From: ethridge@Onramp.NET (Allen B. Ethridge)
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 17:21:33 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Just what the Internet needs right now...
Message-ID: <v02140b00ad38a21d561f@[199.1.154.164]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>        I'll try to see if I can find some bomb-making information from a
>non-US web site; it may help in counterarguments. Given that I'm still not
>that good at searching, it would be nice if someone else could locate it also.
>        -Allen
>
>Reuters New Media
>
>   _ Friday Febuary 2 4:54 PM EST _
>
>Boys Arrested for Plotting Bomb
>
>
>
>   NEW YORK (Reuter) - Three 13-year-old boys have been accused of
>   plotting to blow up their school after learning how to build a bomb
>   over the Internet, police said Friday.
>
>   The boys were arrested Wednesday after other students at Pine Grove
>   Junior High School in Minoa, New York, heard rumors of their plans and
>   police were alerted, said Capt. William Bleyle of the nearby Manlius
>   police department.
>
>[...]
>
>   One of the boys, believed to be the ringleader, admitted to police
>   that the three eighth graders learned how to build the bomb from
>   instructions they found on the Internet, the global network accessible
>   from home computers.

This was on the national TV news tonight as well.  I'm still trying to
figure out what planet all these people are from.  Boys and bombs have gone
together at least since i was a boy.  Teenage boys were building pipe bombs
back when i was a teenager, in the seventies, before anyone had heard of
personal computers or the internet.  Of course, i didn't learn about bombs
for blowing up entire buildings until much later, when some television show
mentioned combining diesel fuel with  fertilizer.  This show even got
specific as to the type of fertilizer, but i forgot to take notes.

The only counter-argument than makes any sense to me is that this isn't
new.  Boys have been building bombs for years.  Now they get their
information from the internet instead of the library or older kids down the
street.  The information has always been available.

Of course, there is always the argument about parental responsibility, but
that's not as sexy as the evil internet.

        allen