Has Al Qaida Developed a New and Improved Liquid Explosive?

[jimmy olsen]

Wow, if this is true, that's amazing.

How the hell would we stop that? 

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/us-officials-are-worried-about-new-improved-liquid-explosive/67994/

U.S. Officials Are Worried About a New and Improved Liquid Explosive
AP

Abby Ohlheiser Aug 5, 2013

U.S. officials are worried that Al Qaeda has a new liquid explosive technique that can't be detected by current security measures, according to the latest trickle of U.S. official-sourced stories in the wake of the unprecedented embassy closures across the Middle East this week.

The story, up at ABC, adds some details to the general sense of why U.S. intelligence was so worried about the latest threat, and the significance of the threat's reported origin in Yemen: that's where Ibrahim al-Asiri is based, a.k.a. the guy behind the bombs constructed for the "underwear bomber" plot of 2009, along with an attempt on a Saudi intelligence chief's life using a bomb surgically implanted into the assassin. ABC explains that the newest idea, believed to be from al-Asiri, "allows terrorists to dip ordinary clothing into the liquid to make the clothes themselves into explosives once dry." Officials are also worried about a repeat attempt with a surgically-implanted bomb.

Meanwhile, the press is learning more details on the previously-reported intercepted message that led U.S. officials to the plot, which is reportedly in its final stages. While we already knew that Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri had threatened revenge on the U.S. for a series of drone strikes in the country, a New York Times piece today discloses that the messages intercepted by the U.S. were between al-Zawahri, along with Arabian Peninsula head Nasser al-Wuhayshi (now believed to be the number 2 of the whole organization).

Even as more details emerge, the overall picture remains murky. In a press briefing today, White House spokesman Jay Carney sort of denied that the threat could reach domestically, while reiterating that U.S. intelligence doesn't really know at this point where the planned attack was targeting, only that it was "serious." From their embassy closures, one would have already guessed that officials narrowed down that threat to American government properties in the Middle East. 

[CountDeMoney]

Everybody boarding a plane in discomfort or saying they've had recent surgery is getting a bomb-sniffing Belgian Malinois up their ass.

[Siege]

I have a solution.
But it will be not too popular with today's Languish, full of liberals.

[The Minsky Moment]

Try yesterday's Languish, full of it.

[Siege]

Try yesterday's Languish, full of it.

You have also become far more liberal than you used to be.
Old age?

[Razgovory]

Try yesterday's Languish, full of it.

You have also become far more liberal than you used to be.
Old age?

You used to be a socialist.

[The Minsky Moment]

You have also become far more liberal than you used to be.
Old age?

You can't always assume that what people post really reflects 100% what they think.  Part of the point of this kind environment is to go against the grain or take a position to see how it plays out.
In the old days in EUOT I leaned more to the right because there was a lot of lefty and anti-Zionist silliness.   Here it is different.
Overall, in the course of my life I think I have moved to the right as the standard Churchullian model predicts (or was it Disraeli?), although not radically.
At the same time, I also think the US GOP has moved pretty definitively to the right over the last 20 years, and that has hardened my own partisanship if not ideology.  Assessing relative motion is always tricky however. 

[Razgovory]

You have also become far more liberal than you used to be.
Old age?

You can't always assume that what people post really reflects 100% what they think.  Part of the point of this kind environment is to go against the grain or take a position to see how it plays out.
In the old days in EUOT I leaned more to the right because there was a lot of lefty and anti-Zionist silliness.   Here it is different.
Overall, in the course of my life I think I have moved to the right as the standard Churchullian model predicts (or was it Disraeli?), although not radically.
At the same time, I also think the US GOP has moved pretty definitively to the right over the last 20 years, and that has hardened my own partisanship if not ideology.  Assessing relative motion is always tricky however.

Yeah, I remember taking a lot more right wing positions back on Pdox.  You had a lot more crazy goof ball Communists and the like.

[Viking]

I have a solution.
But it will be not too popular with today's Languish, full of liberals.

Banning the religion of Islam?

[Josquius]

I have a solution.
But it will be not too popular with today's Languish, full of liIircberals.

Banning the religion of Islam?

Kill all the semitic peoples?

[Razgovory]

I have a solution.
But it will be not too popular with today's Languish, full of liIircberals.

Banning the religion of Islam?

Kill all the semitic peoples?

The two European dreams.

[Warspite]

Any chemists here who could say whether this sort of invention is plausible?

[viper37]

A long detailed article from Time Magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148173,00.html

He's the brains behind the attempted assassination of a top Saudi counterterrorism official in the summer of 2009, the failed attack on a Detroit-bound plane Christmas 2009 and the plot that nearly brought down two cargo planes in October of 2010. In late July, the head of the transportation administration revealed new details of al-Asiri's latest, most dangerous device, an updated underwear bomb that had fail-safe triggers and used a new kind of explosive that was even harder to detect. Al-Asiri built that bomb for an attack in May 2012 timed to the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death, but the plot was foiled by a double agent who gave the device to the FBI.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148173,00.html#ixzz2bP1UStuK

[Viking]

Any chemists here who could say whether this sort of invention is plausible?

It is plausible. But very very very difficult. The problem I envision here is more of the kind that having an explosive that won't explode when somebody bumps up to you in the check in line AND doesn't require a small chemical lab to extract it from the clothes would be rather difficult.

[mongers]

Any chemists here who could say whether this sort of invention is plausible?

The way I used to dress, now that was a timebomb waiting to go off.