Al-Qaeda's detector-evading bombs

Doesn't seem to have been picked up elsewhere, so here goes:

Al-Qaeda chiefs are circulating plans to British extremists for a bomb designed to evade airport scanning machines.

The instructions for the “invisible” bomb are among thousands of Al-Qaeda files in a secret online repository discovered by computer hackers and passed to MI5.

The plans, written in Arabic, include chemical formulas and diagrams for the large-scale production of substances such as TNT, C4 and PETN, one of the most powerful explosives.

The internet files detail a plan for using bombs that would not show up on conventional airport detection machines. One option would be to use electricity-conducting fluids rather than wires to avoid metal detectors. . .

MI5 has recently told Britain’s emergency planners that there is a “real and serious” threat of north African Al-Qaeda supporters carrying out a huge bomb attack in Britain.

Posted by David on October 25, 2003 10:13 PM