Shoe bomb (fwd)

[Eugene Leitl]

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 22:32:31 -0500
From: shivers at cc.gatech.edu
To: silent-tristero at world.std.com
Subject: Shoe bomb


At 1:02 am -0800 12/26/01, Talley, Brooks wrote:
>This guy, for example, tried to light plastic explosives with a fuse
>(10% success rate at most), using a smelly match rather than a lighter,
>and did so while sitting in his seat rather than in a lavatory.  Was he
>asking to be caught, or just incredibly stupid?

He was seated close to the fuel tank. The explosive is essentially just
a primer for the fuel.

The following article is pretty unsettling, in that it makes the case that
  - the technique is carefully thought out, and
  - there will be more of these attacks, and
  - there aren't good ways to stop them.

    -Olin

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/06/MN222117.DTL
Shoe-bomb flight -- a trial run?
U.S., British officials fear similar attacks in the works
Simon Reeve, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, January 6, 2002

London -- As investigators gather evidence about possible links between
alleged airline shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaeda terrorist
organization, intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are
floating a disturbing theory: that Reid's bombing attempt may have been a
"trial run" for future, simultaneous attacks against passenger jets to be
carried out by supporters of Osama bin Laden.

U.S. and British intelligence officials believe that the British citizen on
American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 was a "foot
soldier" sent to check the destructive power of shoe bombs against civilian
targets.

One senior British intelligence official said there are indications that "more
than a few, but less than a dozen" individuals may be preparing similar
attacks in the near future.

These officials cite similarities with a weapon developed by Ramzi Yousef,
mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who plotted a series of
simultaneous attacks on U.S. airliners in the mid-1990s.

"There is a definite pattern here with Yousef's past attacks that we would be
foolish to ignore," said one highly placed intelligence official. "They have
tried this before, and they are trying it again."

During the flight, Reid allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his
shoes with a lighted match. Crew and passengers averted a disaster by jumping
on the 28-year-old London-born suspect.

"MOTHER OF SATAN" BOMBS

Preliminary studies by the FBI indicate Reid's black suede basketball shoes
contained between 8 and 10 ounces of the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or
TATP -- called "The Mother of Satan" by Palestinian militants, because its
inherent instability makes it dangerous to both the victims and bomb maker.

The TATP in Reid's shoes was "blended" with an explosive called PETN, or
pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which can be ignited with a normal cigarette
lighter. PETN is a key ingredient of Semtex, the Czech-made military explosive
used to down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

"These bombs are sophisticated devices," said the British intelligence
official. "They would have been difficult and dangerous to produce. Reid could
not have done this himself -- he would have trouble tying his own shoelaces.
It seems we may have an expert bomb maker on the loose in Europe."

LINKS TO 20TH HIJACKER

Among the links being pursued by investigators are telephone conversations,
known to British intelligence, between Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-
called "20th hijacker" who was indicted on conspiracy charges in connection
with the Sept. 11 attacks, and reports that the two worshiped at the same
mosque in London. Moussaoui's attorney entered a plea of not guilty for his
client in Virginia last week.

Investigators are also probing the origins of the money used by Reid, who has
no visible means of support, as he traveled to seven different countries last
year.

Among the cities Reid visited was Amsterdam. The Binnenlandse Veiligheids
Dienst (BVD), the Dutch security service, is trying to reconstruct Reid's
movements and to establish whether an al Qaeda cell there may be plotting
attacks on passenger jets.

Reid has told FBI agents that he contacted Dutch arms dealers via the Internet
and paid $1,800 for the explosives. But intelligence sources speculate that
Reid obtained them from an al Qaeda explosives expert in Amsterdam, who
adapted the shoes in preparation for Reid's attack.

FBI agents and British anti-terrorist officials, meanwhile, have concluded
that the shoe-bomb plot originated with the ideas of Yousef, an early al Qaeda
operative who suggested flying passenger jets into buildings.

'PROJECT BOJINKA' SIMILARITIES

After instigating the 1993 WTC bombing, which killed six people and injured
more than 1,000, the British-educated extremist was on the run from the FBI
for nearly two years before being captured. He is currently serving a life
sentence plus 240 years.

While on the lam in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East, Yousef trained
other bin Laden terrorists in the use of explosives and told them of a plan he
code-named "Project Bojinka" -- "bojinka" means "explosion" in Serbo-Croat --
which used a form of shoe bomb.

Designed as a terrorist "spectacular" that would instantly kill thousands of
people and eclipse every other terrorist atrocity in history, Yousef planned
to blow up 11 U.S. passenger jets scheduled to fly simultaneously over the Far
East in January 1995 by using tiny, undetectable bombs.

Yousef produced a stable, liquid form of nitroglycerine from an array of
chemicals, including sulfuric acid and nitrobenzene, and fashioned them into
devices undetectable by airport security devices, including X-ray machines. He
converted a Casio digital watch into a timing switch, hid the liquid
nitroglycerine in a contact lens case, with cotton wool as a stabilizer, and
then used two 9-volt batteries to power light-bulb filaments to spark an
explosion.

Yousef hid the bomb components in the heels of his shoes, knowing most airport
security systems do not scan the soles of feet.

"The parallels are really chilling," said a senior FBI official, referring to
the Reid case. The official added that security devices to detect explosives
on passengers are still in the development stage.

Another similarity noted by investigators was the placement of the shoe bomb
components. Having obtained Boeing blueprints, Yousef calculated the most
devastating place to detonate his bombs was in a seat above the center fuel
tank, adjacent to the wing. The bomb alone would not destroy the plane, but it
would detonate the fuel, ripping the jet apart. Reid, perhaps following
Yousef's example, chose a window seat close to the Boeing 767-300's fuel tank.

PHILIPPINES AIRLINE EXPLOSION

The "Bojinka" plot was aborted after chemicals Yousef was mixing in a Manila
kitchen caught fire and he had to flee to Pakistan, leaving behind details of
the plan for police to discover. But Yousef did stage his own trial run. In
December 1994, he assembled a bomb on a Philippines Airline flight, then left
it under a seat before deplaning the Boeing 747.

The resulting explosion on the next leg of the flight killed a Japanese
passenger, injured five others and forced the pilot to make an emergency
landing in Okinawa. Yousef would have needed only to increase slightly the
size of the bomb to ensure the plane's destruction.

Some investigators are so concerned about how far the parallels between Reid
and Yousef go that they have suggested "a more rigorous" interrogation of
Reid, designed to elicit any information he has about a possible second
"Bojinka" plot.

"There is significant concern about this guy," said the FBI official. "Does
the failure of his mission mean his cell will now go on the run? Possibly. But
in the past these groups have been very focused and do not easily turn from
their target."

Simon Reeve, a London-based investigative journalist and contributor to The
Chronicle, is the author of "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden
and the Future of Terrorism."