Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston & pressure cooker IEDs.

Person briefed on probe: bombs in pressure cookers

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the IED is placed under pressure, inside the pressure cooker? Is it heated to get the pressure? Sounds dangerous to pressure cook a pipe bomb.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like BULLSHIT to me, Feds NEVER EVER talk about evidence.

Anonymous said...

Not exactly buying the story. The plume isn't consistent with containment in a 1/4" Al container--it's symmetrical in nearely all vectors. Looks like ANFO or a K variant--look at the persistent smoke/color and fire. Also, there were reports at one source citing a "neurosurgeon" who said no evidences of ball bearings/nails in patients--more like metal frags. This needs vetted.

There are inconsistencies popping up--speculation rules. I got a lot of grains of salt right now.

Arkindole

Anonymous said...

The AQ Mag article suggested ground match heads/ sugar, cartridge powder, or fireworks powders, or a combination; shrapnel glued inside pressure cooker.

Arkindole - you wouldn't expect a pressure cooker (a cylindrical container designed not to burst at low pressures) to NOT yield a symmetrical blast? Please explain, and show your work. And why wouldn't the "metal frags" be pieces of the pressure cooker, which is, after all, metal?

Anonymous said...

We will get a version of what happened consistent with what the investigators and their supervisors want us to know. This may or may not be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. After the lessons of Fast and Furious, do not look for any whistle blowers this time or for Obama's press to pursue any loose ends.

Anonymous said...

Low order explosive needs a container to build pressure, as it is not self-confining. Stainless pressure cooker is 100% plausible, and photos of the scene show a piece of a stainless cooker. Anon @11:35 - the cooker is the pipe. Think.

Anon @12:25 - newscam caught video of the piece. Looks like a stainless pressure cooker bottom, complete with mfr's marks.

Arkindole - Plume was made of still burning material. Most likely not ANFO, or any other high order explosive - more a deflagration than an explosion. The container made the pressure. Stainless cooker fits - and so does smokeless or black powder - way more fuel than oxidizer, and way more than needed to burst the container. Also, in the news footage a sheet of what appears to be ball bearings glued together.

I'm no expert, but I read a lot and I'm not stupid. That would have been a hell of a lot worse with a real high-order explosive. Bad enough with what they had. Hope they catch the sick bastard that did it.

BTW, some thoughts from someone with a real explosives license and experience - http://blog.joehuffman.org/2013/04/15/boston-explosives/

Anonymous said...

Much better breakdown with approximate velocity of wavefront here: http://rboatright.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-marathon-bombing-deriving-some.html

Anonymous said...

Guess this means I can forget about putting my pressure cooker in the carry-on luggage . . .

Oops, that was insensitive.

But really, the good news is the device was not designed to kill a lot of people.