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more on TNT and Ammonium Nitrate
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:29:08 -0400
Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 17:23:06 -0700 From: "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew () ceruleansystems com> Subject: Re: [IP] TNT and Ammonium Nitrate To: dave () farber net
From: Joseph Traub <traub () cs columbia edu> Subject: TNT and Ammonium Nitrate To: dave () farber net A cache of TNT found in Manila and ammonium nitrate fertilizer found in London, were likely to be used in terrorist attacks. Apropos of the warning from The FBI and the DHS about attacks in the U.S. Congress should mandate the use of chemical tags to show the source of TNT and ammonium nitrate. Such tags would serve the same purpose as black box recorders after a plane crash. Indeed, I'm surprised congress has not already legislated such a requirement.
There are good technical reasons that identification taggants have not been added to commercial explosives. In fact, there was a Congressional push circa 1996 to look into the feasibility of making identification taggants mandatory for anti-terrorism purposes. It was the conclusion of both the National Academy of Sciences and the BATF that identity taggant technologies were generally unsafe, environmentally unsound, and ineffective as an anti-terror measure. Given that all studies done on the subject suggested that identity taggants were at best ineffective and at worst hazardous, the issue has been shelved. This issue has been studied in a number of other major countries with similar conclusions.
Ineffectiveness is the major issue here, even if taggant technology could be improved to the point of being safe and environmentally friendly. 98+% of bomb cases in the US do not involve commercial explosives (i.e. there would be no taggants even if implemented), and for the <2% of cases where it could apply, taggant technologies are not sufficiently robust to have much impact for law enforcement purposes.
The underlying problem is that modern high explosives, like modern firearms, are still fundamentally 19th century technologies and therefore trivial to manufacture from scratch in a 21st century world for anyone that cares to try, making them effectively uncontrollable technologies.
j. andrew rogers ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on TNT and Ammonium Nitrate Dave Farber (Apr 04)