Some of the things we found in the house were the same things used in the Oklahoma City bombing

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_619519.html

Waterfront drug bust turns up pipe bombs, explosive-making materials

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

What began as an ordinary drug bust in Homestead led authorities to a cache of chemicals and explosives similar to those used in 1995 to destroy a federal building in Oklahoma City, said police Chief Jeffrey DeSimone.

Homestead police arrested Raymond J. Zareck about 5 p.m. Friday at The Waterfront as part of a drug investigation. Police found Zareck, 52, of Oakland in possession of heroin, cocaine and oxycodone, DeSimone said.

While searching Zareck's vehicle, officers found a homemade pipe bomb. Police evacuated customers from McDonald's and a nearby Get Go gas station and called in the Allegheny County bomb squad to secure and later detonate the device, DeSimone said.

About 3 p.m. Saturday, police searched Zareck's Parkview Street row house. They found two additional pipe bombs in a basement workshop stocked with acids, chemicals, gunpowder and fertilizer, along with printouts from Web sites detailing how bombs are made, DeSimone said.

"Some of the things we found in the house were the same things used in the Oklahoma City bombing," DeSimone said.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. now, that is good poilice work

wonder what this nutjob's target was?

[MadHound]

2. I see the obvious need to get this guy off the street,

However I'm troubled by the language of "Some of the things we found in the house were the same things used in the Oklahoma City bombing," Frankly, in the garages of most Americans who work on their own cars or do other sorts of metalwork, you can find some of the same chemicals used in the OKC bombing. And if you want to get really scared, go look in farmers' sheds and barns. I recognize that this guy had pipe bombs on him, but I'm wary of this whole trend towards demonizing people who have a quantity of not so out of the ordinary chemicals in stock.

[zipplewrath]

4. Yes, I'm uncomfortable too

That kind of language is just the kind that law enforcement uses to do the whole guilt by association schtick. There is a difference between, "we found explosives" and "we found explosive making related equipment". It's the difference between "he had WMD's" and "he had the capacity to develop WMD's". McVeigh had fertilizer, rubber hoses, trash barrels, matches, and deisel fuel. I've got most of that stuff. I'm not making bombs.

[NNN0LHI]

6. You need to read this then

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09097/961040-53.stm

<snip>The substances include ingredients used in fertilizer, as well as gun powder, ether, flammable liquids and ammonium triiodide.

"Why would you need fertilizer ... in Oakland, in a row house? He doesn't even have grass, and he's not growing tomatoes," Chief DeSimone said.

[MadHound]

8. Almost anybody can have tools and substances to make bombs in their possession

Hell, I imagine that you've probably got some yourself sitting around the house. A box of mothballs, some scotch tape, an insulated set of pliers, some lye, some vinegar.

Like I said earlier, I don't dispute pulling this guy in, they found fully constructed pipe bombs in his possession. However what troubles me is the ongoing demonization of people who keep a stash of chemicals handy for their own personal, non bombing purposes. Hell, I've got gun powder, ether, flammable liquids, carbon tetrachloride and muriatic acid, among others, stashed in by shed. Yet I don't make bombs. However in this era of terrorist hysteria, I could see getting busted either as a terrorist or a potential meth maker, just because of what's on my shelves.

It also makes a handy dragnet to pull in anybody you want because virtually everybody has enough of the right household chemicals to make a bomb.

Sorry, but I think that the hysteria is getting a bit out of hand.

[Dogtown]

9. Further, in that article:

"It was a heavy cardboard tube containing explosive substances with a wick in one end."


That's an M-80, isn't it?

:eyes:

[old mark]

11. I see this when police find guns/ammo - in one arrest in Philly

a few years ago, the local news guy stated "a HUNDRED ROUNDS of ammunition were found." Turns out it was for a .22 rifle - the ammo for thac is sold in boxes of 50 and up, sometimes in large boxes of 500 for informal target shooting at a range. The 500 round box is around $7 at Walmart.

mark

[peacetalksforall]

3. We never heard a word after the news that tons of fertilizer were stolen - about six

months ago? Where was that?

Why does a drug dealer need bombs?

Does selling drugs pay for materials?

Or just multi-tasking?

I wonder what political leanings this guy has?

Or maybe he's just a guns and drugs kinda guy like certain ones in who have worked for the U. S. of America.

[Dogtown]

5. Sensationalism

They could find the same stuff in 90% of rural tool-sheds.


Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel was the bulk explosive used in OK. The primary was probably acetone peroxide. It's the most common substance for cottage-industry demolitions, easy to synth. Drain cleaner, engine de-greaser and hair bleach.

My choice would be MEK peroxide. AP can detonate from crystal-to-crystal friction, MEKP is a very stable and safe oily liquid.



There are some seriously dangerous formulas published on the Internets, but careful research can provide some safe and useful information for a sincere hobbyist.


What dampens my toast here is the crappy yellow journalism: what connection is there between a "Middle-aged Charlemagne" and the fundy-fanatic? Our 4th estate reinforces the functional illiteracy of the American public.

[rucky]

7. What's their chief complaint?

the government is not doing enough to fight terrorism overseas?

[juno jones]

10. Urban explosives. More common than one thinks.

I once lived in an apartment building where the vietnam vet down the hall used to cook up C-4 on his stove. he and a couple of the neighbors would go out in back and light up little 'firecrackers' made of the stuff. He once lent us a book about it, featuring a smiling 50's family unit on the cover happily manufacturing explosives for the coming whatever.


Always wondered what happened to him... :P

These guys sound really tweaked. Meth makes you paranoid too. Glad they're off the street.