Plane plot involved energy drink, MP3 player, official says

[daleo]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terrorists planned to use MP3 players and energy drinks to blow up as many as 10 jetliners bound for the United States, authorities said Thursday.

A senior congressional source said it's believed the plotters planned to mix a "British version of Gatorade" with a gel-like substance to make an explosive that they would possibly trigger with an MP3 player or cell phone.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/index....

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. had they used an iPod and Tang, they would have succeeded

luckily, they used the older MP3 format which made their plans transparent.

[OKthatsIT]

17. Its good thing SNOW warned Cindy about Gatorade

[rocktivity]

2. Must--keep--straight--face--

I very much wanted to believe this wasn't a scam, like that FBI sting in Florida where the informant ended up financing the plot. But then again, Tony Blair's ratings are in the crapper, too.


rocknation

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. It was a joint operation

hatched by Bush and Blair last week to give both their sorry asses a boost.

[mike923]

16. I don't know if i'm alone....

but i can't be a part of a group that shares that mindset. I don't know what i am anymore if that is the Democrats' mindset.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. Leaders who can just sit on their hands

while a real terror attack was in progress, pretending they didn't have a clue, are certainly capable of manipulating Intel and using terror alerts for political gain.

[muryan]

20. You're not alone

And I can honestly say that about 50% of the comments and posts here do not represent the stance of the democratic party.

[praeclarus]

23. actually....

... I think the non-stop lying by our so-called govt
on every single thing has created the distrust.
Everything is a spin. Witness the Lieberman thing as
a nice recent example.

Personally, I don't believe a single thing reported
by US MSM. If it looks like BS, and smells like BS...

How can anybody take this shit seriously when the very
next thing to come out is the quite expected by now
call for more Fascist Laws. This is straight out of
the 1930's Nazi Play Book.

[muryan]

25. Because I dont spend my day cutting out letters from newspapers

finding the newest conspiracy. So far this seems like a solid case and a good arrest made by the UK government. Bush had no hand in it, so it benefits him none. I have many friends flying to/from europe over the next few weeks to study abroad and ill be damn glad if they can have a safe trip because these nuts are behind bars.

[Kailassa]

43. Agreed, this latest conspiracy theory,

A bunch of malcontents trying to blow up 11 planes at once with Gator-Ade and Jelly ....

Yep, all it takes is common sense to dismiss that one.

I luv aeroplane jelly,
aeroplane jelly for me!

[Peace Patriot]

55. I sympathize with your fears. I have relatives coming back from Europe

just now. But I'm sorry, I don't trust the Bush Cartel to keep them or me or any of us safe. These are liars, cheats, mass murdererers and master thieves. They OUT the people who protect us. They purge the good guys. And I think they conspire against us in every way imaginable. They are global corporate predators, out for themselves. They are loyal to NO ONE!

If you really want to be safe, and to live in a just and peaceful world--join others in throwing Diebold, ES&S and all of these diabolical election theft machines, by which the Bush cabal re-installed itself, into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

Safety lay in democracy and loyalty and the good sense of the American people. Let it work! LET DEMOCRACY WORK!

[Mz Pip]

22. Yeah, me too.

There are either people out there who are trying to kill us and will go to bizarre lengths to succeed or we have 'won' the war on terra every plot is just some hoax.

If we really believe that BushCo hasn't made the world safer(and I fall into that category) then we shouldn't be so surprised when people plot to take down planes.

Mz Pip

[Tight_rope]

28. Yeah and I guess Bush* won the election fair and square.

Damn you sheeply need to go back to sleep. You cause more harm then good.

[Mz Pip]

31. Well, that's a non sequiter

response if I've ever seen one.

Believing there are actually people out there trying to kill us and despising Bush (and believing Gore won) are not mutually exclusive. Duh.

Try making sense before you accuse someone of causing harm.

Mz Pip

[knight_of_the_star]

67. I'm of two minds on this

First, I am not surprised that there are people who would try to do something like that.

However, one would think that the terrorists in question would do something that would be likely to work, this plot seriously does sound like something you would see on MacGyver. Maybe they thought it would actually work, or maybe this was setup, I think it might be a combination of the two.

[Joe the Revelator]

61. I with you completely....

I came here looking for some thoughtful analysis and I just found whistling past the graveyard type drivel. I'm about ready to turn in my DU bumper sticker.

[TheWatcher]

62. Self Delete

This is pointless.

[FujiZ1]

68. Mike

If they show video clips of these twenty odd people shuffling to and from court/jail I will buy you a beer.*


*You must be in the Minneapolis area

[tridim]

3. Damn, I'm out of duct tape and plastic sheeting

I'll be at Home Depot all day buying terra supplies.

That British Gatorade sounds like some powerful stuff!

[rocktivity]

12. Duct and cover, Tridim!

Ipods and Gatorade--the new duct tape and plastic!


rocknation

[Xipe Totec]

4. Sounds way too complicated

When all you gotta do is carry Dell laptops on board airplanes.

They don't even need an ignition source:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32550

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/dell_fire...

Talk about terra threats!

[hippiechick]

5. MacGyver Rules!

??

[gratuitous]

7. Jeez, is that where your mind went, too?

Freaky scary.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. "an explosive that they would possibly trigger"...wouldn't you think

that brilliant, evil terrorists would have tested this first?

[flvegan]

9. How much of this brit drink would it have taken to crash a plane?

It seems odd that they made folks through out things that can only hold or only contain very little liquid, like deoderant. If there were to be 5 or 7 folks pulling this off, on a single plane, wouldn't they need to be carrying a much bigger amount than what's in a travel shampoo bottle?

[demo dutch]

35. You only need a small explosion to bring down a plane

[4dsc]

51. Really??

Who was it that tried to blow up an airliner using liquids and all they managed to do was kill one passenger and the plane landed safely..

[godai]

58. No so

News story tonight covered several examples of planes that had holes blown in them, but landed safely.

[rodeodance]

10. no more cell phones or cd players FOREVER.

[daleo]

11. It reads like something from The Onion

Or Monty Python, the self-defence skit about being attacked by an assailant with bunch of grapes.

And the mysterious "gel-like substance"...I don't know. Maybe I am too cynical.

[DontBlameMe]

40. Actually, it was raspberries.

But, if we're lucky, next week it'll be pointed sticks.

[Donnachaidh]

42. Karo syrup and dead parrots bringing down planes!

Pining for the fjords?

[Duer 157099]

13. Were Mentos the gel-like substance?

I think the Mythbusters showed you could use those to make a bomb

[kineneb]

44. need diet cola

its the bubbles that make the difference. Gatoraide-like drinks don't have bubbles.

[Tight_rope]

14. Be damned those energy drinks...

I knew they would come back to haunt us one day. Now as for MP3 players. I just bought one 3 months ago as a treat to encourage me to work out everyday and it's working. I'm not about to give that thing up.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

15. I'm assuming the "British version of Gatorade, that is being referred

to is Lucozade.

It's basically carbonated water with lots of sugar and an orange color. Mr. Wonderful drinks it all the time. It's a real big seller here in the Windy City among the Irish exiles.

They claim it's "great stuff" for a hangover.....Geez, I'd better get to local Irish import store and buy some. I'm sure Lucozade will become a "banned" substance shortly....




This is just surreal...

[daleo]

19. Given time, sugar can be turned into methane or alcohol

And methane could be used as an explosive, if under containment. But the process of fermentation takes a lot longer than an airplane flight (days or weeks, I would say), and would probably require enzymes, lab equipment, etc.

I didn't study chemistry after high school, though. Perhaps a chemistry major out there could say more about it.

[LivingInTheBubble]

69. I always used to use it for a hangover.

Its a carbonated drink with Glucose and caffeine in. I only like the original flavour though.

[uppityperson]

21. Reuters update, NOT using drink except to hide explosive

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=t...
The suspects arrested in an airline bomb plot in Britain on Thursday had planned to conceal liquid or gel explosives inside a modified sports beverage drink container and trigger the device with the flash from a disposable camera, ABC News reported on its Web site.

The network, citing U.S. sources, also said five additional suspects in the airline bomb plot foiled by British police were still at large and being sought.

"The plotters planned to leave the top of the bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage but add a false bottom, filled with a liquid or gel explosive," ABC said. "The terrorists planned to dye the explosive mixture red to match the sports drink sealed in the top half of the container."

[daleo]

29. Add a false bottom to a bottle?

I can't imagine that fooling security, if anyone really looked at it. We still don't know what the mysterious gel is. This sounds like shoe bomb, updated to gatorade bomb. Why all the talk about ipods, if they were planning to use a disposable camera?

I get the feeling that a nonsensical story was coming apart, so the authorities are trying to patch it up.

[slackmaster]

32. Well DUH!

The level of journalistic writing has sunk to an all-time low on CNN.

[uppityperson]

34. oh jeez, check out their front page

THE 'EXPLOSIVE COCKTAIL'

Plotters caught in global net

* British, Pakistani authorities team up to block plot to bomb U.S.-bound jets, officials say
* 24 arrested in UK; further arrests confirmed in Pakistan
* Sports drink formed part of "explosive cocktail," U.S. counterterrorism official says
* Plot a "stark reminder" of war with Islamic fascists, Bush says

Security at Oakland International Airport, California.

(OMG! IT'S a DOG!!!!111)
Edited to add this bit from the article:"The sports drink could be combined with a peroxide-based paste to form a potent "explosive cocktail," if properly done, said a U.S. counterterrorism official."

Re-edited to add this tidbit:"The next terrorist attack could be carried out by airline passengers who hide bomb ingredients in hair gel or baby milk bottles and assemble their weapon in a locked restroom, security experts warn." http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/terror.newthreat.ap/in...

[daleo]

37. We are getting mixed messages

One article (Reuters) says the sports drink is a decoy (false bottom bottle), the other says the drink it is part of the bomb itself (after being mixed with a peroxide-based paste).

Someone is having a tough time keeping their stories straight. I think if this goes to open court (as opposed to some kind of terrorism closed trial), the prosecutors will have a hard time.

[uppityperson]

39. "ongoing investigation"

with a bow towards Scotty.

[slackmaster]

41. I could use an explosive cocktail right about now

Tanqueray martini, very dry, with blue-cheese stuffed olives please.

[kineneb]

45. nope. Pan-galactic gargle blaster

The "effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick".

-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy


I think we all need one right now.

[kestrel91316]

59. For some reason all I seem to be able to picture with this scenario

is a bottle of Gatorade with something added into it, and then foaming all over and making a big fizzy mess on some dude's lap, followed by much cursing in Arabic.

[patcox2]

24. This is the bojinga plot, Ramsi Yousef in 1995

This is exactly what Ramsi Yousef tried to do in 1995; the explosive is a mixture of things, nitroglycerin, nitric acid, other stuff, and it has to be detonated with an electric current, the IPOD is just cover for that. Google bonjinga. Yousef is in the supermax prison right now for this plot back in 1995. He was going to go after multiple planes flying from southeast asia to the US.

[RamboLiberal]

36. It's spelled Bojinka

Wikipedia is a good place to start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplan_Bojinka

Oplan Bojinka (also known as Operation Bojinka, Project Bojinka, Bojinka Plot, Bojinga, possibly from Arabic: بجنكة – slang in many dialects for explosion and pronounced Bo-JIN-ka, except in Egyptian where it is Bo-GIN-ka) was a planned large-scale attack on airliners in 1995.

Several media outlets, including TIME Asia <1>, claim that the word Bojinka means "loud bang" or "explosion" in Serbo-Croatian. In Croatian, "bočnica"<2> translates into English as "boom". Khalid Shaikh Mohammed fought with Muslim fighters in Bosnia and supported this effort financially <3>. Endnote 7 of Chapter 5 of the 9/11 Commission Report states that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed claims that "bojinka" is "a nonsense word he adopted after hearing it on the front lines in Afghanistan." In English, the acronym "BOHICA" for 'Bend Over Here It Comes Again' is common military slang which refers to an incoming enemy attack, often bombs and is also used in online chat, e-mail, or newsgroup postings.

Not all media or text that refer to Oplan Bojinka will call it by that name.

The term can refer to the "airline bombing plot" alone, or that combined with the "Pope assassination plot" and the "CIA plane crash plot". The first refers to a plot to destroy 11 airliners on January 21 and 22, 1995, the second refers to a plan to kill Pope John Paul II on January 15, 1995, and the third refers a plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia and other buildings. Oplan Bojinka was prevented on January 6 and 7, 1995, but some lessons learned were apparently used by the planners of the September 11 attacks. This article will cover all three plans.

The money handed down to the plotters originated from Al-Qaida, an international Islamic militant organization which was then based in Sudan. Philippine authorities say that Operation Bojinka was developed by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed while they were in Manila, Philippines in 1994 and early 1995.

[6000eliot]

26. I see they're back to "foiling a terror plot" every week

up to the election.

[Ilsa]

27. Hair bleach and flash cameras, gatorade and mp3 players.

How about some broccoli and cheese, egg salad and beans? Those are pretty explosive also.

[MUSTANG_2004]

54. Um, except hair bleach really is...

Hydrogen Peroxide is an explosive. It was a hydrogen peroxide explosion that caused the Kursk to sink. The stuff you buy at Walgreen's is only a 3% solution. Try it at 80% and see what happens.

[Ilsa]

57. Oh. Duh me. I must be a brunette. LOL.

[Snivi Yllom]

30. the CIA published guides how to make piss bombs

It shouldn't be that hard to mix simple compounds and smuggle them onto airplanes

This is what they were up to.

[slackmaster]

33. Not the CIA, it was the Army

I have original copies of the Improvised Munitions and Incendiary Devices field manuals. Both are classics.

[McKinneyIsAHero]

38. Craftiest terrorists ever these are

imo

[-..__...]

46. What a joke and Rovian ruse....

Next thing you know they'll be trying to convince us that the terrorists will be constructing "shoe bombs"....

Oh... wait a minute.

[phrenzy]

48. Or Box Cutters!

Yeah, and maybe the BFEE and MSM guys will get together and become real creative and come up with a story for guys to take over entire airplanes with nothing more than box cutters... Oh, and those guys will magically fly the planes into buildings while their course is undetected! Oh man.. That's so out there.. Damn that Rove

[Vidar]

47. MacGuyver has gone to the dark side.

[Ravy]

65. I was just wondering if they still let him fly. (n/t)

[Vidar]

70. There are rumors of a baking soda-vinegar jet pack.

[Placebo]

49. They hate us for our freedom!

Our freedom...to drink...energy...drinks?

[Guaranteed]

50. Dang. I thought it was going to be Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola. nt

[celestia671]

52. It's such a shame...

that we don't know what to believe anymore.

[stepnw1f]

53. Nah.... It Was a Bra, Glue, and a bag of Pretzels. (nt)

[SKKY]

56. I heard they were going to use Diet Coke and Mentos...

...I guess my information was incorrect.

[EndElectoral]

60. Was it a Barry Bonds energy drink?

[hedgetrimmer]

63. V for Vendetta N/T

[hedgetrimmer]

64. and, and, and they were wearing boots...

just like the guy in Florida... they may have had a video camera and thanks to Ford they rode around in SUV's....

[Ravy]

66. I was betting that someone had just seen the Diet Coke and Menthos

video on uTube.

[Moochy]

71. Trendspotting Terror! mp3s sports drinks..

Were the bad guys arrested while playing Sudoku?

Golly those terrorists know what trends are hot!

[Bretttido]

72. That combination makes perfect sense to me

With the right song selection, an energy drink for plenty of dancing, and some sweet moves... they woulda turned that plane into THA BOMB!

[LeftHander]

73. Wow...how much did that placement ad cost? nt