Bin Laden Sending Bomb Ship Into London?

Englishman

All the UK news channels are full of reports about a ship being detained off Beachy Head, en-route from Mauritius to the Port of London.

Main concerns revolve around the danger of a cargo ship containing either anthrax or explosives entering into the heart of London via the River Thames.

More here: http://www.skynews.co.uk/

Englishman

Here's the blurb:

Marines Seize 'Terror' Ship

A cargo ship is being searched by British anti-terrorist police in the English Channel.

Commandos stormed the vessel after a tip-off relating to "terrorist materials", such as explosives and anthrax.

Beachy Head

The MV Nisha sailing from Mauritius was intercepted by HMS Sutherland in international waters, about 30 miles off Beachy Head, at 8am on Friday.

It was boarded by officers of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, Customs and Royal Marines.

The crew is said to be co-operating fully as the ship is being searched. So far the search has not produced any evidence of terrorism.

Bin Laden

According to Scotland Yard there was no immediate danger to people on shore. A spokesman confirmed it was a "major security operation".

The vessel, which was heading for London, has on previous journeys stopped off in Djibouti, next to Somalia, said to be home to cells of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

London

The MV Nisha is registered in St Vincent in the Caribbean. A Tate and Lyle spokesman said any search of the cargo could take days.

It was carrying 26,000 tonnes of raw sugar and had been due to arrive on Saturday at the company's Newham refinery in east London, next to the Thames Flood Barrier.

He said the crew were mainly Indian and Filipino and that Mauritius was one of the company's major suppliers of raw sugar.

Britain has been on high security alert since the September 11 terror attacks in America. Prime Minister Tony Blair said even if the scare was a false alarm, it was vital to act on intelligence threats.

"It's absolutely essential that we remain totally vigilant," he said, adding that people had to understand the "protection of national security" would sometimes mean inconvenience.

Bring on the dancing girls!

Nathan Natas

Wow, I hope this comes to a safe end.

Other port cities around the world have expresssed fears of just this sort of event. In fact, I wonder to what degree the media may have inspired such an action, publishing articles like "How To Load A Tanker With ANFO And Destroy A City." The effect of such a detonation would rival an atomic bomb, and doesn't require much at all in the way of specialized knowledge or technology.

Ammonium Nitrate in crystalline form would not look much different than sugar, and a small amount of sugar in an ANFO mix wouldn't degrade the effectiveness of the ANFO by much, as anyone familiar with "caramel candy" amateur rocket fuel might guess.

That's why these guys have got to be hunted down and assasinated.

Satanus

Well, i'm sure there is a way to weaponise sugar. See for instance . http://www.totse.com/en/bad_ideas/ka_fucking_boom/10great.html

I can see the headlines:

SUGAR SHIP SHAKES SHERBROOK

or something like that.

Nathan Natas

Hi SS,

Sugar burns, so it can be used in pyrotechnic formulas. Mixed with the right things, it can be explosive, but the amount of energy is far less than that obtained by other mixtures that are just as inexpensive. The "problem" with sugar in these mixes is that the sugar molecule contains a LOT of water, and the water doesn't contribute much at all to the BANG.

The "Ka-Fucking-BOOM" site is pretty amusing, but some of the "information" I've seen there is either flat-out incorrect or so dangerous that only a soon-to-be-fingerless idiot would try them.

"World's FUNNIEST explosive formulas"

Englishman

Nathan,

As children, we would often make a small homemade bomb using just sugar and weedkiller - sodium chlorate, mixed 50 / 50.

We would then get 2 huge bolts which we would screw partially into either side of a hexagonl nut after the nuts interior had been filled with the mixture.

Simply dropping the device on the ground was enough to make it detonate with a huge bang.

Englishman.

Bring on the dancing girls!

Nathan Natas

Hi E-man,

No you didn't!

I'm kidding... there's a kind of firework that used to be sold in the USA called 'cracker balls' - they were about half the size of a pinky nail and inside had a very small amount of sugar, pottasium chlorate, and sand. Just throwing them on the ground was enough to get them to pop.

I didn't say that sugar could not be made to explode, but the amount of power from such a mixture, while impressive, pales in comparison to ANFO, and is so sensitive that it would be dangerous for anyone with nefarious intent to use it lest they meet Allah earlier than intended. One additional disadvantage of NaClO3, if I recall correctly, is that it absorbs water from the air over time and a damp mixture might be hard to get going.

picosito

I hope wannabe terrorists are not saving all the helpful info from these posts.

Englishman

Nah!

Everyone knows about sodium chlorate and sugar.

Kaboom!

Englishman.

Bring on the dancing girls!

anewperson

I don't doubt it. Or might the searchers be checking to see if some other kind of white powdery material that is biological was mixed with the sugar? I believe there is a new method to test for bio-active presence, but it is not widely known or used just yet by security. Some news accounts are that papers discovered in Afghanistan hideouts of the Al Qaeda (spelling?) indicated their interest in destroying part of the financial area of greater London. So it does appear that after the U.S., Great Britian is targeted. People in the States are still much on guard as well, and all need to stay on high alert. Yes, including Ozzie mates!

Simon

ha ha ... we used to make gunpowder and explosives when we were little. Maybe it is a young male JW thing ?

Bin Laden Sending Bomb Ship Into London?

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