Free Republic

A depot in France from which a large quantity of powerful explosive went missing was poorly guarded, the regional head of security has said. The storage of 28kg (61lb) of Semtex at the site near Lyon was "not usual and certainly not authorised", Xavier de Fuerst also told the AFP news agency. A search by anti-terrorist officers is under way, and the manager of the site has been suspended pending an inquiry. Semtex is favoured by terrorists as it is odourless and difficult to detect.

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28 kilograms of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. Semtex is a powerful, odourless explosive which is difficult to detect and often used by terrorist groups. The theft was from a depot in a disused 19th century fort at Corbas in the southern suburbs of Lyon. The depot is used for storing explosives by a civil defence unit with the job of blowing up bombs and ammunition left over from the two world wars. Twenty-eight kilograms of Semtex was found to be missing in a routine...

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28kg (61lb) of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. France's interior ministry confirmed an investigation was underway, saying the manager of the site had been suspended. Semtex is a powerful explosive favoured by terrorist groups as it is odourless and difficult to detect. Police said detonators were also missing and that they are treating the theft "very seriously". The depot, in a disused 19th century fort at Corbas, is used for storing explosives by a civil defence unit charged with the job of blowing up bombs...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Explosives used to destroy land mines have disappeared from a site near Lyon, France, the French Interior Ministry said Friday. About 62 pounds (28 kilograms) of explosives were stolen from a depot at the civil security site at Fort de Corbas, the ministry said in a written statement, because of an apparent breach in the site's protection. Michele Alliot-Marie, France's minister of the interior, immediately suspended the head of the security center and started an investigation. French anti-terrorism authorities and the Lyon police also are participating in the investigation, the statement

LYON (AFP) - La disparition de 28 kilos d'un puissant explosif, vraisemblablement du Semtex, a été constatée dans un centre de déminage de la banlieue de Lyon, un vol que le ministre de l'Intérieur, Michèle Alliot-Marie, a imputé à des "défaillances dans la sécurisation du site". LYON (AFP) - the disappearance of 28 kilos a powerful explosive, probably Semtex, was noted in a center of mine clearance of the suburbs of Lyon, a flight that the Michele Al, Minister of Interior Department, charged to failures in the security of the site.

Deming, N.M. – On Saturday, El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents discovered that they may have been the target of more acts of violence after discovering an apparent booby trap made of wire on a remote border road near Deming. On June 14, agents assigned to the Deming Border Patrol Station received a call from a local rancher who informed them of a discovery she made of some wires stretched across a patch of dirt roadway. The wires had been pulled tight and set to a height that could have had dire consequences for agents or anyone riding on an...

"Prince George’s County police found explosive material in a deserted car near Andrews Air Force Base yesterday morning..." "...one of the units was a commercial grade explosive of the type used in demolition and that the other was a military grade explosive."

Gaithersburg, MD -- Montgomery County Police say they have arrested a Gaithersburg man after recovering weapons and explosives from his home Wednesday. James L. Boka , 47, was arrested without incident -snip- Bomb squad investigators recovered over 230 lbs. of 46 different chemicals commonly used to make explosives. -snip-

Two people have been taken into custody on suspicions of preparing acts of sabotage at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant on Wednesday morning, according to police and plant operators, reports the Kvällsposten newspaper. A Swedish contractor was arrested on Wednesday when traces of highly explosive material were found on him as he was about to enter a nuclear power plant in southern Sweden, police and the plant said. "At 8am we received a call from the nuclear plant at Oskarshamn. They told us one worker was stopped in the control. He had explosive material in his bags," Sven-Erik Karlsson of the...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A nuclear plant in southeastern Sweden was sealed off Wednesday after a worker was stopped at the entrance with a plastic bag containing traces of an explosive substance, police and plant officials said. Investigators were questioning the man, a welder who was scheduled to do work at the Oskarshamn plant on Wednesday,police spokesman Sven-Erik Karlsson said. Plant operator OKG downplayed the incident, saying there was no threat to the safety of the plant, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Stockholm. Police said the man carried a plastic bag with an unknown amount of triacetone triperoxide,...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military says the largest cache of armour-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators has been found south of Baghdad. A statement says Iraqi troops acting on a tip Wednesday found more than 1,000 bomb components in a six-ton truck in a garage in the town of Qassim. American commanders allege that the EFPs come from Iran. Tehran denies the allegations. The military says the cache included more than 1,360 kilograms of explosives, multiple 107 mm rockets and stands along with other munitions. Sunday's statement says the cache has been moved to the nearby city of...

March 26, 2008 The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside.FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism. The car was reported stolen last week. After the theft, the car’s owner was fueling his motorcycle when he spotted his stolen car. “While he was refueling his motorcycle, low and behold, the vehicle that he had reported stolen that belongs to him happened to pull into the gas station area also,” said Los Lunas Police Captain Charles Nuanes. The car’s owner pulled...

Two women who were alleged targets of the private eye's investigations say they received calls warning them to remain silent. In another day of dramatic courtroom confrontations, an actress told a federal jury Wednesday that she received a terrifying telephone call threatening her son shortly after she spoke with the FBI about its wiretapping investigation of private eye Anthony Pellicano. Testifying as a government witness, Linda Doucett said an anonymous male caller in November 2003 warned her to remain silent after she had been interviewed by authorities about their probe of Pellicano for alleged wiretapping and other crimes on behalf...

TAMPA, Fla. - A judge on Thursday ordered that a terrorism-related charge against an Egyptian student accused of transporting explosives will be handled in a separate trial from the explosives counts. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and another Egyptian student, Youssef Samir Megahed, were arrested last summer in South Carolina over material found in their trunk. Prosecutors say it was explosive material; the defense says it was homemade fireworks. Mohamed also is charged with a terrorism-related count stemming from a video found on a laptop computer in the car. The video, which Mohamed is accused of producing, shows how to turn...

DAVIS – A student was in custody Thursday following the discovery of explosive devices at the University of California, Davis. Two partially assembled pipe bombs were found in a student's dorm room, university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said. Authorities believe it was an isolated incident and said there was no need to detonate any devices. More than 450 students were evacuated Wednesday night from eight dormitories and slept in dining halls or at the homes of family and friends. They were expected to be let back into their dorm rooms later Thursday morning, Lapin said. Police became aware of the situation...

Sgt. Angela Mathern and her bomb-sniffing dog Vinny, both of the 51st Military Police Detachment, based out of Ft. Lewis, Wash., inspect a cart carrying propane tanks in downtown Mosul during a search of random vehicles for weapons and bomb-making materials, Feb. 14. Soldiers from the 552nd Military Police Company, based out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, pull security. Photo by Sgt. Patrick Lair, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. MOSUL — U.S. military police in northern Iraq are developing new tactics in an attempt to counter insurgent violence in the Ninewah provincial capital city of Mosul. In February, the 552nd Military...

BAGHDAD — After receiving complaints from local citizens about people taking weapons into Baghdad’s neighborhood of Rathwaniyah, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers conducted a cordon and search operation, Feb 19. The Soldiers of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), searched every house in their section – every room, every box and every vehicle – everything was checked to make sure nobody was hiding explosive material or weapons. “We wanted to show we support the locals, and we would actually do something to help them,” said Capt. Geoffrey Gorsuch, a Peoria,...

A Tory town council mayor has sparked an outcry after saying Muslims "cause mayhem with explosives". Tory Mirfield mayor Robert Bennett made the remarks in an email to the town council clerk. Today his comments were branded as unacceptable and disgraceful by his party. The email, passed to the Yorkshire Evening Post, follows a request by the Huddersfield-based Ahmidiyya Muslim Association to appear before the town council to ask for funding. Part of his email response to the request, says: "I am aware Islamic organisations are keen to promote a view that they are peaceful, forward thinking individuals who wish...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Six U.S. soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a house rigged with explosives blew up north of Baghdad during a new U.S.-Iraqi offensive targeting al Qaeda guerrillas in Iraq, the U.S. military said. It was one of the highest daily death tolls for U.S. troops in Iraq for months and followed the deaths of three soldiers in the operation a day earlier. More than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The military gave few details of the incident but said the six soldiers were killed by a "house-borne improvised...

SUFFOLK – A former Navy SEAL found with illegal weapons and explosives at his home near Chuckatuck was arraigned in court today. Elbert Tillman Jr., 34, was arrested by Suffolk Police on Dec. 29 after a search of his residence revealed more than 200 different types of illegal explosives, a large quantity of possible illegal steroids, syringes, 18 rifles, numerous handguns, two computers and 28 metal military boxes of assorted ammunition. Tillman was arraigned via video in Suffolk General District Court from the Western Tidewater Regional Jail, where he’s being held without bond. Tillman pled not guilty to four felony...

A Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System fires a 227 mm rocket at a building that insurgents were using to store explosives and a nearby weapons cache in the open desert near the northern Iraqi city of Bayji, Dec. 27. US Army Photo by Spc. Rick Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) PAO. COB SPEICHER — U.S. forces in Northern Iraq destroyed a storage facility containing explosives used in the making of vehicle-borne bombs, and a weapons cache in the open desert near Bayji, Thursday. Intelligence sources informed the forces of this target, which had been under...

SAN DIEGO A radical environmentalist pleaded guilty Friday to distributing information on firebombs while giving a speech. The plea by Rodney Coronado, 41, came after his trial on the charge ended in September with a hung jury. His lawyers argued his innocence under the First Amendment. As part of the plea agreement, Coronado won't be prosecuted in other incidents, according to Gerald Singleton, his lawyer. "He really wants to give them a minimal pound of flesh and move on," Singleton said. Coronado is scheduled to be sentenced March 27. He could face up to 20 years in prison under post-Sept....

A Soldier from 1st Platoon, Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., holds up a 12-inch copper plate (the largest size found in Iraq) used to pierce armored vehicles when fired from an explosively formed projectile (EFP). The plate was part of a large EFP cache recently discovered in a home in Husseiniyah. Photo by SSgt. Russell Bassett, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. BAGHDAD — A Concerned Local Citizen (CLC) led Coalition forces to a home Wednesday where explosively formed penetrators (EFP) and improvised explosive...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2007 – A concerned citizen led coalition forces to the largest cache of explosively formed penetrators ever found in a single location Oct. 23 in a home in Saada village, Iraq, officials reported. Soldiers from Troop B, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from Fort Lewis, Wash., and the 717th Ordnance Company explosive ordnance disposal team, 184th Ordnance Battalion, Combined Joint Task Force Troy, Fort Campbell, Ky., empty a massive weapons cache that was discovered at Saada village, Iraq, Oct. 23, 2007. The cache marks the largest discovery of explosively formed penetrators...

NEW YORK (CBS News) ― The joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin, obtained by CBS News today, bluntly warns that terrorists are still working to use "modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices," CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. The alert follows the discovery of bomb detonators - expertly hidden in the hollowed-out soles of this pair of shoes - found aboard a European bus last month. Intelligence officials say the shoes were not being worn at the time, but instead were being used, as the document says, "to smuggle electric blasting caps across international borders for use in a...

TAMPA -- Youssef Megahed, detained by federal authorities on explosives charges, is revoking any permission he gave to government agents to search his home or anything else. Assistant Federal Public Defender Adam Allen, Megahed's attorney, filed a notice with the court today withdrawing any consent to search items taken from Megahed after his arrest on Aug. 4. "The filing of this notice is not an admission by the defendant that he has previously given voluntarily consent but is designed to put the government on legal notice that, to the extent the defendant has previously given any voluntary consent to search,...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

COLUMBIA, S.C. --A college student facing a terrorism-related charge made a video showing how to detonate explosives using a remote control toy, and the demonstration was uploaded to a popular Web site before the native of Kuwait was arrested in South Carolina, according to court documents.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police seized an explosive belt that was intended to be used in a Tel Aviv suicide bomb attack on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, a police spokesman said on Saturday. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police raided an apartment in Israel's commercial capital early on Saturday and arrested four people, including a suspected would-be suicide bomber and an explosive belt he was planning to use. An army spokeswoman said Palestinian militants arrested during a raid in West Bank city of Nablus earlier this week had been planning the attack. Two militants and an Israeli soldier...

Fort Lewis, Wash., native Spc. Dennis Speek, explosive ordnance disposal technician, 789th Ordnance Company (EOD), explains how EOD personnel use the robot known as the “Talon” to handle explosives by remote control while standing in front of the Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicle (JERRV) at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Sept. 18. The JERRV is similar to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that are being phased into service replacing the Humvee. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Tony Lindback. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians have seen a change in the enemy’s tactics, techniques...

A convoy of explosives seized by NATO troops in Afghanistan definitely came from Iran but not necessarily from the government in Tehran, the top NATO general here said Sunday. General Dan McNeill, head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed a report in Sunday's Washington Post which said the shipment had been discovered last week. "The geographic origin of that convoy was clearly Iran but take note that I did not say it's the Iranian government," the US general told AFP in an interview.

Prosecutors: USF students had explosive materials, instructions. TAMPA - Pipes stuffed with fertilizer, Karo syrup and kitty litter. Bullets and fuses. A laptop with Internet searches about martyrdom, Hamas and Qassam rockets. Video instructions for turning a child's toy into a detonator. After weeks of silence, the U.S. Attorney's Office opened up about its case against two University of South Florida engineering students facing explosives charges, implying that Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed had something sinister in mind when they left Tampa in early August and headed north. Despite the grim implications of what the government presented, prosecutors said they...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A college student indicted on explosives charges may be released from custody on bond and under such conditions as 24-hour electronic monitoring, a judge ruled Friday at a hearing that also revealed details on the allegations. Youssef Samir Megahed's entire immediate family must also surrender their passports, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Jenkins said after a hearing at which bond was set at $200,000. It was not immediately clear how soon Megahed would be released. Members of his family, which attended Friday's hearing, declined to comment. Megahed, 21, and Sherif Mohamed, 24, both students at the...

TAMPA -- PVC pipe filled with homemade "low-grade explosive mixture'' and a videotape instruction for turning a remote-controlled toy car into a detonator were among the items found in the car driven by two University of South Florida students arrested in South Carolina and now facing federal explosives charges, according to a federal prosecutor...The list also included a videotape that instructs viewers on how to convert a toy electric car into a detonator. Defendant Ahmed Mohamed has admitted making the tape, and in it he says he intended the instruction "to save one who wants to be a martyr for...

Lansing man loses arm when home booby trap explodes Derek Wallbank, Lansing State Journal 9/13/2007 3:27:54 PM LANSING - Police are investigating an explosion that injured a Felt Street man. The man, a neighbor said, apparently lost a considerable part of his right arm today after tripping a booby trap he'd set in his home to catch burglars. The man, whose ID has yet to be released, apparently tripped the explosive about 8:30 a.m., and then ran to a neighbor's home for help. City police spokesman Sgt. Bruce Ferguson said the man was "working with or creating some sort of...

ASIO was powerless to stop a Melbourne man who allegedly trained with al-Qaida from boarding an international flight out of Australia. The 23-year-old terror suspect, known as Abu Jihad, is now in custody in Cairo. The Federal Government, through ASIO, was forced to issue an international alert to find Jihad after he disappeared from Australia last October. Jihad was named as an al-Qaida terrorist by captured American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in December 2001. But ASIO was not able to verify Lindh's claims until after Jihad had boarded the aircraft in Melbourne almost 10 months later. Jihad, a house...

Two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across states lines and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives. He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, S.C., on Aug. 4, where they have been held on state charges. The two men were stopped with pipe bombs...

Pristina - Kosovo police has discovered a massive amount of explosive in the breakaway province's west, authorities in Pristina confirmed. The explosives, 68 kilos of what is believed to be TNT, was discovered in a private house in Vitomirica, a village in the area of Pec, 80 kilometres west of Pristina, Kosovo police spokesman Veton Elshani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. One person was arrested following the find, Elshani said, adding that more details would be announced later. Sources close to the police said the arrested man was a Kosovo Albanian. The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo sealed the area and...

DETROIT — A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager has been charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors. Police say it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials. David Hahn, 31, was being held Friday on a $5,000 bond in the Macomb County Jail after he was arraigned Thursday on felony larceny charges. Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle said Hahn denied the charges. A district court clerk on Friday said Hahn did not have an attorney. The Associated...

FBI agents are reviewing surveillance video from a Wal-Mart store in connection with the arrest in South Carolina of two University of South Florida students, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said. Agents also have seized a computer from the family home of one of the students, said a local advocate in contact with the family. Youssef Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24, both of whom are enrolled at the university, were charged Monday under South Carolina statutes with possession of an incendiary or explosive device. Both were being held in a Berkeley County jail Wednesday. Mohamed's bail was set at $500,000 and...

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (AP) -- Authorities say two Middle Eastern men arrested near a Navy base had several pipe bombs in their car. Authorities say 24-year-old Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed and 21-year-old Yousef Samir Megahed were charged Monday with possession of an incendiary device. An FBI spokeswoman says a joint state-federal investigation is under way to see if there was any terrorism connection but no link had been found yet. The Navy base is the site of a brig where enemy combatants have been held. According to an affidavit with his arrest warrant, Mohamed admitted he made the pipe bombs...

Washington - Local police outside Charleston, South Carolina stopped a vehicle in which they found what were suspected to be explosives, according to media reports late Saturday. Two men described as being of possibly Middle Eastern origin were in the vehicle, which was stopped on a highway. A police bomb squad was at the scene and preparing to examine the vehicle, a local television reported told the Cable News Network (CNN).

Was there a link between last week's near-disastrous Washington State refinery fire and Saturday's detention of 2 ME suspects - with explosives- near a sensitive Naval facility ?

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. --Two men were detained after police found and detonated a suspicious item found in their car during a routine stop for a speeding violation on a highway near Charleston, Berkeley County sheriff's Lt. Vince Lombard said Sunday morning. Lombard said the men were being held pending a charge of unlawful possession of an explosive device, but he would not say what the device was or what bomb technicians from neighboring Charleston County exploded about 2:45 a.m. Sunday. The item made a loud bang, similar to a firecracker, when it was demolished. Authorities closed the road about 7...

FOB KALSU — They are small and lightweight, yet their tiny bodies can carry a great burden. The PackBot and Talon robots, industrial robots designed by the iRobot Co., are tactical mobile robots used by the military for search, reconnaissance and bomb-disposal missions. "Robots give us the ability to do procedures on improvised explosive devices without risking Soldiers," said.1st Sgt Dean Smith, 705th Ordnance Company, Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. "They are tools we use to save lives – ours and others." While the robots on today's battlefield might be a long way from the Terminator, RoboCop or C3PO of science...

WASHINGTON — Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20... The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern." Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that...

ROLLA, Mo. — Camp Winnigootchee was never like this. A group of high school students stood at the edge of a limestone quarry last month as three air horn blasts warned that something big was about to go boom. Across the quarry, with a roar and a cloud of dust and smoke, a 50-foot-high wall of rock sloughed away with a shudder and a long crashing fall, and 20,000 tons of rock was suddenly on the ground. The campers laughed. “That’s cool!” said Ian Dalton, a student from Camdenton, Mo. Austin Shoemaker, a student from Macon, Mo., concurred. “It was...

Exactly what were they trying to accomplish with these type of devices. Was it an attempt to just cause a large fire, or was it attempt to cause something more destructive, such as a FAE or fuel air explosive? http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/fae.htm