Posted on 06/10/2012 7:13:22 PM PDT by upchuck
Flick the switch on these flashlights and they don’t light up. They blow up.
Three of these bombs have exploded within the last month in the Phoenix area, causing minor injuries to five people and raising fears of more serious ones.
Police still have no idea who is behind them and have taken the unusual step of putting up 22 billboards across the sprawling metro area to warn residents about discarded flashlights.
“The nature of the bombings are so random,” said Tom Mangan, a special agent at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix.
An explosive was placed inside the flashlights with a smaller battery and rigged so that turning it on would send an electrical current that triggered the blast, Mangan said. He declined to identify the explosive material.
Mangan said the agency has ruled out any connection to terrorism because the targets have been random and there have been no messages or demands.
-snip-
“Anytime any individual uses a bomb, their purpose is to create fear in the community and also to inflict serious injury or death,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Test run?
First, they have to make sure the perps aren’t Islamic...
THEN they’ll call it terrorism.....
Terrorists don’t always “make demands”, sometimes they just want to kill people.
I know.. The paragraphs contradict each other.. Typical Lib Speak.
Our local Walmart was emptied yesterday, on a bomb threat. Someone found a pink flashlight near a trash can. Turns out it was a pink flashlight.
Back in the 1600s, when life was cheap, it was considered fun to disguise a small bomb as a money bag and leave it on the road for unsuspecting passersby.
You know, a bomb in a flashlight would really hurt someone. Minor injuries?
Are we talking about cherry bombs?
May be it’s a high schooler who paid attention in chemistry class and got bored now that summer’s here?
Exactly....but since the war on terror is over...nothing to see here. Move along, move along.
“America is safer than ever”.........really?
Uh, this *is* the ATF, guys.
The same ATF who routinely spread lies that turn the basements, gun collections and prepper stores into “arsenals” and “bunkers” and their owners into paranoid, anti-government loners.
I’m not going to believe these things are destructive devices made with the intent to cause serious bodily injury or death rather than some idiotic prank until I see hard evidence.
This could be as simple as some kid cutting up a few sparklers or match heads and wiring them into the circuit with a simple igniter.
I think the key to the story is that the gov’t lackey “declined” to identify the “explosive.”
A terrorist would be using some home brew high explosive compound (TATP etc.) or at least smokeless/flash powder packed along with shrapnel.
If these “devices” had been of such a nature I doubt they’d be so cagey as to what is really going on.
I’d wager this is much ado about very little.. the gov’t cooking up hysteria in order to keep people in a state of fear and dependence.
Apparently you don’t recognize sarcasm.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.