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Parcel Cargo Reechoes Abdulmutallab's Inanity
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published November 10th, 2010
- Washington File
- Unrated
The foiled airline bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas day 2009 returned to the front burner in public discussions with the foiled parcel bomb a fort night ago. At different for a and in most media in the USA, discussions of the parcel bomb do not start and end without reference to the annoying Mutallab episode.
Findings show there are indeed some meeting points in both cases. First is that both attempted bombing emanatd from Yemen, a country fast giving itself the status of breeding ground of bombs planting. Reports say the two packages, later intercepted in Dubai and Britain, had been sent from the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.
Qatar Airways confirmed that it had shipped on two passenger planes a parcel that originated in Yemen and was found to contain explosive materials.
The parcel first went from Sana'a to Doha and then on a second plane to Dubai where it was seized, after what officials said were intelligence tip-offs. The airline said that responsibility for cargo inspections lay with the country of origin, in this case Yemen, and not with transit countries or carriers.
The second bomb parcel was discovered in Britain's East Midlands Airport, where it had arrived via the German city of Cologne. Already Germany has banned arrivals of all air cargo from Yemen, Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer said. Another confluence area between the failed Christmas bomb in Detroit and the parcel bomb is the individual behind them. Although unconfirmed, but speculations are rife that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri is behind both terrorist acts.
US officials have said Saudi-born bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al- Asiri, is linked to the case, though they say other people are also involved. He is said to have been linked to numerous attacks originating in Yemen. "I think the indications are right now based on the forensics analysis that it's an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together, the same (person)," John Brennan told the US television channel ABC.
He was referring to the latest packages as well as a bomb which was used in an assassination attempt on Saudi Arabia's top counterterrorism official and the Christmas Day attempt last year to blow up an airliner over Detroit.
In the same vein the White House's top counterterrorism official said the same individual was likely to be behind several bombs originating from Yemen.
Brennan said on various US Sunday morning television programmes that authorities were still searching for other packages that might contain explosives, saying that in his mind the "sophistication" of the two intercepted packages so far indicate that "it was an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula effort".
Besides the above common ground in both the Abdulmutalab and parcel bomb episode is the type of explosive in use, PETN,
What is PETN?
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT is said to be one of the most powerful high explosives known, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1.66. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton. In addition to being used as a plastic explosive, it is also used as a vasodilator drug to treat certain heart conditions. It was discovered in the bombs used by the 2001 Shoe Bomber, in the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, and in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot.
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate is an extremely powerful plastic explosive. The white powder is popular with extremists because it is available on the black market and very difficult to detect at airport checkpoints. Many countries have tight restrictions on the purchase of PETN, which can be bought in powder form or in thin plastic sheets, but it can also be made from chemicals available over the counter. PETN is used legally by the military and in industries such as mining, where it is used in detonation fuses. PETN is mixed with other chemicals to make Semtex.
How does it work?
As explosives go, PETN is reasonably stable. The substance is usually detonated by a secondary device that produces heat or a shockwave. PETN is difficult to detonate with a naked flame, as demonstrated by the shoe bomber Richard Reid, who tried to bring down an American Airlines flight in 2001 with PETN concealed in one of his boots. More often, a blasting cap is used to set it off.
Failed attempts
Another interesting denominator of both plots is that they all ended a failed attack to kill innocent individuals. As a CNN contributor, Thomas Finetun puts it, "it's the same bomb maker, but he or they are not creative as they follow same procedure." The list goes on: Richard Reid's bomb failed to go off because the fuse got damp while he waited to board the plane. Unable to light it, he attempted to set fire to the explosive itself. Abdulmutallab's chemical detonator was designed to generate enough heat to explode the PETN he was carrying. Officials have not released details of why the bomb failed to go off. Carlos the Jackal used PETN in 1983 to attack the Maison de France, the French cultural centre in Berlin.
Why is it hard to detect?
PETN is non-metallic so it does not show up in x-ray machines. Because it is so energetic, only small amounts of the explosive are used, and these can easily be hidden on the body or in electrical equipment. PETN-based bombs can be detected by the electrical wiring and detonators that accompany them, but there are ways around this. If the bomb is built into electrical equipment, such as a printer, it can easily be missed amid the device's own wiring and components.
On Christmas day last year, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid PETN in his underpants in a failed attack on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. The bomb escaped detection in part because Abdulmutallab used a plastic syringe filled with a chemical detonator that was hard to spot with an x-ray scanner. Last summer, Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, the brother of the man suspected of building the latest devices, tried to assassinate the Saudi deputy interior minister after evading security detectors by hiding a PETN-based bomb inside his body. Around 100g of PETN is enough to destroy a car.
The Only Difference
The interesting and fortunate thing for Nigeria in the recent incident is that Abdulmutallab is now seen as an individual terrorist without necessarily mentioning his country of origin, Nigeria.
This is very different from the situation immediately after the failed Christmas day attempted bombing when at every mention of the kid bomber, his nationality was mentioned, a development that portrayed Nigeria in a very bad light. Nigerians both at home and abroad rose up steadily against their country being categorized as a terrorist country.
Findings show there are indeed some meeting points in both cases. First is that both attempted bombing emanatd from Yemen, a country fast giving itself the status of breeding ground of bombs planting. Reports say the two packages, later intercepted in Dubai and Britain, had been sent from the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.
Qatar Airways confirmed that it had shipped on two passenger planes a parcel that originated in Yemen and was found to contain explosive materials.
The parcel first went from Sana'a to Doha and then on a second plane to Dubai where it was seized, after what officials said were intelligence tip-offs. The airline said that responsibility for cargo inspections lay with the country of origin, in this case Yemen, and not with transit countries or carriers.
The second bomb parcel was discovered in Britain's East Midlands Airport, where it had arrived via the German city of Cologne. Already Germany has banned arrivals of all air cargo from Yemen, Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer said. Another confluence area between the failed Christmas bomb in Detroit and the parcel bomb is the individual behind them. Although unconfirmed, but speculations are rife that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri is behind both terrorist acts.
US officials have said Saudi-born bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al- Asiri, is linked to the case, though they say other people are also involved. He is said to have been linked to numerous attacks originating in Yemen. "I think the indications are right now based on the forensics analysis that it's an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together, the same (person)," John Brennan told the US television channel ABC.
He was referring to the latest packages as well as a bomb which was used in an assassination attempt on Saudi Arabia's top counterterrorism official and the Christmas Day attempt last year to blow up an airliner over Detroit.
In the same vein the White House's top counterterrorism official said the same individual was likely to be behind several bombs originating from Yemen.
Brennan said on various US Sunday morning television programmes that authorities were still searching for other packages that might contain explosives, saying that in his mind the "sophistication" of the two intercepted packages so far indicate that "it was an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula effort".
Besides the above common ground in both the Abdulmutalab and parcel bomb episode is the type of explosive in use, PETN,
What is PETN?
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT is said to be one of the most powerful high explosives known, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1.66. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton. In addition to being used as a plastic explosive, it is also used as a vasodilator drug to treat certain heart conditions. It was discovered in the bombs used by the 2001 Shoe Bomber, in the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, and in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot.
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate is an extremely powerful plastic explosive. The white powder is popular with extremists because it is available on the black market and very difficult to detect at airport checkpoints. Many countries have tight restrictions on the purchase of PETN, which can be bought in powder form or in thin plastic sheets, but it can also be made from chemicals available over the counter. PETN is used legally by the military and in industries such as mining, where it is used in detonation fuses. PETN is mixed with other chemicals to make Semtex.
How does it work?
As explosives go, PETN is reasonably stable. The substance is usually detonated by a secondary device that produces heat or a shockwave. PETN is difficult to detonate with a naked flame, as demonstrated by the shoe bomber Richard Reid, who tried to bring down an American Airlines flight in 2001 with PETN concealed in one of his boots. More often, a blasting cap is used to set it off.
Failed attempts
Another interesting denominator of both plots is that they all ended a failed attack to kill innocent individuals. As a CNN contributor, Thomas Finetun puts it, "it's the same bomb maker, but he or they are not creative as they follow same procedure." The list goes on: Richard Reid's bomb failed to go off because the fuse got damp while he waited to board the plane. Unable to light it, he attempted to set fire to the explosive itself. Abdulmutallab's chemical detonator was designed to generate enough heat to explode the PETN he was carrying. Officials have not released details of why the bomb failed to go off. Carlos the Jackal used PETN in 1983 to attack the Maison de France, the French cultural centre in Berlin.
Why is it hard to detect?
PETN is non-metallic so it does not show up in x-ray machines. Because it is so energetic, only small amounts of the explosive are used, and these can easily be hidden on the body or in electrical equipment. PETN-based bombs can be detected by the electrical wiring and detonators that accompany them, but there are ways around this. If the bomb is built into electrical equipment, such as a printer, it can easily be missed amid the device's own wiring and components.
On Christmas day last year, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid PETN in his underpants in a failed attack on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. The bomb escaped detection in part because Abdulmutallab used a plastic syringe filled with a chemical detonator that was hard to spot with an x-ray scanner. Last summer, Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, the brother of the man suspected of building the latest devices, tried to assassinate the Saudi deputy interior minister after evading security detectors by hiding a PETN-based bomb inside his body. Around 100g of PETN is enough to destroy a car.
The Only Difference
The interesting and fortunate thing for Nigeria in the recent incident is that Abdulmutallab is now seen as an individual terrorist without necessarily mentioning his country of origin, Nigeria.
This is very different from the situation immediately after the failed Christmas day attempted bombing when at every mention of the kid bomber, his nationality was mentioned, a development that portrayed Nigeria in a very bad light. Nigerians both at home and abroad rose up steadily against their country being categorized as a terrorist country.
