Look at these two links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11183476

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11657486

Hmm..  Otherwise ~ I’m going to refrain from comments and analysis until things are clearer. The initiation system is yet unclear and that’s key to the response to such devices. What I will say is that the construct of such devices will be very difficult to counter by x-ray analysis of routine cargo. X ray interpretation will only be of use once an item is identified as suspicious.

Terrorists are nasty vicious people. And sometimes we need to laugh at them, belittle their self-importance, pour contempt on their pathetic justifications for evil and ridicule their activities. When they get it right, its pretty horrific, but quite often they get it wrong.

Here’s my top ten. Please add you own.  I might keep this updated:

1. The Most stupid Master Bomber. Ramzi Yousef, the world trade center bomber now locked up for life in “super max.” The man is a buffoon, but for the partially successful attack on the WTC. He nearly blew his arm off in Pakistan, he abandoned an attack in Bangkok, and set his explosives lab on fire in Manila. Doh!  In New York his intention was to kill 250,000 – he actually caused 6 deaths .  Some details are here.. One of his accomplices rented the truck the bomb was put in from Ryder truck rental. After the bomb exploded he went back to the rental office to claim back his $400 deposit. No really, he did!  He was arrested on the spot.

2. The terrorist with the squashiest nose. Lors Doukaev – see below. Caused an accidental explosion in lavatory in Copenhagen while making a bomb. Doh!

3. The Unnoticed Terrorist. The unnamed terrorist who tried to blow up the M Star oil tanker – see below. You go to all the trouble of ramming your speedboat full of explosives into the side of an oil tanker…. And no-one notices… Doh!

4. The Sports Fan.  Dedicated convert to Islam, Joel Hinrichs learnt how to make TATP on the internet. Outside a sports stadium in Oklahoma, containing 100,000 fans, he fails to get in, sits alone on the bench outside, and blows his head off when the bomb goes off accidentally. Doh!  Nice beard Joel.

5. The terrorist with the Worst Skin Condition. Kafeel Ahmed one of two terrorists tried to blow up night clubs in London, both devices failed. So he and his accomplice drove their Jeep into Glasgow airport. The jeep burned. So did Ahmed. He burnt for quite a while and died painfully some weeks later. That’s about it really.

6. The Times Square non-bomber..(or maybe not).   Faizal Shazad, was a poor student. He never really learned how to make a bomb that would detonate. After his failed bomb attack he was arrested on a plane bound for the UAE. He said of his arresting officer “You must be from the FBI”.  Well, he got that part right….

7. You were meant to blow the bloody door off.. Nicky Reilly converted to Islam and got religion and terrorism in the same bite. But not common sense. He picked a really famous iconic target for his attack…the lavatories of the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter, UK.  The bomb went off and hurt him. Ohh I bet that stung.

8. You are not meant to laugh. Blackburn, Lancashire terrorist cell.  These guys were convicted. Their video, here, is pretty funny. Not very scary are they?   All they need is big floppy shoes and a flower that squirts water. At least one of them stops grinning and tries to look mean. Funny eh?

9. The Fort Dix Movie stars.  A bunch of would be terrorists were planning an attack on Fort Dix. They made a movie of themselves brandishing weapons and shouting “We’re going to commit terror! Wooooh!:  And then they took the movie file to Circuit City to get them to burn it onto a CD for them. No, really, stop giggling, they did.  The geek squad reported them and they were arrested.

10. Just Plain Dumb. In 1991 two terrorists made a bomb to blow up the Thomas Jefferson cultural center in Manila.  Imagine the scene, the bomb is carried into the center in the middle of the night.  Because it’s night, its DARK.  Because its DARK and because the terrorist, Ahmed J Ahmed (I’m not making this up) doesn’t have flashlight he users his cigarette lighter to illuminate the bomb as he sets its delicate timer. He and his accomplice Saad look nervously at each other. Saad watches the door for the guards. Its TIME to set the TIMER.  Ahmed J Ahmed, holds the bomb in one hand and the lighter in the other…..but he has to put the lighter down to use his other hand to set the timer. In the DARK he turns the Timer the wrong way…… BOOOOM!  Ahmed J Ahmed dies instantly, and Saad staggers outside, dazed, covered in Ahmed’s entrails, and is later arrested in hospital.

Most terrorists really are idiots. I’ve not met one I liked.  Thank God a good proportion of them have a self limiting gene pool. Don’t have any sympathy if they hurt themselves.

I went to a grim and glum funeral of a good man this week. Like most of us in these circumstances it turned my mind to the meaning of life and the meaning of death and the boundaries between the two.  For a period of his life he had been at the forefront of a battle against terrorism, and had suffered badly and bravely in that battle. In some ways his wounds were still unhealed 16 years later.  He, and the community of his colleagues, men who shared some of his experiences, have their whole lives defined to a greater or lesser degree, both willingly and subconsciously, by their role in that battle. Lives of people who deal with IEDs are defined, to an extent, by their actions during a very small percentage of their allotted span. That’s usually OK, but not always.

There are understandable reasons for lives being defined in this way. It’s partly because it’s the summit of a pyramid of training and preparation for a challenging task.   Its partly because you know most people will never understand what you do, and partly because the community of your colleagues, who do understand what you do, encourage it.  But there are negatives that come with it and I felt uncomfortable this week because this man’s life had become defined by what went wrong at the top of that pyramid and maybe he couldn’t come to terms with his false view that an incident beyond his control was a reflection on himself. I don’t doubt the man’s capability and I often used examples of his specific EOD operations as exemplars to others about the need for thoroughness and meticulous thought when dealing with complex IED attacks.  I wish I had told him that, God I wish I had told him that. 

The shared experiences of brothers in arms are desperately needed in these circumstances. The glances, comments, language, attitude and in-jokes  are a hand rail on a ship in stormy seas.  Burton Dassett felt like Wootton Bassett on Thursday.

It’s usually sensible to wait for clarity when initial reports of incidents come in.   But here’s a story that is developing that just seems fishy….  Link here to the BBC story

So…. the story is from the Straits of Hormuz, a key flashpoint and area of tension. An area where a large proportion of the world’s oil passes through, where incidents have occurred before (including missiles being fired at ships).  It happened on a Japanese tanker carrying a cargo of oil.  So possible geopolitical impacts to Iran, Japan, the Gulf and the world in general.  The ship and the owners of the ship and the Japanese government say it was an explosion related to “piracy” whatever that means.  But the local coastguard say that is was a “wave”.  The damage was to the “upper accommodation of the ship” including some doors and windows”. A life boat was blown off the ship.  Furniture in one cabin was broken but the cabin was dry showing no evidence of water from a wave.

So… the Iranians are saying it was an earth tremor causing a tsunami, but the US geological survey says there was no record of such a tremor. The USGS are known to be pretty reliable in comparison to perhaps the Iranian coastguard.  Do you think a Captain of an oil tanker would recognise a big wave that damaged the upper accommodation of his ship but left no sign of water?  You’d think that the single crew member whith injures from flying glass might remember the wave bit, wouldn’t you?

Spider-senses are tingling.  Watch out.