British Airport security - the rationale

[Jan Klimkowski]

Here's the MSM scientific line on PETN:

PETN: the explosive of choice

Major ingredient of Semtex is one of the most powerful, and difficult to detect, explosives available to terrorists

Robin McKie guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 October 2010 16.50 BST

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, is a major ingredient of Semtex and belongs to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. It is one of the most powerful explosives made today and is a favourite among terrorists because its colourless crystals are hard to detect in a sealed container.

PETN is relatively stable and is detonated either by heat or a shockwave. A little more than 100g of PETN could destroy a car, experts say.

Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber", tried to set off a PETN device on an American Airlines jet to Miami in 2001, and this summer a suicide bomber tried to assassinate a member of the Saudi royal family with a PETN-based bomb inside his body.

"If you can lay your hands on a reliable source, it would be the explosive of choice," said Hans Michels, an explosives expert at Imperial College, London.

In December, PETN was found in the possession of 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. According to US security officials he had attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit airport from Amersterdam. Abdulmutallab was in a window seat and had the device strapped to his left leg, against the body of the plane. The idea was almost certainly to blow a hole in the aircraft so decompression would tear it apart.

Abdulmutallab's bomb involved a syringe and a soft plastic container filled with 80g of PETN. Experts believe the syringe may have been converted into an electrical detonator or, more likely, it was was filled with a liquid detonator, such as nitroglycerin, which would have made the device extremely hard to detect through the usual airport security measures.

Abdulmutallab cleared security in Lagos and Amsterdam after passing through a metal detector and having had x-rays done of his hand luggage. The lack of an explosion on the flight meant there was almost certainly a failure between the primary and the main charge so that the PETN did not fully detonate.

However, a test explosion on a decommissioned Boeing 747 in March showed that the flight would have landed safely even if Abdulmutallab's bomb had detonated successfully. In the test, carried out by Dr John Wyatt, an explosives adviser to the UN, the plane's fuselage did not break open. However experts say the test blast showed the suspected bomber and the passenger next to him would have been killed.

I found this little scientific nugget on Fox News (amazingly enough):

What is the Explosive PETN?
PETN: easy to ship, hard to detonate

Updated: Monday, 28 Dec 2009, 10:32 PM CST
Published : Monday, 28 Dec 2009, 10:32 PM CST

MINNEAPOLIS - There have been many questions surrounding the explosive, PETN, which the terrorist attempted to use on the plane to Detroit.

Chris Cramer is a chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota, and used to be a chemical weapons officer for the U.S. Army. He says PETN or penttaerythritol terannitrate was a challenging choice for the terrorist aboard flight 253.

“It wasn't a very well chosen approach from a terroristic standpoint because PETN is hard to make detonate,” said Cramer.

Cramer says powder PETN is commonly used as a military and industrial explosive for that very reason. While it is extremely powerful it's not as shock sensitive as other explosives.

“The reason they are readily available is because they are hard to detonate you can ship them in 18-wheeler trucks.”

Back in 2001, Richard Reid also tried to use PETN on a plane, and hid the explosive in his shoe. But all he set off was more safety precautions.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/...ec-28-2009

The false flags, my friend, are blowing in the wind.....