Times Square suspect is charged over ‘weapon of mass destruction’

[Prometheus Bound]

Source: The Times

May 5, 2010

.....Faisal Shahzad, 30, who became a US citizen in April last year, is being charged with an act of terrorism and using a weapon of mass destruction. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy airport, New York, aboard an Emirates flight that had just pulled away from the gate, ending an extraordinary 53-hour manhunt.

....He was caught after being traced to the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in New York’s Times Square on Saturday evening. Inside was a crude bomb, constructed with petrol, propane, firecrackers and bags of fertiliser, which would have produced a fireball that would have killed passers-by, police say.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116173.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

---

So now that the combination of petrol, propane, firecrackers and fertiliser is classed as a weapon of mass destruction, could the authorities conceivably use possession of any one of these components or a combination as evidence of intent to create a Weapon of Mass Destruction?

- gasoline
- propane
- firecrackers
- fertiliser

[The Magistrate]

1. It Fits the Legal Definition, Sir

The legal terminology employs the word to a somewhat different meaning than does everyday language. Just as a person who kills, say, a half dozen people in shooting into a restaurant would legally be a mass murderer, though people normally take the term as indicating someone in the class of Hitler or Stalin, so a device intended to kill a number of people at once is under the law a weapon of mass destruction, though in everyday usage people consider that term to mean something like an atomic bomb or a nerve gas warhead. The components in the automobile, if they had been properly arranged, could well have killed dozens of people. The law does not consider incompetence a mitigating element; that he tried is the important thing, it does not matter that he failed.

[Prometheus Bound]

2. The most widely used definition of WMD in official U.S. docs is"nuclear, chemical, and bio weapons".

The definition in the U.S. Code, Title 50, "War and National Defense," includes radiological weapons. It defines WMD as "any weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release, dissemination, or impact of -
(A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors;
(B) a disease organism; or
(C) radiation or radioactivity."

http://www.nti.org/f_wmd411/f1a1.html

[The Magistrate]

14. Here Is the Relevant Section, Sir

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113B > § 2332a
Prev | Next
§ 2332a. Use of weapons of mass destruction
How Current is This?
(a) Offense Against a National of the United States or Within the United States.— A person who, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction—
(1) against a national of the United States while such national is outside of the United States;
(2) against any person or property within the United States, and
(A) the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce is used in furtherance of the offense;
(B) such property is used in interstate or foreign commerce or in an activity that affects interstate or foreign commerce;
(C) any perpetrator travels in or causes another to travel in interstate or foreign commerce in furtherance of the offense; or
(D) the offense, or the results of the offense, affect interstate or foreign commerce, or, in the case of a threat, attempt, or conspiracy, would have affected interstate or foreign commerce;
(3) against any property that is owned, leased or used by the United States or by any department or agency of the United States, whether the property is within or outside of the United States; or
(4) against any property within the United States that is owned, leased, or used by a foreign government,
shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, and if death results, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
(b) Offense by National of the United States Outside of the United States.— Any national of the United States who, without lawful authority, uses, or threatens, attempts, or conspires to use, a weapon of mass destruction outside of the United States shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, and if death results, shall be punished by death, or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.
(c) Definitions.— For purposes of this section—
(1) the term “national of the United States” has the meaning given in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 (a)(22));
(2) the term “weapon of mass destruction” means—
(A) any destructive device as defined in section 921 of this title;
(B) any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or poisonous chemicals, or their precursors;
(C) any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector (as those terms are defined in section 178 of this title); or
(D) any weapon that is designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life; and
(3) the term “property” includes all real and personal property.

§ 921. Definitions
(4) The term “destructive device” means—
(A) any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas—
(i) bomb,
(ii) grenade,
(iii) rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces,
(iv) missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce,
(v) mine, or
(vi) device similar to any of the devices described in the preceding clauses;
(B) any type of weapon (other than a shotgun or a shotgun shell which the Attorney General finds is generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes) by whatever name known which will, or which may be readily converted to, expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, and which has any barrel with a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter; and
(C) any combination of parts either designed or intended for use in converting any device into any destructive device described in subparagraph (A) or (B) and from which a destructive device may be readily assembled.
The term “destructive device” shall not include any device which is neither designed nor redesigned for use as a weapon; any device, although originally designed for use as a weapon, which is redesigned for use as a signaling, pyrotechnic, line throwing, safety, or similar device; surplus ordnance sold, loaned, or given by the Secretary of the Army pursuant to the provisions of section 4684 (2), 4685, or 4686 of title 10; or any other device which the Attorney General finds is not likely to be used as a weapon, is an antique, or is a rifle which the owner intends to use solely for sporting, recreational or cultural purposes.

[Prometheus Bound]

4. Also, the fertiliser was a non-explosive kind.

So we are talking about gasoline, propane and firecrackers being classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

There may be millions of homes with such items in their basement.

[Demeter]

3. I am reminded of Victor Borg's Inflationary Language Shtick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6kElOYcd8

[Warpy]

5. Thanks, I was wondering about that tickle in the back of my head

and that very vaguely remembered bit.

Yes, this charge is ridiculous. Had it been sufficient to take out the whole of NYC, then it would have qualified.

They're just trying to make it look worse than it was while making themselves look a little silly in the process.

That collection of stuff was no more a WMD than the airliners that flew into the towers were, and we still use airliners.

[sendero]

6. It doesn't matter much..

... what they charge him with, he will be in prison for life.

[whyverne]

7. I'm under the impression that propane and gasoline are

relatively safe because they do not tend to ignite inside their containers. Gunpowder is good for bombs because it will burn inside a sealed container, pressure builds up quickly and "kaboom".

When you light a propane grill, what's to prevent the fire from traveling down the hose into the tank and blowing up? Nothing really, it just doesn't do that. And I remember being a bad kid and dropping matches into containers of gasoline. The match just goes out.

Propane and gasoline make very good fireballs when taken out of their containers, but I don't think they make for very good bombs. Even though I saw Horatio Caine blow up a boat by shooting it's propane tank, Mythbusters has proven that it don't work that way.

This guy Shahzad claims he was trained in bomb-making in Pakistan. If that's the result of his training, we can all breathe a little easier.

But then again, do bombs have to work to be terrorism. Not really, it's the attempt that counts. I think those damn terrorists have outsmarted us again. The bombs don't have to work to be effective.

Interesting propane factoid: Propane's temperature is minus 40 degrees. You don't have to say C or F because -40 is the same on both scales.

[Prometheus Bound]

8. Right, I'm not disputing the terrorism charge. It's the WMD charge.

If they make this one stick they could charge virtually anyone they pleased with intent to manufacture Weapons of Mass Destruction just for having plant food, propane, gasoline and firecrackers in their home or car.

[onehandle]

9. Great. Start rounding up the gun-centric teabaggers.

They have all this stuff in their homes.

It's not just 'brown people' who can be profiled.

[CLANG]

10. Weapon of Mass Destruction is a weapon of indiscriminate death and maiming.

[Prometheus Bound]

11. By that definition, a gun, knife or club could be a WMD if used indiscriminately to kill and maim.

[CLANG]

13. Well, it's a hell more indiscriminate than using a gun or a knife.

[Prometheus Bound]

16. When a man enters a kindergarten and knifes 28 children at random...

Does that make the knife a WMD?

The term has no meaning any more if it does.

And if so, then anyone could be potentially charged with having a WMD.

Man stabs 28 children at kindergarten in China
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN (AP) – 6 days ago

TAIXING, China — A knife-wielding man attacked a kindergarten class of 4-year-olds in eastern China on Thursday, slashing 28 children in the third such rampage at a Chinese school this month. Five of the children were in critical condition.

Xu Yuyuan, a jobless 47-year-old, burst into the Zhongxin Kindergarten in the city of Taixing early in the school day, waving an eight-inch (20-centimeter) knife and stabbing a security guard who tried to stop him, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Two teachers were also hurt.

The motive for the attack was not immediately known. Xinhua said Xu had been jobless since being fired from an insurance company in 2001.

China has seen a spate of school attacks in recent years, most blamed on people with personal grudges or suffering from mental illness. The attacks have appalled the nation and prompted calls for improved security.

It is often unclear why schools are targeted, but one sociologist said the assaults may happen in clusters, with one assailant triggering copycat attackers.

On Wednesday, a man broke into a primary school in Guangdong province's Leizhou city in southern China and wounded 15 students and a teacher with a knife. That attack came on the same day as another assailant was executed for stabbing to death eight children.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gbb3SvwJW0F1Te35LxNwJDk2UBnQD9FCL85G0

[24601]

12. Sounds like it would have been an attack and fits the Treason

definition for "levying war against them , or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort."

Why isn't a bomb attack, even an unsuccessful one, levying war? I'll bet they don't have the evidence prerequisite to make it stick and can't count on him making a confession in open court.

[Duer 157099]

15. We must now all finally agree then that Saddam *did* have WMDs

That's the logical conclusion isn't it?