Reply #92: PETN

[sabrina 1]

The issue of PETN has been addressed over and over again. But for your benefit, one more time:

Full Body Scanners, What's Next?

And PETN is what the TSA is looking for these days. That's pentaerythritol tetranitrate, the plastic explosive that both the Shoe Bomber and the Underwear Bomber attempted but failed to detonate. It's what was mailed from Yemen. It's in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guns and traditional bombs are passé; PETN is the terrorist tool of the future.

The problem is that no scanners or puffers can detect PETN; only swabs and dogs work. What the TSA hopes is that they will detect the bulge if someone is hiding a wad of it on their person. But they won't catch PETN hidden in a body cavity. That doesn't have to be as gross as you're imagining; you can hide PETN in your mouth. A terrorist can go through the scanners a dozen times with bits in his mouth each time, and assemble a bigger bomb on the other side. Or he can roll it thin enough to be part of a garment, and sneak it through that way. These tricks aren't new. In the days after the Underwear Bomber was stopped, a scanner manufacturer admitted that the machines might not have caught him./div]

I guess I would use methods that actually can detect it.

The issue of the Constitutionality of 'enhanced pat-downs' will be settled in the courts when the several lawsuits which have already been filed claiming violations of 4th Amendment are heard.

Courts have in fact ruled in the past against checkpoints, google it if you are interested. I have already posted that info on DU in the past ~