This is probably nothing that hasn't crossed the minds of everyone here before. I am excerpting the bits relevant to the refinery explosion below; there's more incidents described at the article.
...Similarly, when explosions killed fifteen people and injured over 100 at an oil refinery in Texas City, Texas on March 23, 2005, the FBI quickly ruled out terrorism as a possible cause.[2] When a group calling itself Qaeda al-Jihad and another Islamic group both claimed responsibility, the FBI was still dismissive.[3] But then it came to light that investigators did not even visit the blast site until eight days after the explosions — and eight days after they ruled out terrorism as a possibility. One more independent-minded investigator asked, "How do you rule out one possibility when you don't have any idea what the cause is?"[4] Still later came the revelation that initial reports of a single blast were inaccurate: there were as many as five different explosions at the refinery.[5]
It may still be possible that these blasts were accidental, and that five distinct things went wrong at the refinery to cause five separate explosions at around the same time. And maybe there was no terrorist involvement. But how did the FBI know that before even investigating?
There's more at the link, including a description of a possible attempt to make bombs out of airbags and an illegal drivers' license ring. And his footnotes. |