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Bombs & bomb threats in LA
Well, dry ice bombs are in the rec.pyrotechnics FAQ, stored among other
places at:
http://www.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/faq/pyrotechnics-faq
and everyplace else all the news.answers FAQs are stored. What, precisely, is
an acid bomb? Also note the standard blame-the-Internet (not, say, increased
irritation with government after the Republicans failed to reduce it) rhetoric.
-Allen
> Cobb Group - Netscape
> NUMBER OF LEGITIMATE BOMB THREATS HAVE INCREASED IN L.A. OVER 1995
> Copyright © 1996 Nando.net
> Copyright © 1996 Los Angeles Daily News
> LOS ANGELES (Aug 1, 1996 10:11 a.m. EDT) -- A bomb threat closed the
> entire roadway network within the Los Angeles International Airport
> for 45 minutes, creating a massive traffic tangle that came on top of
> delays from heightened security.
[...]
> Police say the case is the latest in a rash of bomb threats and
> suspicious package discoveries in Los Angeles borne of heightened
> concern and publicity surrounding the recent bombing at the Olympics,
> the mysterious crash of TWA Flight 800 and last year's Oklahoma City
> bombing.
> Each threat is taken seriously by law enforcement officials, who who
> say they are responding to a greater number of calls -- and, in Los
> Angeles County, finding a greater number of explosive devices.
> A Sheriff's Department spokesman said 178 potentially explosive
> devices have been found in the county out of a total of 273 calls
> answered in the first six months of this year.
> By contrast, only 86 such devices were found out of 259 calls in the
> first half of 1995.
[...]
> "We're going to top 70 for the month -- that is a record in this
> unit," Spencer said. "And the actual devices that really cause damage
> has gone up."
> Among devices found by sheriff's deputies: nine pipe bombs, 53 pieces
> of military ordnance, 44 Molotov cocktails, 12 fireworks-pyrotechnic
> devices, two acid bombs and five dry ice bombs.
> In the city, the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad responded
> to 972 calls in 1995 -- up from 717 in 1994.
> Of those calls last year, 181 were for either fireworks, ordnance or
> other potentially threatening items, police said.
> The squad destroyed 73 devices and investigated 41 explosions -- many
> in mailboxes -- that occurred over the year. Most calls, however, were
> for suspicious packages that turned out to be harmless.
> "We have had an excessive amount of bomb calls on the heels of the
> pipe bombing in Atlanta," said Lt. Tony Alba, an LAPD spokesman. "They
> have been running around like crazy ever since the Atlanta incident, a
> lot of suspicious package calls."
[...]
> Also on Wednesday, 55 miles north of downtown Los Angeles in
> Lancaster, the sheriff's bomb squad was summoned to the parking lot at
> an Elks Lodge where deputies found a homemade device -- which included
> half-sticks of dynamite and BBs.
[...]
> And Monday, an Ensenada, Mexico-bound Carnival cruise ship, filled
> with 1,846 passengers, was forced to turn around and head back to port
> after a bomb threat was made. No bomb was found.
> "To some it is a power thing," said Sgt. Al Humphries of the Sheriff's
> Department bomb squad. "With 20 cents and a mean spirit you can make a
> cruise ship turn around, or make an airplane turn back."
> Spencer and security experts agree media attention that focused on
> bombs in the aftermath of the Centennial Olympic Park and TWA
> explosions have factored into the flurry of threats and reported
> suspicious packages.
> William Daly, managing director at Kroll Associates, a New York-based
> security firm, said the activity will diminish as the spotlight fades.
> "If you look after the World Trade Center bombing, there was a
> dramatic increase the next day, unfortunately tied to the attention on
> the issue," Daly said.
> "These people who are on the fringe, they enjoy seeing emergency
> service, knowing that it is going to disrupt a city," he said. "This
> is the way they live out their fantasy. The more they see it being
> received and responded to, the more it will continue."
[...]
> Spencer said information about bomb-making on the Internet may be the
> answer to the greater numbers of actual devices being made.
> "This information is readily available on the Internet," he said.
> "What we've noticed is that a lot of juveniles have gotten the
> information off the Internet -- they admit it."
> Alba said the most common devices found by the LAPD are pipe bombs and
> dry ice bombs, often used to blow up mailboxes.
> Copyright © 1996 Nando.net