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Posted on 12/23/2001 4:39:15 PM PST by blam

MONDAY DECEMBER 24 2001

Explosive was used by al-Qaeda before

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

THE low-tech plastic explosive “shoe bomb” on American Airlines Flight 63 had the potential to destroy the Boeing 767-300, carrying nearly 200 passengers and crew. It was not clear last night whether the passenger wearing the deadly baseball trainers was an al-Qaeda terrorist or a lone suicide bomber, but the device, the way it had been concealed and the action taken by the man before he was grabbed indicate a degree of technical knowledge and training that will cause alarm in the airline business.

The small amount of explosive material stuffed into the heel of the trainer, which the passenger was trying to detonate while the aircraft was at high altitude, was C4, a high-quality, military-grade material available on the commercial market.

C4 — Composition 4 — is a blend of 90 per cent RDX, an explosive most commonly found in fireworks, and 10 per cent polyisobutylene, a plastic. It comes in powdery form, but when manipulated by hand it consolidates into a rubbery, plasticised mass that can be kneaded and pressed into any shape. It is considered to be the most powerful of the military high explosives. The sale of C4 is strictly controlled, but “everything gets on to the black market”, one security expert said.

The 6,000-page jihad guidebook, which has a preface praising Osama bin Laden, includes graphics that explain how to rig an envelope with C4 explosive and how to convert a radio, cigarette pack, television set or armchair into a deadly booby trap.

The shoe bomb contained enough C4 material to cause catastrophic depressurisation, although the passenger had no guarantee that the simple method of lighting a fuse with a match would have led to its successful detonation.

For the explosive to have maximum impact, the passenger would need to be in a window seat. A forceful explosion would have blown out the window, causing instant depressurisation inside the cabin. Anyone sitting without a seatbelt on could have been sucked through the hole.

Chris Yates, an aviation security specialist with Jane’s Airport Review, said: “Depending on the size of the explosion and the location of the bomber, there could have been catastrophic decompression, leading to damage elsewhere in the plane. Without question, detonation of the device would have had fatal consequences.”

Three men convicted of bombing the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed 223 people, admitted that they had learnt how to make bombs with C4 plastic explosive at militant Islamic training camps financed by bin Laden. Traces of C4 were found in both the damaged embassies.

C4 explosive was also used in al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack on USS Cole, the US warship targeted by suicide bombers in October last year while moored in the port of Aden. The huge explosion, which ripped a hole in the side of the ship, led to the deaths of 17 American sailors and wounded another 39.

Two months ago a third of a pound of C4 explosive was found in an abandoned suitcase inside a bus terminal in Philadelphia. Police said that it was enough to demolish the whole building.

C4 is detectable. There is a new vapour and particle detector available for airports, but it is not yet being used worldwide. Mr Yates said it was not completely effective because it can be used only on a random basis.

“If you checked every passenger, you would get gridlock at every airport,” he said.

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