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| Work Accident in Texas? |
| 2006-07-21 |
| Texas City is hard by Galveston. TEXAS CITY - Bomb experts Thursday used one explosive to destroy another, purposely setting off a blast and a small fire in an apartment unit already damaged after a homemade substance exploded and killed tenant Matthew Robert Rugo, 21. Just why Rugo and roommate Curtis Jetton, who survived the Wednesday afternoon blast with minor burns, mixed a chemical substance similar to one that FBI experts said has been used by Middle East suicide bombers remained a mystery after the pair's apartment was rendered safe enough to enter, Texas City Police Chief Robert Burby said. Federal, state and local bomb experts said the mixture Rugo and Jetton created was too dangerous to remove from the pair's Lakeview Apartments unit, so they ordered hundreds of people to evacuate the 304-unit complex and the neighboring 132-unit Oaks apartment complex around 11 a.m. Thursday. Federal and local officials said they believe the substance was peroxide-based and similar to TATP, organic peroxide and a primary high explosive. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder with a distinctive acrid smell and has been described as a weapon of choice for suicide bombers. More at the link, plus a picture. Dead guy had been arrested before, for things like robbery. Otherwise there's no known connection to any terrorist or criminal groups. I suggest a certain amount of salt on the nature of the explosive. In previous reports we've seen how initial judgments can be wildly inaccurate. |
| Posted by:Angie Schultz |
| #7 Sounds like somebody had a copy of "The Anarchist's Cookbook", but wasn't smart enough to know the forulas in it are booby-trapped. |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-07-21 14:59 |
| #6 Asked about a televised report that Rugo and Jetton may have been part of a four-member local anarchist group, Burby said late Thursday: "I have nothing to substantiate that and I don't know where that came from." Apartment managers said Rugo's mother leased the unit for her son in January but Jetton was not on the lease. Whaddya think, Sarge? What do I think, Muldoon? Notify the Loser Squad. Let them figure it out. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-07-21 14:21 |
| #5 now this is a troo splodey |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2006-07-21 14:13 |
| #4 bah! yallz call that em sploshen? ask texas city abowt esploshens sumtime. |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2006-07-21 14:08 |
| #3 "He had turned himself around, he was a really good guy," Elizondo said. "He was doing real good." Since he found Islam. I just made that last part up but it fits with this and other similar sounding stories so well I thought i'd add it. Not that all Muslims are terrorists but dag nab it the majority of terrorists do seem to be Muslims. Not that all idiots are muslims but dag nab it the majority of Muslims seem to sound like idiots lately. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-07-21 14:04 |
| #2 And, of course, the obligatory "He had turned himself around, he was a really good guy," Elizondo said. "He was doing real good." Blowed up real good, too. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-07-21 13:40 |
| #1 There's also only so many recipes in the Improvised Munitions Handbook or the old Anarchist's Cookbook. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-07-21 13:32 |