Trey Scott Atwater, the NDAA, and Fort Bragg â€“ Did We Just Dodge a Bullet?

by Scott Creighton
UPDATE: Yep. He's Special Forces (see info at the end of the article)
UPDATE 2: His PMOS classification is 18c3 which according to the List of United States Army careers is "18C Special Forces Engineer Sergeant" His PMOS was found on a Military Times listing .
Trey Scott Atwater is an unconventional warfare and demolitions expert. See US Army Info Site listing for PMOS 18c3 at the end of this article. "Performs and teaches tasks in demolitions, explosives.. Plans, teaches and performs sabotage operations with standard, nonstandard and improvised munitions and explosives."
UPDATE 3: As mentioned in the original article, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg does factor into this story as Atwater is assigned there.

"Lt. Col. Tom Bryant, a public affairs officer for the Army Special Operations Command, confirmed that Atwater is assigned to the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, which is at Fort Bragg, N.C." OA Online

On Saturday morning, a soldier from Fort Bragg has been arrested for trying to board Flight 3283 out of Midland, Texas with military grade C-4 high explosives in his carry-on bag. The ink still wet on Obama's signature on the NDAA and this soldier was heading back to Fort Bragg, home of Delta Force. Anyone thinking Waco?

Thirty-year-old Trey Scott Atwater, traveling with his family, was stopped going through the security scanner at the airport when a TSA agent noticed something odd in Atwater's carry-on luggage. Turns out it was C-4, a demolition grade military high explosive. No reports yet as too how much C-4 Atwater had in the bag or whether or not he brought it with him on the trip to Midland from Fort Bragg.
A spokesman for the FBI said that there was no immediate threat to civilians because Atwater wasn't found to be in possession of a detonator at the time of his arrest.
I'm not so sure.
Immediately after it was discovered that Mr. Atwater had high grade explosives in his carry-on bag, the security at the airport should have detained every other passenger who was boarding that flight and checked to see if any of them had the detonator. They should have also immediately grounded that flight and searched the plane itself to see if perhaps the detonator was already aboard. Seems like they found one piece of the puzzle and never thought to look for the rest.
If you were going to attempt to put a bomb on a plane and then detonate it by remote, seems like the most effective way to do that (barring having someone on the inside like a baggage handler or a technician plant the explosive in the service area of the plane prior to take-off) would be to have several passengers bring on the components separately and then have one of them assemble it during the flight.
There is absolutely no reason for a soldier to take C-4 off base and back to his family get-together for show-and-tell. Maybe a twelve-year-old might think that's cool, but not a 30 year old man making a career out of the military. The repercussions would mean the end of his military career especially after taking that material on a commercial flight. This is not something a soldier would do lightly.
The online marketers are out in force where ever this story is being reported claiming that it isn't that odd for a soldier to do something like this because, as they say, many soldiers take things like grenades off base. But grenades and C-4 are two totally different animals. You can show off a grenade to someone and they know immediately what it is. C-4 looks like a block of clay, not too impressive to say the least. You take a grenade and you're just showing it off, you take C-4 and you have a purpose.
There is another aspect of C-4 that should be considered and that is C-4 is made with taggants. These are chemical markers built into the chemical make-up of the explosive. Were the FBI to be interested in finding out exactly where this material came from and who had it before Mr. Atwater, then they could very easily. But my guess is, they wont.
Here's one last bit of information to chew on: Mr. Atwater is stationed at Fort Bragg. What else is housed at Fort Bragg?

John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School
United States Army Special Operations Command
4th Psychological Operations Group
United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D) is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units.

Here's a little more information on Delta Forceâ€¦

Delta Force's primary tasks are counter-terrorism, direct action, and national intervention operations, although it is an extremely versatile group capable of assuming many covert missions, including, but not limited to, rescuing hostages and raids.[SUP][3][/SUP]
The Central Intelligence Agencys highly secretive Special Activities Division(SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) often recruits operators from Delta Force.

It might just be a coincidence, but let's put this into current events perspective. Obama had JUST signed the NDAA 2012 which would allow for the use of the military on the ground, in the U.S. to arrest and detain citizens suspected of committing terrorist acts and here we have a guy from Fort Bragg, possibly Delta Force but we don't know yet, boarding a plane with high explosives.
Another interesting thing about Delta Force, killing U.S. citizens is nothing new to them. Remember Waco?

"Boykin and Schoomacher were present because the Army's Fort Bragg-based Combat Applications Group-popularly known as the Delta Force-had been enlisted as part of the assault team on the Branch Davidian Compound. It appears that President Clinton had signed a waiver of the Posse Comitatus Act, with the precedent being Ronald Reagan's revocation of the Act in 1987, allowing the Delta Force to be involved in suppressing the Atlanta prison riot." Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

It might be worthwhile to note that Timothy McVeigh had wanted to join Special Forces when he got back from his military service and the official story goes that he was rejected due to his psychological evaluation but there is substantial evidence that McVeigh was actually accepted into Special Forces. Special Forces are out of Fort Bragg, United States Army Special Operations Command
Was this a psyop gone wrong? Was this another special operation to justify the crack down on U.S. citizens? Is Atwater Delta force? Did he intend to set up a charge to be detonated by remote on the next flight?
Don't worry, the FBI is heading up the "investigation". They're the same guys who "investigated" the anthrax attacks just after 9/11. They'll get to the bottom of it.
UPDATE: One of the readers here found this announcement of Mr. Atwater's return from Afghanistan back in 2010. He is Green Beret, Special Forces out of Fort Bragg.

"The Permian Basin Welcome Home Committee is rounding up people to greet Staff Sgt. Trey Atwater of the U.S. Army.
Atwater is scheduled to return to Midland at 4:24 p.m. Friday at the Midland International Airport.
He is the son of Bonnie Awater of Midland and is a 1999 graduate of Midland Lee High School. His wife, Tamra, and his two sons, Trent and Ty, will accompany Atwater.
Atwater is a Green Beret and is scheduled for a third tour of duty in Afghanistan in July." OA Online

The following is from Wikipedia Special Forces web page.

"The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Beretsbecause of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations forcetasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and counter-terrorism. The first two emphasize language, cultural, and training skills in working with foreign troops. Other duties include combat search and rescue(CSAR), security assistance, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian demining, counter-proliferation, psychological operations,manhunts, and counter-drug operations; other components of the United States Special Operations Command or other U.S. government activities may also specialize in these secondary areas.[SUP][3][/SUP] Many of their operational techniques are classified, but some nonfiction works[SUP][4][/SUP] and doctrinal manuals are available.[SUP][5][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP]
The original and most important mission of the Special Forces had been "unconventional warfare", while other capabilities, such as direct action, were developed over time." Wikipedia page Special Forces

This doesn't prove anything one way or the other about why Mr. Atwater boarded a commercial airliner with military grade high explosives, but it is rather interesting isn't it?
UPDATE:
MOS 18C: Special Forces Engineer Sergeant

Major Duties: Employs conventional and unconventional warfare tactics and techniques in combat engineering and maintains detachment engineer equipment and supplies. Duties for MOS 18C at each level of skill are:
Skill Levels Skill Level 3 MOSC 18C3O. Performs and maintains proficiency in all major duties. Performs and teaches tasks in demolitions, explosives, improvised munitions, U.S. and foreign landmines, mine/counter-mine operations, construction, field fortification, bridging, rigging, electrical wiring, reconnaissance, target analysis and civil action projects. Instructs and performs land and water navigation duties by interpreting maps, overlays, photos, charts and using standard and nonstandard navigational techniques and equipment. Plans, teaches and performs sabotage operations with standard, nonstandard and improvised munitions and explosives. Plans, prepares and conducts the target portion of the area study and conducts briefings, briefba-cks and debriefings. Supervises combat engineering functions when conducting split-detachment operations and missions.