Friday, 5 February 2010

Nasty

Bosom Bombers

We don't know much about explosives but if the following report is accurate, then suicide bombing in airplanes is going to get much more difficult to counteract. Let's hope that the relevant authorities are preparing rapidly to counter this kind of threat.

It's pretty chilling that only five ounces of PETN, if exploded properly, would tear a hole in an aircraft.
Bosom bombers: Women have explosive breast implants
Authorities alarmed by possibility of surgically placed explosives
Posted: February 01, 2010
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

LONDON – Agents for Britain's MI5 intelligence service have discovered that Muslim doctors trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals have returned to their own countries to fit surgical implants filled with explosives, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up.

Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers. In their cases, the explosives are inserted in the appendix area or in a buttock. Both are parts of the body that diabetics use to inject themselves with their prescribed drugs.

The discovery of these methods was made after the London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up an airliner on Christmas Day with explosives he had stuffed inside his underpants.

Hours after he had failed, GCHQ – Britain's worldwide eavesdropping "spy in the sky" agency – began to pick up "chatter" emanating from Pakistan and Yemen that alerted MI5 to the creation of the lethal implants.

A hand-picked team was appointed by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, to investigate the threat. He described it as "one that can circumvent our defense." Top surgeons who work in the National Health Service confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.

In a report to Evans, one said:

"Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines. You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner."

Explosive experts at Britain's Porton Down biological and chemical warfare research center told MI5 that a sachet containing as little as five ounces of PETN when activated would blow "a considerable hole" in an airline's skin which would guarantee it would crash.


2 comments:

ZenTiger said...

and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner."

What, so only contact searches then??

Oh dear. It all sounds plausible, and if the topic wasn't so serious I'd suspect this to be a carefully designed prank by a teenage boy with a large breast fixation.

John Tertullian said...

Hi, Zen.

Would that it were the case.

However, it would be a rational extension of the tactics employed by the underpants bomber--so, as you say, it has the ring of plausibility. Moreover, we recall mention of the guy that tried to blow up the Saudi minister had PETN secreted within his body.

It seems that the only problem these folk are consistently having is the triggering device. Perfecting that will presumably be just a matter of time.
JT