Comments on: Changing the narrative

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 06:53:00 +0000

oh no, right you are, sorry.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 06:45:00 +0000

if it was TATP then that doesn't go off, except in the sense of bang.

I think that's wrong, Daniel, at least the Wikipedia (my only source of knowledge on this!) says :

"Once manufactured the material can degrade during storage, becoming less likely to explode."

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 06:36:00 +0000

I no longer believe that it was TATP. The only evidence for this is that TATP was found in the bath in Leeds but a) people have the funniest hobbies, particularly suicide nuts and b) the British police have a long and undistinguished track record of finding traces of explosives. I think they had military TNT, as was said shortly after the bombings; it’s a better fit with the low power of the explosions and the need for detonators. I also don’t believe the suggestion that the second set of bombs were so weak because the explosive had "gone off" – if it was TATP then that doesn’t go off, except in the sense of bang.

By: Chris Lightfoot

Chris Lightfoot — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 06:24:00 +0000

... they're using acetone peroxide, which shows, at least, that they don't have access to any commercial or military explosives.

Is this known for certain, by the way? It's (as you say) a poor choice because of its instability, though against that it's very simple to synthesise with easily-available materials. But the fact that they also appear to have been using separate detonators is then surprising -- where are they getting them from, and why couldn't they have just nicked explosives from the same place? (And why? It looks to me as if you could make an acetone peroxide bomb go off with a heated wire, which is backed up by this rather depressing discussion of suicide bombers in Palestine.)

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:46:00 +0000

Never mind that those particular clowns have conclusively proved that they couldn't blow up a balloon,

John, they're using acetone peroxide, which shows, at least, that they don't have access to any commercial or military explosives. But you shouldn't be so blase about what they could and couldn't do. The 7/7 bombers used similar stuff. Next time they could (a) kill hundreds of people (b) blow themselves up making the stuff or (c) repeat their latest failure. The fact is that the Stockwell shooting was a catastrophic fuck-up. But the bombers are, contra your suggestion, pretty fucking dangerous and they do need to be caught asap.

By: john b

john b — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:17:00 +0000

I’m sceptical that Tony Martin thought he was being attacked by suicide bombers, although it would be about as sensible a theory as most of the attempts to excuse his actions.

By: N.I.B.

N.I.B. — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:10:00 +0000

Or let everyone carry a gun, so they can shoot back.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:06:00 +0000

Well, at least now they’ll have to pardon Tony Martin. Won’t they?