Bomb plot puzzle

skydog

These bombs were presumably sent by airmail. So why didn't they explode when the aircraft was airborne? Faulty pressure switches? I don't think so.

DeeJay

Dah? To be accepted as air freight I assume that the consignment would require an addressee (as well as a sender)or am I missing the point....
The only surprise to my mind is that in this computerised age a package sent from the hotbed of militant Islam - Yeman, to a Jewish group in middle America, didn't trigger an immediate, cautionary response. Perhaps it did.

What is the point you are trying to make Melanie?

Adam F

Could it not be as straightforward as the terrorist were hedging thier bets. If their bombs went off in the air it would be from thier prespective a succuss, and if they reached their intended targets, that also in the twisted world of Islamic terror would be a succuss. However, there may be more to it and we will have to wait and see.

It does seem a little odd however that they would draw attention to the packages in this way. I mean how many letters do US Synagogues normally recieve from the Yemen?

Pete

I'm going to take a guess and say it's because "Mid-air explosion" might have attracted some scrutiny.

Worried

Taking a purely pragmatic neutral somewhat sceptical view of all this, my take of options:
1. Move spotlight once again way from Western adventures around the world, and intentionally have the chattering classes blame Israel rather than us for venturing into the ME for their oil. IE, the bombs were built, placed and 'discovered' by the West, which means MI6/CIA.
2. Mossad attempting to gain the Jews some empathy.
3. Related to 1, MI6/CIA together (sounds like Spooks I know) arranged this to ensure no one allows the chairman of BA to effect airport security. IE, it was the West again.
4. A legitimate attempt at terror, but again, to get the world's eyes to fall on the Jews/Israel as a way to get the West to force Israel to capitulate, which of course it won't. (Hence addressed to random Synagogues.)

These packages were meant to be discovered and probably never to detonate. Where were the timers?

I for one don't know what to believe. The modern world (like the old one) is such a murky mess, unless one is some form of omnipresent being, it doesn't seem very easy to work out what's going on. It's like watching a football match, with your eye only on one player for the whole game, and listening to a commentator who is biased in one direction or the other, but never impartial.

TomTOm

So if we take off our belts, unpack our laptops, have our bodies scanned, let our fluids be confiscated, and take off our shoes we can share the plane with bombs packed in laser printers down in the hold.....superb !

Si

I would have thought the most obvious use for including mobile phone SIM cards in the devices would be detonation whilst in range of a cell network. This could be manual remote, or even auto location triangulation + delay if the data is precise enough. I'm unsure how useful that kind of technology would be in higher altitude attacks - the most important thing about the SIM is the ability to register on the network.

Regarding the synagogue addresses, I find it more likely that the real delivery address was needed, rather than being a risky stand-in address that was never intended to be reached.

Roger

I just love the arm chair experts on explosives.
As a 24 year veteran of HM armed forces explosives were you could say my forte.
If I were building these bombs I would use a mobile pnone as the trigger as there is far less chance of unintended detonation. Using my app for iphone I would track the plane. Once the plane begin descent I would then phone the number repeatedly until detonation.
The bomb is sent from a 3rd party and the only connection I would have with it is knowing the phone number and flight number which could easily be texted from anywhere in the world to me. You could even get some perfectly innocent 3rd party to call the number by sending a text such as `Hi, its John call me on 1234etc I`ve broken down` to 1000 random numbers, odds on someone will call you back!
Since most airports are near built up areas a 747 dropping in on you from 4000ft makes quite a mess, just ask the people of Lockerbie.
The problem is that home made explosives and circuitry is terribly unreliable. But hey they only have to get lucky once for a result, we have to be lucky everytime!
Skydog, faulty pressure switches,you`ve been watching too many movies. All you need is a explosives, a detonator and a timer or mobile phone. Incidentaly certain electronic components availible from places like maplins can be used as detonators when overloaded.
Our one saving grace is that at the moment they are pretty crap at building them, but that will change because if we don`t catch the bombmaker they will experiment and evolve exactly as they did in NI.

TerryG

Why? To make them look like ordinary mail.

Noah Aaron Bashi

No mid-air, they was intended to be detonate in the synagogue possibly on Shabbat day don't the stupid lefti Kuffars get this yet?

TomTom

SIM cards

ONLY work on GSM networks since CDMA does not use SIM cards.....so it would be those areas in the USA with GSM

lucien

Roger
are you saying that the bomb maker and the person who detonates ie the "Boss" can be totally independant.
the boss could be in South kensington and the bomb maker in Yemen?

Nick

I agree with 'Worried' - I suspect we will find the hand of Mossad in this. As Leibniz said of Newton "we recognise the tiger by his tail".

steve

It's the symbolism that's important. If the bombs had gone off as planned investigations would eventually have discovered which packages likely contained the bombs. The address conveys a double enemy for Islamist terrorists: Jews and the United States as represented by Pres Obama from Chicago. The message is not terribly subtle.

David D

Politicians in UK & USA won't (or can't) allow themselves to link anti-Israel or anti-Western terrorism to anti-Jewish activity, so it's comforting for them to take the mid-air explosion line. Generally, though, the most obvious answer is the right one, so as these bombs were addressed to Chicago synagogues that is where they would have been delivered if not detected, which must lead to the initial conclusion that they were meant for those Chicago synagogues. The mid-air explosion position is simply diverting attention away from another attempted attack on Jewish targets - so nothing new there.

Roger

lucien
November 1st, 2010 7:48am
Roger
are you saying that the bomb maker and the person who detonates ie the "Boss" can be totally independant.
the boss could be in South kensington and the bomb maker in Yemen

The actual boss may be in another country entirely. Only the agent that triggers the bomb needs to know the number and flight times.With the wonder of modern technology he could place the call from London,New York or Mogadishu. As long as the terrorists use a cell structure that prevents them from knowing each other it`s a pretty hard system to beat. If they use stolen or second hand mobiles to make the call how will you trace them.

Andy Gill

Nick
" I suspect we will find the hand of Mossad in this."

I suspect you are a moonbat. At least I've got some evidence for my suspicion. You have none for yours of course.

ahad ha'amoratsim

So let me get this straight -- in order to avert suspiscion, the bomber in Yemen chose an innocent address -- OF A SYNAGOGUE? Is that because so many synagogues order office supplies from Yemen? Or because so many folks in Yemen routinely send legitimate packages to US synagogues?

Come on. I realize we have to pretend that the evil occupation is at the root of this and that the murderers deep down are merely heoric patriots who have nothing against Jews, but this theory strikes me as about as likely as the theory that Mossad was behind the packages. And 9/11. And the Kennedy assassinations.

And the Black Death.

Louis Berk

I also am totally perplexed by the addressing of these packagages. And in fact, I was disbelieving of the whole 'intelligence from Saudi Arabia' report in the media because I assumed that the packages were discovered by the very simple rule of profiling: what is out of place about this? A package from the Yemen to a synagogue in Chicago? Sheesh!
But the government's insistence that it was intelligence from Saudi Arabia is either the most breathtaking lie (possible) or indeed it does confirm the incredible lack of simple security surrounding air cargo. But I still believe there is a deeper story and in fact, for once, I just hope the security services keep it to themselves because, you never know, if they did - they might even catch the perpetrators.

Bronson

If they were intended to be denoted in the Chicago synagogues why didn't one of the many extremists already in the US just construct the bomb locally and post it by US mail.

Frank P

Bronson

By Golly, I think you're on to something!

Just as: why doesn't a suicide bomber explode himself/herself in a crowded restaurant in a Georgetown, Washington bistro patronised by pols from the Hill?

Perhaps it's because (a) they don't wanna rock the boat too far, as they are doing quite nicely with the softee-softee demographical strategy, or (b) because they are a deluded, incompetent bumbling disparate and loose alliance of nutters who have been lucky with a few extravaganzas, but fucked up completely on scores of other occasions, or (c) both of the above.

WetherspoonThree

Correct, Bronson. And it would have been considerably cheaper to send. Local post in the States is fairly cheap by European standards and its considered by Amercians to be a very reliable service.
As Melanie has so shrewdly observed, there are many aspects of this case which do not add up..

Derek BLADES

Roger, October 31st, tells us that he is "a 24 year veteran of HM armed forces explosives".

May so but he is not a very observant veteran. What the TV showed us was some white stuff wired to what might have been the inside of a cell-phone. Did you see the detonator Roger? That's one of the first things you chaps are supposed to look for. There wasn't one. They were joke bombs which is why the whole thing will be quietly forgotten in a day or two.

Roger

Derek BLADES
November 2nd, 2010 2:22pm
Roger, October 31st, tells us that he is "a 24 year veteran of HM armed forces explosives".

May so but he is not a very observant veteran. What the TV showed us was some white stuff wired to what might have been the inside of a cell-phone. Did you see the detonator Roger? That's one of the first things you chaps are supposed to look for. There wasn't one. They were joke bombs which is why the whole thing will be quietly forgotten in a day or two.

Derek I was not aware that you had unfettered access to examine this device. However if this was a conventional detonator it would have been removed and disposed of. Detonators can be set off by both impact and static discharge so only a complete moron would stand there and take photographs with it in situ. However PETN can be detonated by electrostatic discharge alone hence the reason you can buy the parts at places like maplins and the reason why terrorists are favouring it so much. In which case the home made`detonator` would be encased within the PETN to maximise its effect. You would only have two wires visible going into the explosive.
However given your vast knowledge of everything under the sun I feel sure you knew that already.

G. Silver

What was the cause of the UPS cargo plane crash in Dubai September 2 2010? Perhaps that was the actual dry run!

Dave

A bomb plot made to be leaked to the world media, happy to scare us all with, what ifs!

Except the plots are becoming so obviously bogus, that it undermines real security (by crying wolf too often)and makes us sceptical of everything we are told.

Still I'm sure there is a profit in it for someone!