Chemist Explains How The Latest Bomb Scare Was Utter Bullshit
Apparently everybody's suspicions were well justified:
“So, imagining for a moment that you’re a jihadi and you’re actually going to try to cook up TATP on an airliner, what would you have to do?” I asked.
“Well, firstly you’ve got to understand that TATP isn’t a liquid, it’s a white crystalline powder. Looks like sugar and it makes nitroglycerine look safe. I read in one breathless story that the alleged bombers got the recipe from an ‘al-Qaeda website’. Why would al-Qaeda bother? Everyone who studied chemistry knows the recipe. And it’s on Wikipedia.
“The three ingredients are acetone, sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The acetone and sulphuric you can buy at the hardware store without attracting suspicion, but the hydrogen peroxide has got to be virtually full strength. You can’t use the stuff you buy over the counter at the pharmacy because it’s 97 per cent water. Well, you could, but you’d have to buy a lot of little bottles of peroxide and boil off the water, which is very risky. One false move and you’ve burned your house down.
“Anyway, you can premix the peroxide with the acetone – a couple of litres might make a useful amount of TATP – and carry that onto the plane in a single container but you’ve got to keep it cool and the only way I can think of to do that is to carry it in a Styrofoam container with some of those cold bricks from the supermarket. Plus, in your kit you’ll need to have a stirrer and a thermometer and a glass beaker or a stainless steel bowl to mix it in.”
That's the easy part.
Thanks to Cannonfire.
“So, imagining for a moment that you’re a jihadi and you’re actually going to try to cook up TATP on an airliner, what would you have to do?” I asked.
“Well, firstly you’ve got to understand that TATP isn’t a liquid, it’s a white crystalline powder. Looks like sugar and it makes nitroglycerine look safe. I read in one breathless story that the alleged bombers got the recipe from an ‘al-Qaeda website’. Why would al-Qaeda bother? Everyone who studied chemistry knows the recipe. And it’s on Wikipedia.
“The three ingredients are acetone, sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The acetone and sulphuric you can buy at the hardware store without attracting suspicion, but the hydrogen peroxide has got to be virtually full strength. You can’t use the stuff you buy over the counter at the pharmacy because it’s 97 per cent water. Well, you could, but you’d have to buy a lot of little bottles of peroxide and boil off the water, which is very risky. One false move and you’ve burned your house down.
“Anyway, you can premix the peroxide with the acetone – a couple of litres might make a useful amount of TATP – and carry that onto the plane in a single container but you’ve got to keep it cool and the only way I can think of to do that is to carry it in a Styrofoam container with some of those cold bricks from the supermarket. Plus, in your kit you’ll need to have a stirrer and a thermometer and a glass beaker or a stainless steel bowl to mix it in.”
That's the easy part.
Thanks to Cannonfire.
posted by nolocontendere at 10:39 PM
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