A Short Recent History of Pressure Cooker Bombs

[hack89]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by NancyBlueINOklahoma (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Time

Authorities are now saying that the explosive devices in Boston were fashioned from pressure cookers. (Yes, like the closed pot you might use to cook rice at home.) As it happens, pressure cookers have a nefarious history in counterterrorism circles. In 2004, the Department of Homeland Security was concerned enough about pressure cooker bombs to issue an alert to federal and state security officials: “A technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps is the use/conversion of pressure cookers into IEDs,” the bulletin warned.

That bulletin cited several plots from 2002 to 2004 to use pressure cooker bombs in France, India and Nepal. But more recently there have been at least three other instances of would-be terrorists in the west, all of them Islamic radicals, in possession of pressure cookers for reasons that seemed not to involve having friends over for dinner. One was an Army private linked to the 2010 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, who had reportedly been taking bomb-making tips from the al Qaeda’s short-lived (literally) magazine Inspire and had various weapons and explosives along with his cooking pot. (The magazine reportedly recommended pressure cookers as explosive devices.) A 2010 suicide bomber in Stockholm had rigged a pressure cooker bomb that failed to detonate. And as a newer DHS warning about the kitchen devices noted, the failed 2010 SUV bomb in New York’s Times Square was a pressure cooker device featuring 120 firecrackers. The same DHS memo refers to a March 2010 bombing with a pressure cooker at a western Christian aid agency in Pakistan that killed six people.

Counterterror officials are surely well aware of these facts and studying any leads that might link the device in Boston to Islamic radicals here or abroad. But it’s important to bear in mind that the ability to make these bombs is hardly unique to al Qaeda and its sympathizers. Details on how to make a pressure cooker bomb can also be found on websites associated with anarchy and other forms of non-religious radicalism, including this one, which describes how to build what is “affectionately known as a HELLHOUND.”




Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/16/a-s

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Some good background information.

[davepc]

1. We should ban these things. Nobody needs one to cook with

and apparently they're very easy to turn into bombs.

[amuse bouche]

4. Is that a joke?

I own several and have cooked in them since I was a kid. I had no idea they could be used as bombs

There are millions out there. Just picked up a brand new $100.00 one, for 3 bucks at a yard sale

You will have to pry mine from my cold dead hands

[davepc]

6. Why does anyone *need* one to cook with? Just use a regular pot that can't be turned into a bomb

Peoples rights to not have their legs blown off supersede anybody's right to convenient cooking.

[Duer 157099]

7. Dude, you need to put the sarcasm tag

Seriously.

[amuse bouche]

10. I thought he was joking too

Either way...

[cyberswede]

14. He's mocking a gun control argument

...which is in rather poor taste, imo.

[amuse bouche]

15. I thought that at first

Lame

[MrBig]

9. Almost anything can be used as a weapon

Hell, if we banned knives, it would stop many stabbings. People don't *need* to eat with a knife, there are other ways of cutting one's food.

[The Stranger]

11. This made my day/week.

You will have to pry mine from my cold dead hands

I can't stop laughing.

[amuse bouche]

13. Thanks

Happy someone got the joke

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. I suppose you'd like to ban knives and baseball bats and rental trucks too. :eyes: . nt

[ellie]

8. My mom uses hers all the time

I was thinking of getting one myself.

[amuse bouche]

12. Yard sales

and Flea Markets are a great place to look

People buy them, then never use them

My favorite reason to use it, is to avoid the oven in the summer


It makes wonderful grapenut pudding in 15 minutes

[Mika]

2. Threat Management Group has a pressure cooker IED training course.

http://www.threatmanagementgroup.com/TMG_Brochures/Products_Catalog2012.pdf

The Pressure Cooker IED is available in various sizes, types and configurations based on the “Pressure Cooker” IED found in theater. Configuration is typically as shown but can be modified at the customer’s discretion.

[Adsos Letter]

3. "...the ability to make these bombs is hardly unique to al Qaeda and its sympathizers."

Probably the most important thing to take away from that article, at this point.

Good find, btw.

[OKNancy]

16. This is not breaking news - locking

This is background/analysis