Making a Chemical Bomb
June 21st, 2006
Written By: Adam Sussman
The chemical bomb has a name, Mubtakkar, and according to the author of “The One Percent Doctrine”, Ron Suskind, the delivery system is a “widely available combination of chemicals-sodium cyanide, which is used as rat poison and metal cleanser, and hydrogen, which is everywhere. The combination of the two creates hydrogen cyanide, a colorless, highly volatile liquid that is soluble and stable in water”
Suskind continues on to elaborate in an exclusive Time Magazine Book Excerpt titled “The Untold Story of Al-Qaeda’s Plot to Attack the Subways”
It’s a canister with two interior containers: sodium cyanide is in one; a hydrogen product, like hydrochloric acid, in the other; and a fuse breaks the seal between them. The fuse can be activated remotely as bombs are triggered by cell phones-breaking the seal, creating the gas which is then released.
The Mubtakkar is a chemical device similar to Zyklon B which was used by the Nazis in the gas chambers of their concentration camps yet it can be designed in a cylinder about the size of a paint can.
Last week Times deputy Washington bureau chief, Mark Thompson asked Suskind “What possibly be gained by describing the mubtakkar device to the public?” with Suskind responding
All of the leading terrorism experts are clear on one thing: that in terms of protecting America, we almost never going to know a place or a time of an attack. So there are plenty of people in the government who feel that this [method] is something that the American people ought to know about. If they know what it looks like, they might be able to spot it if they see it.
The excerpt provides some excellent information in the inner workings of al-Qaeda and Washington. My only concern after having read it I will never be able look at those paint cans sitting in my garage the same way again.
June 24th, 2006 08:49
Reminder to self: don’t read ShandyKing’s blog on the Blackberry at the airport…
Good thing I was only on the shuttle bus.