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| Britain |
| Acetone Peroxide - "Mother of Satan" used in London Bombing |
| 2005-07-15 |
| Edited for details on the bomb: An Egyptian scientist suspected of being involved in making explosives for the London suicide bombers has been arrested in Cairo. Magdy Elnashar, who studied for a PhD at Leeds University, is thought to have links to a flat in Leeds being searched by anti-terrorist officers. The flat has been described as a bomb-making factory where explosives were made using ingredients available from high street chemists. Detectives investigating the London bombings have discovered home-made explosive materials using ingredients that can be found in high street chemists. The highly volatile explosive acetone peroxide was found in the house in Leeds connected to Elnashar. The discovery has raised fears of other British fanatics making their own explosives and following the example of the London suicide bombers. The home-made explosives are similar to those used in other al-Qaida-linked attacks. Instructions for making acetone peroxide are readily available on the internet. A security source said: "The explosive that has been recovered at the house in Leeds - some of it is still in there - is in fact acetone peroxide. It's the same kind of explosive Richard Reid had in his shoes when he tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. "This is a shocking development in the sense that earlier ideas about commercial or military grade explosive being used in the bombs themselves would therefore seem to be wrong." He said the explosive's "extremely volatile" nature had prompted the police to widen a cordon around the house in the Beeston area of Leeds even further yesterday, as well as set up a no-fly zone. Anti-terrorist agencies are worried other "educated amateurs" could try to make more of the explosive. ACETONE peroxide, also known as Mother of Satan because of its instability and lethal potential, can be made from common household items. Drain cleaner (sulphuric acid), hair bleach (hydrogen peroxide), and acetone (used in some nail varnish removers) can be mixed together to start the process of making home-made explosives. Sometimes used by bombers in the West Bank, the compound was also used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who packed his shoe with more than 100 grams of plasticised triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - another name for acetone peroxide. The TATP would have been used to light other powerful plastic explosives in his shoe. The British-born bomber boarded an American Airlines Paris to Miami flight in 2001 but was overpowered by passengers and staff. Acetone peroxide is highly sensitive to heat, friction, and shock. Professional chemists have been injured attempting to use it and dozens of Palestinians have been killed manufacturing or handling it. Recipes for making home-made explosives using acetone peroxide are readily available on the internet. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #17 is that like "Powderfinger" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-15 22:23 |
| #16 I always hammer my TATP into a shape charge. |
| Posted by: Splodyfinger 2005-07-15 20:40 |
| #15 WRT manufacturing this stuff, Inshallah, as Allah wills. Idiots. Darwin will have a field day, and the neighbors will start contacting the police in self-defence. In fact, it would probably be a good idea for the Scotland Yard spokesman to wax concerned on BBC-1 about the risk to the entire neighborhood when fools play around with such things. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-07-15 19:29 |
| #14 And don't forget about the bread to soak it up, cuban is best, italian is okay avoid wonder. Ed's redact if necessry, but it's important to know what we're up against. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-15 18:34 |
| #13 Don't forget the part about mixing all this stuff together in a bathtub in a council flat in Leeds... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-07-15 18:13 |
| #12 Well all these thugs are involved with drug trafficing to some extent. Cocaine is explosive Ether is explosive explosive is the definition of a meth lab All these activities will turn the house or apt into a SuperFund cleanup site too.. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-07-15 16:17 |
| #11 So we have this: Acetone peroxide is highly sensitive to heat, friction, and shock right after this: he compound was also used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who packed his shoe with more than 100 grams of plasticised triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - another name for acetone peroxide. I dunno about his shoes, but mine see plenty of shock and heat in the course of a day. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-07-15 13:34 |
| #10 Bobby: online sources give 4g of AP from 12.5 mL of acetone. Another source (a chemist) has said that extraction should be done in ether (which is itself very dangerous). A person has to be crazy to be playing with this stuff. It seems like a sure way to lose fingers, limbs or life. These mad mullahs really live up to their name. The blast victims who survived are lucky the savages used home made stuff. The death toll may have been like in Madrid if military explosives were used. |
| Posted by: john 2005-07-15 12:51 |
| #9 Gee, why not just stump around with a big bag of Ammonium Iodate? What, it's not unstable enough? Sheesh... |
| Posted by: Hupaiter Glinenter1110 2005-07-15 12:48 |
| #8 Beauty supply stores sell acetone by the gallon. So do various industrial supply places as it's a common way to remove any traces of oil from surfaces. |
| Posted by: rkb 2005-07-15 12:38 |
| #7 All his classmates at NC State were just interested to learning how to set up a meth lab. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-07-15 12:36 |
| #6 Maybe we might think about profiling the purchases of bleach and nail-polish remover? I suspect you need quite a bit of the ingredients. If it precipitates at low temperatures (yeah, I went to see how to make it) it can't be a very efficient reaction. How much acetone ya gotta buy to get a pound of the stuff? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-07-15 12:20 |
| #5 hair bleach (hydrogen peroxide), and acetone (used in some nail varnish removers) Since women aren't allowed to pretty themselves up in that sexually repressed society, how else are they going to keep the unemployment down in the industrial chemical industry? |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-07-15 12:04 |
| #4 The stuff brings lots of its own oxygen to the party. We can do all this detective and defensive stuff, but the first step needs to be to break up the PC BS and boot the imams and their ilk out of the country--both sides of the Atlantic. We will go broke trying to provide security. Terrorists have a great deal of leverage. Look at the two sniper-psychos around the Washington, DC area a year or two ago. All we need is the will to say STFU to the PC types and get the cancer out of the society. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-07-15 11:49 |
| #3 "Step 25. Shake well before using." |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-07-15 11:13 |
| #2 a nice touch would be to put the recipes up on the net - but with the wrong proportions, leading to "work accidents" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-15 10:15 |
| #1 This stuff sounds about as stable as nitroglycerine. |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-07-15 10:11 |