Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Ball Bearing Bombs
I remember reading during the British drought of 1976, about the U.S. "Black Widow" aircraft in WWII, which flew at night to neutral Sweden to return with strategic ball-bearings for the war effort. I had won a lottery for a summer job in NY Republican stronghold, Brookhaven Town, (NY's largest in area) lining and raking a night-game baseball field in predominately black North Bellport. A patent for ball-bearings was filed from Bellport for wagons in 1868, once a major produce port supplier for NYC, closed by shipwreck in the barrier island, Fire Island. The U.S. "Atoms For Peace" stamp was created there. U.S. "Veterans For Peace" were once rebuilding water supplies for Iraq before our recent invasion. The timetable must be set, we cannot stop this type of "sacrifice" these photos will always remind us of.
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New details have emerged of the "ball-bearing" bombs designed by the 7 July terrorist cell, which aimed to cause mass casualties.
ReplyDeleteThe devices, consisting of acetone peroxide packed into jam jars wrapped with a band of metal, were found in a car rented by the suicide bomber Shahzad Tanweer. It was left at the car park of Luton railway station.
Meanwhile, it was reported last night that an al-Qa'ida suspect wanted in connection with the London bombings had been arrested in Zambia. Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British national who grew up in West Yorkshire near the 7 July bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan and is also wanted by the US authorities for his alleged role in setting up a military training camp in Oregon, is said to have been held for more than week.
The bombs found at Luton, which could be lit by a fuse, are believed to have been intended for the next stage of the terror campaign. They were similar to nail bombs made out of milk bottles, also found.
Another type of bomb discovered in the cache, peroxide in a bottle with a fuse at the top, is thought to have been for use as a "charger", to set off a larger bomb.
The discovery, five days after the first attack on London, shows that the terrorists had manufactured an array of bombs with different capabilities intended to change their pattern of attack. What united them was that the general public was likely to be the main target.
Robert Ayers, an explosives expert with 30 years of experience with the US Army and the British military, said: "It appears that the bombers were thinking ahead and had prepared a range of devices which could be used either as they are or adopted for other use.