Posted on 10/22/2001 6:34:15 PM PDT by Native American Female Vet
Explosive found in Philadelphia bus station probably stolen from military, agents say
By David B. Caruso, Associated Press, 10/22/2001 21:17
PHILADELPHIA (AP) The plastic explosive found in an abandoned suitcase inside a city bus terminal last week was probably stolen from the U.S. military, federal agents said Monday.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was still working to trace the explosives Monday night.
Investigators have concluded that the one-third pound of C-4 and 1,000 feet of blasting cord were not sold commercially or stolen from a manufacturer.
''This batch was made some time ago, and it went to the military,'' ATF spokesman Darrell O'Connor said. ''Hopefully, records are available that will tell us exactly where it went and how it was supposed to have been used.''
The explosives, which police said were powerful enough to level the building, were discovered Friday inside an abandoned suitcase at the Greyhound terminal.
The suitcase had been placed in a public locker at the bus station on Sept. 29, then moved by workers to a storage room when it went unclaimed.
Since the discovery of the explosives, Greyhound has strengthened security measures at bus terminals nationwide.
Kristin Parsley, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based company, said security cameras in terminals have been repositioned to cover all public-storage areas.
Greyhound is also checking lockers more frequently and immediately removing unclaimed items, she said.
Public lockers at the Philadelphia terminal have been closed indefinitely. Parsley said Greyhound believes lockers in other locations are safe, and that there are no plans to remove them. ''It was an isolated incident. This is the first time that anything like this has happened,'' Parsley said.
About 35 cities have the type of electronic storage lockers used in the Philadelphia terminal. Another 260 bus depots have coin-operated lockers. All are self-serve, so depot managers have no control over what is placed in them.
Greyhound added extra security guards at its busier terminals after the Sept. 11 attacks, Parsley said. Each bus is now also being checked three times before and three times after each trip, rather than once by the driver, she said.
In 20 cities the company has begun screening passengers with a handheld metal detector before they board. Parsley said the program is still in a trial phase, but has been successful so far and may be expanded.
Obviously we need to immediately ban .50 caliber rifles -- for the children -- so that it can never happen again.
< / SARCASM >
The person that was supposed to claim it is probably in FBI hands now.
No
I don't know much about explosives...
Former Army Engineer here, and I know a lot about explosives, and that's not enough to take down the building.
FReegards,
The quantity of detcord they found is much nastier than the quantity of C4. As to whether it's enough to level the building, that probably depends what you mean by 'level'. I would expect 1000 feet of detcord, suitably placed, and with detonators added, could probably cause a substantial part of the structure to collapse though other parts would most likely remain standing. Of course, it should be noted that normally when buildings collapse (due to earthquake, fire, etc.) some part will remain standing even when they're said to be 'leveled'.
Otherwise, it seems pretty clear that those explosives were not left there for the purpose of blowing up the bus station, but were instead left there so someone else could pick them up and use them to blow up something else.
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