"Liquid Explosives"

[ravan]

OK, I've read some of the articles and such about liquid explosives from the BBC. They all allude to some vague, nebulous ingredients that might be able to be combined to make a liquid explosive, or combining a liquid and a solid

Comments

[countgeiger]

I'm not chemist, but I know a fair bit about this subect.

1) Not all chemicals that combine to make a high explosive. I can think of three right off the top of my head, that I personally know how to make or have made. Two of them use essentially odorless, colorless components. One of them is inert when wet, unless exposed to a mild explosion of some sort (say a shotgun shell primer, some phosphorus, etc. But again. easy.

2) I don't make a habit of going through this stuff, but I can think of at least three or four totally innocent looking delivery systems that would get you on an airplane.

The point here is that yes, most of the obvious choices would not be practical. But never underestimate the patience and ingenuity of a couple reasonably bright people to find an angle.

[ravan]

The point here is that yes, most of the obvious choices would not be practical. But never underestimate the patience and ingenuity of a couple reasonably bright people to find an angle.Yes, most obvious items would not be practical, yet the new regulations seem geared toward them

[siliconshaman]

Sugar, sodium nitrate [looks and tastes like salt] olive oil.
Mix these three ingrediants in the right ratio and you have an explosive.

Add a 9v battery, two lengths of wire and penlight bulb with the glass carefully broken, and you have the ignition system.

take yourself, and the little packets with you to the toilet once you're airborne. Mix, shake in a plastic baggie, add detonator circuit. Instant bomb.

Not much boom to it, but slap it against a window and it'll do the job.

Or if you want to use a liquid, vodka and sodium nitrate will do it. You don't even have to carry the alcohol with you, just buy it off the drinks trolly. And hey, it comes with a handy bomb casing, ie the bottle.

[ravan]

In the last screnario, all you need is a little flashight, and a little baggie of sodium nitrate. But it wouldn't make much boom, and would not breach even a window at the join.

The question then comes, since minor amounts of explosives are do-able with common household chemicals, why would the plotters do the elaborate sports' drink can bit? That's what smells the most false to me.

[siliconshaman]

Not really, a lot of people are insufficently creative enough to realise that you can improvise those sorts of bombs.

Sure, someone with a bit of knowledge can look up the chemicals needed to make traditional explosives on the net, or even find some improvised types in things like the anarchists cookbook... but it takes a kinda warped genius to go simple.

Incidently, the IED in question, even down to the use of a gatorade bottle, is a direct copy out of the anarchists handbook. Except back when it was first written, gatorade was sold in glass bottles. They make for a much more powerful bomb. The whole plane plot is direct copy of one tried in 1995 apparently, which would be consitant with the design.

Speaking from experiance, a nitrate/alcohol bomb in a 12oz miniture bottle with the cap screwed on tightly... will blow a tennis-ball sized hole in 1/16" sheet aluminium. That's enough to put hole in a plane, do it in the right place and the hull will just rip apart like paper under aerodynamic stress. A 24oz bomb, is overkill.

[ravan]

What annoys me is how much I've forgotten since I've changed careers out of chemistry. The side effects of a stroke make lab work hard... 8-(

Before the stroke, I had a project to take the Anarchists Cookbook, and pick apart all of the unsafe practices in it. I never got a good start on it.