We were paying attention this time.
An Afghan immigrant wanted to carry out a New York City terror attack involving hydrogen peroxide bombs to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary before federal authorities foiled the plan, a U.S. prosecutor said Friday.
Tim Neff told a federal judge that Najibullah Zazi ‘was in the throes of making a bomb and attempting to perfect his formulation.’
‘The evidence suggests a chilling, disturbing sequence of events showing the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, for purposes of perhaps using such items,’ Neff declared in arguing for Zazi’s transfer to New York.
O-Dub,
Big time formatting problem!!
Thank God for FISA and Bush administration policies.
Bush ignored FISA.
A hydrogen peroxide bomb.
I’m never going to be able to look at the phrase “blonde bombshell” the same way again, am I?
Law enforcement works
The GOP spent seven years for praising Bush for only letting 9/11 happen once.
And yet, now that we see actual terrorist plots foiled, I somehow doubt a single wing-nut will give Obama any credit for keeping us safe.
Is it because they are hypocrites or racists? Or quite possibly both?
now, granted, one can look at old newsreels of the Messerschmitt Me-163 komet, and see what Hydrogen Peroxide and do at high purity…. but I can’t help but be forced to admit that I was totally with @Matthew Hooper with the image of ‘blonde bombshells’….
they would have had to get a *lot* of H2O2, though….as I recall, McVeigh had close to a *ton* of NaNO2 fertilizer and fuel oil for the Murrah Bldg. For a large bldg in NYC you’re gonna wanna make a HUGE bang….(goes off grumbling to his slide-rule)
It certainly doesn’t sound like a 9/11 or Madrid Bombing-scale effort, but the nature of terrorism is such that it’s not as much about body-count as it is, obviously, terror and panic.
For the record, it’s silly to praise Obama this early in his administration for a national defense record. We’ll have to wait seven more years for that. But it was mind-numbingly ridiculous to hear cons defend Bush for “only” one 9/11, and then pretend the anthrax attacks never happened.
(goes off grumbling to his slide-rule)
Justadood, put. the slide rule. down. and back slowly away.
Used to have one (slide rule)from my Grand-dad (civilian contractor for the USAAF/USAF) that determined probability of destruction of large targets by computing the size of explosion needed to generate the atmospheric overpressure that would pulverize the target….up through nuclear munitions….
(thought I’d get into explosives synthesis as a Chem major in college, but Music and Computers proved much more interesting and lucrative).
As difficult as I believe it would be to obtain large quantities of high-purity H2O2, I’d think the suspects were more probably looking at making car bombs that, while making large-scale destruction, likely wouldn’t be taking down buildings.
Add to that the difficulty in handling and transporting the chemicals, and I’d think these dudes more probably would blow themselves up than accomplish their ‘ends’.
Still…..good thing the Feds caught them. Now, if only they’d go after the *other* scary terrorists NOT named Mohammad, or Najibullah, or Adbul….the ones working for groups like ‘Project Rescue’, or ‘Earth First’ with names like Smith, or Roeder, or Rudolf. *Those* people worry me more than that Zazi’s, because they’re *already* armed and dangerous, and under the Radar…….
‘was in the throes of making a bomb…’
How does making a bomb while one is having violent spasms work out? I suppose the fellow was lucky the cops arrested him before he blew himself up.
Oliver,
To clarify the Peroxide is to make Tri-Acetone Tri-Peroxide http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/tatp.htm , the explosive used in the 7/7/05 London Subway bombings. The Cell Phone batteries were to set them off (add backpacks and that’s exactly what the London bombers used). The London bombings killed 52 people and injured over 700 others. It’s not 9/11, but rather hard to miss.
Jaim, good to see you’re a supporter of The Patriot Act. You people do realize that there is no doubt that provisions in the Patriot Act were used to foil this attack, right?
As for 9/11, once again you dunderheads need to be reminded that 9/11 came about as the ‘cherry on top’ of a string of terrorist attacks where all we did was make empty promises about “bringing people to justice” and dithering around with a few missile strikes instead of really taking it to Al Qaeda. You can idiotically blame President Bush all you want, but the fact is the administration was largely responsible for bringing Al Qaeda to its knees, killing a bunch of their leaders, putting a strangle-hold on their money and foiling many other attacks by being able to leverage The Patriot Act, something many commenting here were bitching should have been overturned.
Thankfully, President Obama didn’t listen to the loon left with regard to The Patriot Act and that’s part of the reason why DHS, FBI and CIA were able to foil these attacks.
You people do realize that there is no doubt that provisions in the Patriot Act were used to foil this attack, right?
Proof, please.
the fact is the administration was largely responsible for bringing Al Qaeda to its knees, killing a bunch of their leaders, putting a strangle-hold on their money and foiling many other attacks
…after 3,000 citizens were murdered on U.S. soil.
The site Bill links to makes it clear that medicinal hydrogen peroxide — 3% H202, the rest water – is too dilute to make a bomb. The news reports i’ve seen say that this guy was buying peroxide over the county at a beauty supply store- ie he was buying the 3% stuff. I think you’d need to go to a chemical supply house to get the concentrated peroxide you’d need for a bomb. But an unsophisticated wannabee might not know that.
I’m not over my skepticism that Zazi is a for real terrorist and not another clown. I don’t know enough to have an opinion yet.
“You people do realize that there is no doubt that provisions in the Patriot Act were used to foil this attack, right?”
Sounds like this was all about conventional law enforcement. As asked above, please show me that is wasn’t.
“You can idiotically blame President Bush all you want”
Nothing idiotic about blaming the Commander in Chief, whose primary duty is to protect us. I place more of the blame on Condoleezza Rice myself, but Bush is the guy who picked her.
But Jay, I’m glad to know that you admire President Obama for keeping us safe longer than Bush did. You going to vote for him when he wins re-election in 2012 on the grounds of national security?
“9/11 came about as the ‘cherry on top’ of a string of terrorist attacks…”
Right. That’s why the GOP spent the 1990s screaming for an invasion of Afghanistan and Sudan. That’s why there was no talk of “wagging the dog” from Republicans after Clinton’s response to the Embassy bombings. That’s why Bush Jr campaigned in 2000 on a promise to embroil the US in a Mideast war to end the threat of Islamic terrorism. That’s why you, yourself, Jay, can show us example after example of Republicans calling for military action to quell it.
Oh, wait….
Actually you can buy peroxide solutions at higher than 3 percent concentration at salon stores (up to 20 percent or more), but there’s an additive to stabilize it so that it doesn’t decompose in the bottle on the shelf. That additive tends to get in the way of some chemical reactions other than the peroxide decomposition.
Still, even twenty percent peroxide is eighty percent water. Not sure what you could do with that.
“You people do realize that there is no doubt that provisions in the Patriot Act were used to foil this attack, right?”
Think again.
“Only three of the 763 “sneak-and-peek” requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases, according to a July 2009 report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Sixty-five percent were drug cases.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/watch-doj-official-blows_n_296209.html
Jay, do you EVER get tired of being wrong? Ever?
Jaim, Who you calling a racist dude? Ya need to let it go. Move on man, move on.
Until today, I had paid no attention to Zazi. However, after this past weekend, I have had to find out why my purchase at a local Smart & Final drew the attention of federal agents who came to visit me less than 18 hours after my purchase. I have a clogged drain. On Friday I bought a few bottles of RamRod drain cleaner, some Clorox, and two gallons of 3% Hydrogen Per Oxide. The feds were interested in what I was doing with it. They got their answers and left. My co-workers said “it’s the beard.” Other than that, had I been of Oriental or middle-Eastern decent, perhaps they may have stayed a bit longer. And now that I am reading about Zazi, maybe they will come visit me again. Only time will tell if I get labeled the RamRod Bomber or not.