July 1, 2007

(Scotland & South Carolina) - The device seems easy to make, but, in fact, is hard to make work. VBED's - Vehicle Borne Explosive Devices - use LP gas cannisters surrounded by 100 gallons of gasoline surrounded by thousands of nails, all packed into a large car or SUV. It's supposed to be the equivalent of a 2,000lb. bomb. So far, they haven't worked.

Technically, they're based on the Daisycutter - a napalm-ignited 500 gallon drum of highly volatile substance. The largest, 11,000 lb MOAB has the equivalent explosive capacity of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb of 1945.

The problem is fivefold for non-suicide attacks:

1. The igniter does not get hot enough to get the proper effect.
2. Even high-octane jet fuel doesn't get hot enough for the explosive sucking-air effect they want.
3. They can't get napalm to set off the explosion so they're trying to use an explosion from ordinary LP canisters. But those things don't work because the tubby variety is VERY thick and takes sustained, very high temperatures in order to explode. Same for the slender LP cannister with the special top. It takes a lot of heat to EXPLODE. What you get from the igniter is explosion from the GAS, which ignites first, and you get the wrong effect.
4. Most importantly, it takes a SINGLE unit of gasoline exploding, all at once, with the igniter suspended IN the substance, to get the true explosive effect. A Jeep Cherokee doesn't cut it.
5. Gas cannisters don't normally come in 100 gallon portable cans. Truck gas tanks do. In any case, the sale of such a unit should raise a number of red flags.

Before we go running naked into the woods, again, we should remember that this sort of thing is easily defensible. We need only to start looking for this kind of attack.

In a way, this is a very good sign concerning the war on terrorism. This must be a time of extreme desperation for the terrorists. This system does not work properly. The cowards who run the groups are running out of morons who want to kill themselves for a false god of hate and murder. Those who are religious muslims and not political muslims may be getting their message out more. Whatever the reason, "desperation" and "lack" seem to be the operating words in the Islamist ratholes. But they are losing. They have not yet lost.

Here in South Carolina, we need to understand that Militant Islamists are neither holy nor just. They are assholes.

The smug reticence of moderate Muslims in the face of such terrorism is disturbing. Many confess in private that they are alternately embarrassed and then defensive about terrorist acts. Privately, most muslims say we are too weak to take any kind of meaningful retribution - even our moderate friends. They may be right.

Still, South Carolinians should trust to common sense and remain vigilant.

- Dick Anderson