Well, dry ice bombs are in the rec.pyrotechnics FAQ, stored among other places at: http://www.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/faq/pyrotechnics-faq and everyplace else all the news.answers FAQs are stored. What, precisely, is an acid bomb? Also note the standard blame-the-Internet (not, say, increased irritation with government after the Republicans failed to reduce it) rhetoric. -Allen

Cobb Group - Netscape

NUMBER OF LEGITIMATE BOMB THREATS HAVE INCREASED IN L.A. OVER 1995

Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Los Angeles Daily News

LOS ANGELES (Aug 1, 1996 10:11 a.m. EDT) -- A bomb threat closed the entire roadway network within the Los Angeles International Airport for 45 minutes, creating a massive traffic tangle that came on top of delays from heightened security.

[...]

Police say the case is the latest in a rash of bomb threats and suspicious package discoveries in Los Angeles borne of heightened concern and publicity surrounding the recent bombing at the Olympics, the mysterious crash of TWA Flight 800 and last year's Oklahoma City bombing.

Each threat is taken seriously by law enforcement officials, who who say they are responding to a greater number of calls -- and, in Los Angeles County, finding a greater number of explosive devices.

A Sheriff's Department spokesman said 178 potentially explosive devices have been found in the county out of a total of 273 calls answered in the first six months of this year.

By contrast, only 86 such devices were found out of 259 calls in the first half of 1995.

[...]

"We're going to top 70 for the month -- that is a record in this unit," Spencer said. "And the actual devices that really cause damage has gone up."

Among devices found by sheriff's deputies: nine pipe bombs, 53 pieces of military ordnance, 44 Molotov cocktails, 12 fireworks-pyrotechnic devices, two acid bombs and five dry ice bombs.

In the city, the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad responded to 972 calls in 1995 -- up from 717 in 1994.

Of those calls last year, 181 were for either fireworks, ordnance or other potentially threatening items, police said.

The squad destroyed 73 devices and investigated 41 explosions -- many in mailboxes -- that occurred over the year. Most calls, however, were for suspicious packages that turned out to be harmless.

"We have had an excessive amount of bomb calls on the heels of the pipe bombing in Atlanta," said Lt. Tony Alba, an LAPD spokesman. "They have been running around like crazy ever since the Atlanta incident, a lot of suspicious package calls."

[...]

Also on Wednesday, 55 miles north of downtown Los Angeles in Lancaster, the sheriff's bomb squad was summoned to the parking lot at an Elks Lodge where deputies found a homemade device -- which included half-sticks of dynamite and BBs.

[...]

And Monday, an Ensenada, Mexico-bound Carnival cruise ship, filled with 1,846 passengers, was forced to turn around and head back to port after a bomb threat was made. No bomb was found.

"To some it is a power thing," said Sgt. Al Humphries of the Sheriff's Department bomb squad. "With 20 cents and a mean spirit you can make a cruise ship turn around, or make an airplane turn back."

Spencer and security experts agree media attention that focused on bombs in the aftermath of the Centennial Olympic Park and TWA explosions have factored into the flurry of threats and reported suspicious packages.

William Daly, managing director at Kroll Associates, a New York-based security firm, said the activity will diminish as the spotlight fades.

"If you look after the World Trade Center bombing, there was a dramatic increase the next day, unfortunately tied to the attention on the issue," Daly said.

"These people who are on the fringe, they enjoy seeing emergency service, knowing that it is going to disrupt a city," he said. "This is the way they live out their fantasy. The more they see it being received and responded to, the more it will continue."

[...]

Spencer said information about bomb-making on the Internet may be the answer to the greater numbers of actual devices being made.

"This information is readily available on the Internet," he said. "What we've noticed is that a lot of juveniles have gotten the information off the Internet -- they admit it."

Alba said the most common devices found by the LAPD are pipe bombs and dry ice bombs, often used to blow up mailboxes.

Copyright © 1996 Nando.net