and now we have the explosive : PETN

WASHINGTON -- The explosive device used by the would-be Detroit bomber contained a widely available - and easily detected - chemical explosive that has a long history of terrorist use, according to government officials and explosive experts.

The chemical - PETN - is small, powerful and appealing to terrorists. The Saudi government said it was used in an assassination attempt on the country's counterterrorism operations chief in August.

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate is a colorless, crystalline material that is highly explosive and in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. It is generally stored and shipped as a mixture with water.


It was developed after World War I and is often used in military explosives and found inside blasting caps. Terrorists like it because it's small and powerful.

It is the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used to try and blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami in 2001.

A medicine for heart disease, Lentonitrat, is nearly pure PETN.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaerythritol_tetranitrate

PETN was widely used in the plastic explosives terrorists used to blow up airplanes in the 1970s and 1980s.

Investigators say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid an explosive device on his body when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit. They say PETN was hidden in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso.

Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. One law enforcement official said the second part of the explosive concoction used in the Christmas Day incident is still being tested but appears to be a glycol-based liquid explosive.

PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert. It's also used in military devices and found in blasting caps. It's the high explosive of choice because it is stable and safe to handle, but it requires a primary explosive to detonate it, he said.

Crippin and law enforcement officials said modern airport screening machines could have detected the chemical. Airport "puffer" machines - the devices that blow air onto a passenger to collect and analyze residues - would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab.

However, most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.

Hidden in Abdulmutallab's clothing, the explosive might have also been detected by the full-body imaging scanners now making their way into airports.

But Abdulmutallab did not go through full-body imaging machines in Nigeria or Amsterdam, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. King has been briefed on the investigation.

Both airports have body scanners. The Amsterdam airport has had a long reputation for good security, King said, while Nigeria's airports have been more of a concern.

The U.S. provided full-body scanners to all four international airports in Nigeria, according to the State Department. The scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008.

Abdulmutallab was on a broad U.S. terrorist watch list but he was not designated for special screening measures or placed on a no-fly list because of a dearth of specific information about his activities, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday. She said he was properly screened before getting on the aircraft in Amsterdam.

The Saudi Arabia assassination attempt was carried out by a Saudi who was on the country's list of 85 most wanted terrorists. The bomber was believed to have traveled to Yemen to connect with the al-Qaida franchise there. The bomber died in the explosion.

And now we have a second pants bomber in the bathroom

News Alert from The Wall Street Journal
The Associated Press has learned that a second Nigerian man has been taken into custody aboard a jetliner in Detroit after locking himself in the airliner's bathroom.  A law enforcement official tells the AP that the incident took place aboard the same Northwest flight that was attacked on Christmas Day. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was ongoing.

http://online.wsj.com/?mod=djemalertNEWS

Oh, I remember now it was a butt bomber from Yemen ...

This bomb made it past several security points, presumably including the ubiquitous metal detectors. It took another person to trigger it with a cell-phone call... Yes, this one was stuffed a particular orifice... prepare to bend over. It's annoying to have to take your shoes off before you can get on the plane - but now? OMG!

We have a hero, Folks!

Chaos erupted as alleged would-be terrorist and former British student Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, tried to set off a bomb strapped to his body as his flight prepared to touch down in Detroit.

Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was travelling to the US to visit friends, was sitting to the right of Abdul Mutallab, when he heard the noise of the device being detonated.
"Suddenly, we heard a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," he told the New York Post.
"When [it] went off, everybody panicked... then someone screamed, 'Fire! Fire!
"I saw smoke rising from a seat... I didn't hesitate. I just jumped.

Mr Schuringa dived over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab's seat, and saw the suspect had a blanket on his lap.

"It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs," Mr Schuringa said.
"I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs."
Mr Schuringa tore a flaming, molten object which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle off Abdul Mutallab's left leg. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.

Mr Schuringa shouted for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers.
Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.
"I took him in a choke to the first class and all the people were like, 'What's going on?'" he added.
"I don't feel like a hero. It was something that came completely natural... it was something where I had to do something or it was too late."

This sounds familiar. Have we not already had a pants bomber this year? I remember that Jay Leno made a joke about now having to take our pants off at the security gate.....

A 23-year-old attempted to ignite an explosive device strapped to his leg as a Northwest Airlines flight carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew came in to land in Detroit, according to US security officials.
He suffered second degree burns before being overpowered by other passengers including one who jumped on him and was also burned. Sources said he was a student at University College London, claimed to have picked up his device in Yemen and to be an agent of al-Qaeda.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and that stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. It did not specify what those were. President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.



According to US intelligence officials, the explosive device was a mixture of powder and liquid.

Witnesses described seeing the suspect using a syringe to inject one substance into another before flames erupted; it raised the prospect that terrorists have discovered a form of explosives that cannot be detected by current airport screening.

The suspect was on an intelligence database but was not on the government’s no-fly list, meaning he was known to authorities but not considered a high risk.

A federal government source said there were no immediate plans to raise the US threat level which has been at "orange" since 2006.

Mutallab is belived to have boarded KLM Flight 588 in Lagos, Nigeria bound for Amsterdam. There he connected to Northwest Airlines 253, heading for Detroit in an Airbus A330 bearing the colours of the airline's new owner, Delta.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest, enforces European carry-on luggage regulations including only allowing liquids in containers of 100ml or less that must be placed inside clear plastic bags. Connecting passengers, including those at Schiphol, should routinely reclear security when connecting from another country.

Airports in Nigeria do not typically conduct tests for explosive residue on passengers' carry-on baggage and shoes. However, a spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria said the airport in Lagos had cleared a US Transportation Security Administration audit in November.

A federal “situational awareness” bulletin stated. “The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.”

“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said passenger Peter Smith. “First there was a pop, and then there was smoke.”

Another passenger Syed Jafri, who was three rows away, said: “There was a pop and everyone was startled. Then there was flames and fire and people started to panic. A young man behind me jumped on him.”

The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers. Reid is serving a life sentence.

A security briefing obtained by ABC News said that, following his arrest, Mutallab claimed to have been ordered by al-Qaeda to blow up a plane over US soil.

The briefing note said: "The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used."

Peter King, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said: “He’s not just a wannabe, there’s a record that he has. It was a somewhat sophisticated device.”

Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Mutallab may have had links with the radical Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

As revealed by the Telegraph last month al-Awlaki was known to have had email contacts with US army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, who allegedly gunned down 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.

Mr Hoekstra said: “The question we'll have to raise is was this imam in Yemen influential enough to get some people to attack the US again." Passengers said there was panic on the plane as the device started to ignite on the approach to Detroit.

Witnesses said that they saw the suspect - who was in seat 19A - emerge from the toilet with a pillow held over his stomach and a syringe in his hand.

He then injected the syringe into something held in his stomach area, possibly a powdery substance, and smoke and flames quickly followed.

"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said passenger Peter Smith. “First there was a pop, and then there was smoke."

Another passenger, Syed Jafri, who was three rows away, said: "There was a pop and everybody got a little bit startled. After a few seconds or so there was kind of flameish light and there was fire and people began to panic.

“Everybody was rushing towards that area and tried to get water, a blanket and fire extinguisher.”

He said a young man sat behind him rushed forward and tackled the suspect. “He took care of that suspect. He handled him pretty good. There was a little bit of a struggle and he got it under control."

The cabin crew helped drag the man to the front of the plane.

"He appeared to be stunned. He was calm,” said Mr Jafri.

Passenger Richelle Keepman said: "It was terrifying. I thought this was it. One guy put a lock on his head and dragged him to the front, his pants down.”

Passengers said the suspect had suffered severe burns to his legs.

The suspect later told authorities that he had explosive powder taped to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to mix with the powder and cause an explosion.

Initial reports were that fireworks or firecrackers had gone off on the plane.

Allen Hill Martian Meterorite Might Provide Proof of Life on Mars in the Past

NASA scientists have produced the most compelling evidence yet that bacterial life exists on Mars.

It showed that microscopic worm-like structures found in a Martian meteorite that hit the Earth 13,000 years ago are almost certainly fossilized bacteria. The so-called bio-morphs are embedded beneath the surface layers of the rock, suggesting that they were already present when the meteorite arrived, rather than being the result of subsequent contamination by Earthly bacteria.

"This is very strong evidence of life on Mars," said David Mackay, a senior scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center, who was part of the team of scientists that originally investigated the meteorite when it was discovered in 1984.


In a 1996 study of the sample, Dr Mackay and others argued that the microfossils were evidence of life, but sceptics dismissed the claims, saying that similar-shaped structures might not be biological. The new analyses, the product of high resolution electron microscopy, make a strong case for the Allan Hills 84001 Meteorite having carried Martian life to Earth. The microscopes were focused on tiny magnetite crystals present in the surface layers of the meteorite, which have the form of simple bacteria. Some argued that these could be the result of a carbonate breaking down in the heat of the impact.

The new analyses show that this is very unlikely to have resulted in the kinds of structures seen in the rock. Close examination suggested that about 25 percent of the crystal structures were chemically consistent with being formed from bacteria.

"We feel vindicated. We’ve shown the alternate explanation is absolutely incorrect, leading us back to our original position that these structures are formed by bacteria on Mars," Dr Mackay said.

Dennis Bazylinski, an astrobiologist from the University of Nevada who peer-reviewed the findings, said: "Until now I was on the fence but this paper has really thrown out the non-biological explanation." However, he added that the study was not a "smoking gun" for life on Mars. "One meteorite is never going to answer such a complex question," he said.

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Allan Hills 84001 (commonly abbreviated ALH 84001[1]) is a meteorite that was found in Allan Hills, Antarctica on December 27, 1984 by a team of US meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the group of SNCs (shergottite, nakhlite, chassignite), ALH 84001 is thought to be from Mars. On discovery, its mass was 1.93 kg. It made its way into headlines worldwide in 1996 when scientists announced that it might contain evidence for microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria.



This rock is theorized to be one of the oldest pieces of the solar system, proposed to have crystallized from molten rock 4.5 billion years ago. Based on hypotheses surrounding attempts to identify where extraterrestrial rocks come from, it is supposed to have originated on Mars and is related to other Martian meteorites.

In September 2005, Vicky Hamilton of the University of Hawaii at Manoa presented an analysis of the origin of ALH 84001 using data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft orbiting Mars. According to the analysis, Eos Chasma in the Valles Marineris canyon appears to be the source of the meteorite.[2] The analysis was not conclusive, in part because it was limited to parts of Mars not obscured by dust.

The theory holds that ALH 84001 was shocked and broken by one or more meteorite impacts on the surface of Mars some 3.9 to 4.0 billion years ago, but remained on the planet. It was later blasted off from the surface in a separate impact about 15 million years ago and impacted Earth roughly 13,000 years ago. These dates were established by a variety of radiometric dating techniques, including samarium-neodymium (Sm-Nd), rubidium-strontium (Rb-Sr), potassium-argon (K-Ar), and carbon-14.[3][4]

It is hypothesized that ALH 84001 originated from a time period during which water may have existed on Mars.[5] Other meteorites that have potential biological markings have generated less interest because they do not originate from a "wet" Mars. ALH 84001 is the only meteorite collected from such a time period.[5]

The announcement of possible extraterrestrial life caused considerable controversy at the time and opened up interest in Martian exploration. When the discovery was announced, many immediately conjectured that the fossils were the first true evidence of extraterrestrial life—making headlines around the world, and even prompting U.S. President Bill Clinton to make a formal televised announcement to mark the event.[8]

When is Obama going to combine the War on Terriorism with the War on Drugs?

Slaying of drug war hero's family shocks Mexico - KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports, classifieds-:

"MEXICO CITY (AP) - Assailants on Tuesday gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a marine killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders - sending a chilling message to troops battling the drug war: You go after us, we wipe out your families.The brazen pre-dawn slayings came just hours after the navy honored Melquisedet Angulo as a national hero at a memorial service.
'The message is very clear: It's to intimidate not only the government but its flesh and blood,' said Jorge Chabat, a Mexican expert on drug cartels. 'It's to intimidate those in the armed forces so they fear not only for their own lives, but the lives of their families.'"

Melquisedec Angulo Cordova


The Mexican marine was killed during a shootout last week that resulted in the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva, one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords. Angulo Cordova was buried Monday with his country's highest military honors. Early Tuesday, gunmen broke into the marine's family's home in the southern state of Tabasco and opened fire, killing his mother, his sister and a third relative, and injuring his brother, according to Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The killing of Angulo Cordova's family members has raised speculation in Mexico that it was an act of retaliation by Beltran Leyva's drug cartel, CNN en Español reported.