Liquid Bomb "Untenable", "Fiction" Says UK Expert

Via Raw Story, Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) Nigel Wylde - who used to be in charge of the Belfast Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit and can be assumed to know what he's talking about, says the idea of mixing a liquid bomb in an airplane toilet is "untennable".

"So who came up with the idea that a bomb could be made on board? Not Al Qaeda for sure. It would not work. Bin Laden is interested in success not deterrence by failure," Wylde stated.

"This story has been blown out of all proportion. The liquids would need to be carefully distilled at freezing temperatures to extract the required chemicals, which are very difficult to obtain in the purities needed."

Once the fluids have been extracted, the process of mixing them produces significant amounts of heat and vile fumes. "The resulting liquid then needs some hours at room temperature for the white crystals that are the explosive to develop." The whole process, which can take between 12 and 36 hours, is "very dangerous, even in a lab, and can lead to premature detonation," said Lt. Col. Wylde.

If there was a conspiracy, he added, "it did not involve manufacturing the explosives in the loo," as this simply "could not have worked." The process would be quickly and easily detected. The fumes of the chemicals in the toilet "would be smelt by anybody in the area." They would also inevitably "cause the alarms in the toilet and in the air change system in the aircraft to be triggered. The pilot has the ability to dump all the air from an aircraft as a fire-fighting measure, leaving people to use oxygen masks. All this means the planned attack would be detected long before the queues outside the loo had grown to enormous lengths."

Even if it was possible for the explosive to have been made on the aircraft, a detonator, probably made from TATP, would be needed to set it off. "It is very dangerous and risky to the individual," Wylde said. "As the quantity involved would be small this would injure the would-be suicide bomber but not endanger the aircraft, thus defeating the object of bringing down an aircraft."

So if the bomb itself was a fantasy of wannabes, and the other elements of the plot were similiarly not something anyone should describe as "the gravest threat since World War II", I seriously wonder how many of those arrested will eventually be convicted. And I wonder anew at the ineluctable perfidy of the Blair government - perfectly willing to join U.S. uber-right hype of this plot but utterly unwilling - just like their pals across the pond - to take many of the sensible steps needed to fight international terror. Like stopping selling Pakistan new jet fighters or arresting the 20 or so hate-filled mouthpieces in England who are stirring up all the crap in the first place.