade? My BS alarm has gone off and I have lots of questions most of which will never be answered. It is certainly possible that he did go to Yemen and pick up the chemicals, then got on a plane, and set himself on fire with them. It just seems strange that professional bombers can’t make a functioning bomb from a substance that has been well understood for 109 years.

PETN, also known as pentaerythritol is very sensitive to shock or heat and is usually used as the core detonation device for different types of explosive devices, or detonation cord, and it is rarely used on it‘s own. It is used as a vasodilator similar to the effects of nitroglycerin for coronary artery dilatation. It has been around for a while having been invented by the Germans and used in WW1. PETN preparation involves the nitration of pentaerythritol using concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid, but using the sulfuric acid can make PETN unstable. Did he use the mixed acids or the single acid? Since the goal was to blow up the plane while coming into Detroit they may have used the less unstable form? Experts are saying the amount he had should have blown a significant hole in the wall of the plane.

C(CH2OH)4 + 4HNO3 → C(CH2ONO2)4 + 4H2O

His father had reported that he had radical leanings and he was put on some kind of watch list. Janet Napolitano, the US homeland security chief said the information had to be specific and credible to put someone on the no fly list. I recall U.S. citizens being put on a list to be pulled out of line and searched at airports very clearly because I was one of them. If they can do that to those who are no danger to others because of their being outspoken about a particular regime, why can’t they have a computer database which flags certain people? You can also bet the DEA would also be notified if certain people were flying in, gotta keep that drug war going, we have our priorities.

People are outraged that he was allowed in the country. Here is the problem with that outrage, there are so many who are angry at this country that there is no way everyone can be put on the list. There is a movement around the world to stop our medaling in other countries such as removing their leaders and replacing them with the biggest scumbag we can find because he supports the U.S. business owners who are operating there and allows us access to some resource we want.

We need to take an approach which is similar to universal precautions in the hospitals, which assumes that  everyone is infected. By assuming anyone could be planning terrorist activities we could eliminate many more attempts. Remember all radical religious beliefs are known to lead to violence, so it could be some radical ‘christian’ group from within this country which could plan a terrorist type attack. How do we put all of them on the list? This list actually has about 550,000 on it already. All we can really do is eliminate most attempts at terrorist attacks, eventually no matter what precautions are taken we will have another one, it happens in other countries who have been dealing with this problem for a long time. We could stop manipulating other countries for their resources and killing, maiming, and destroying their homes, but that would upset the military contractors who make money off the wars and covert operations. Also as Noam Chomsky says the government would be afraid the economy would collapse if we stopped our imperialist warring.

An interesting element to this story considering the knowledge that the military-industrial complex has a hold on legislators is the Whole Body Scanning industry. Was this incident staged or allowed to happen so the public will stop complaining that these machines are a violation of privacy? There is a lawsuit for a injunction against them. I could care less if they can see my body, my only concern with them is exposure to any radiation or high energy electromagnetic waves. The point is someone stands to make a lot of money off the sale of these machines and now a bunch of legislators are calling for their use. Interesting, TSA announced their plans to purchase 150 of them in November. They have actually been using the machines for a couple of years and were only supposed to use them as secondary screeners, but have been using them for primary screening in several airports. If they are not a health hazard I think they could be useful. The problem is I remember being told X-rays and Cat Scans were harmless while I voiced concerns about heavy use of them. Now we know they caused an increase in cancer. More information is needed. If safe, they could be the easy solution to the terrorist problem.

The young are easily lead astray due to lack of maturity and wisdom when there is so much injustice in the world. What they don’t understand is many agree with their grievances, but by harming others they loose the support they could have received from the world to make changes. This kind of bombing attempt is illogical even given the mindset of a person who is committing a Jihad suicide/homicide in that there were a lot of people on the plane who were not U.S. citizens and it increases the potential of more military action. They are vilifying themselves and their issues when they commit violent acts. He apparently had parted ways with his family which seems to be rather affluent. His father reported his radical leanings, but that just made him one of thousands upon thousands who are angry at the United States. It makes me sad to know so many hate us for the actions and beliefs of a small percentage of our population.

2 comments:

snowbilly said...

If Al Qaeda is still the organization that planned and carried-out 9/11, it seems doubtful that the bomber is connected to them. Would they make dud bombs?

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