Mail bombs 4 times larger than Christmas plot

[babylonsister]

Mail bombs 4 times larger than Christmas plot
AP


By GEIR MOULSON and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press – 51 mins ago


WASHINGTON – Al-Qaida's top bombmaker raised his game, officials believe, by following his miss on a crowded U.S.-bound passenger jet last Christmas with four times more explosives packed into bombs hidden last week on flights from Yemen.

The two bombs contained 300 and 400 grams of the industrial explosive PETN, according to a German security official, who briefed reporters Monday in Berlin on condition of anonymity in line with department guidelines. By comparison, the bomb stuffed into a terrorist suspect's underwear on the Detroit-bound plane contained about 80 grams.

Early forensics on the two bombs packed inside computer printer cartridges point to Ibrahim al-Asiri, the master bomb maker for the Yemen-based group known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

"It shows that they are trying to again make different types of adaptations based on what we have put in place," said John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser. "So the underwear bomber, as well as these packages, are showing sort of new techniques on their part. They are very innovative and creative."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101101/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mail_bombs

[Sonoman]

1. I have yet to hear if there were any triggers with that PETN.

You can't set that stuff off by simply punching magic numbers on a cell phone.

If there were triggers, they would be somewhat traceable. And if there were triggers, you can bet there would be pictures all over the TV.

I think this whole thing is bs.

Sonoman

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. No you would not

Security services will not reveal all they have...

It was a test run.

There are people out there who really want to kill you because you are an American.

And this should be treated as...a law enforcement matter...

All you should be asked is to remain aware.

Oh and before you go there, I'm not scared... But rather too well informed.

[Sonoman]

3. Scared has nothing to do with it.

I worry more about pulling out of my driveway than meeting a sudden demise from some terrorist.

I still think it is crap.

Way back, I was riding in a Town Car on the way to SFO. The idiots were pulling over every taxi, personal car and buses. Making the car drivers open the trunks, passing mirrors all under the chassis, the whole thing.

Every limo was waved through. I guess they figure terrorists are real cheap.

They wave the Shoe and Underwear Bombers in our faces and pull over common folk and let them miss their flights.

I think the whole TSA thing is just a way to keep people scared and sheeply. There are a lot of ways to cause mayhem rather than the rather risky method of bombs on a plane.

Did you take the Liquid Bombers seriously? Look at all the trouble THAT is STILL causing, and there is no way on Earth they could have pulled it off. Absolutely impossible,and anyone with any knowledge of explosives (except at the firecracker level) knows it. But we never heard that angle, did we?

Please don't take this personally, nadinbrzinzki. I have read a good many of your posts and I take you very seriously.

My opnion is just that - an opinion.

Sonoman

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Part of TSA is a mommy device indeed

some of it is not.

Having worked along side security services as a medic though... I tend to look at this from an educated eye.

But yes, indeed, TSA part of it is a mommy device... it makes most people feel safe... if annoyed.

The funniest was the after Christmas bomber... flying from Mexico City. Due to OUR requirements they were going to physical pat downs. One of our fellow citizens started giving Mexican Staff a hassle, that is until I pointed out to her that it was OUR requirements for that plane to enter US Air Space. Any beef, take it to the AMERICAN Feds. Mexican Security Guard thanked me, she could not say a thing.

Yes that was the stoopid stay in your seats for what was it an hour in the air? I got some of it, but part of it was... they really had no other answer at that moment.