From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 07:10:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Bombs & bomb threats in LA
Message-ID: <01I7RKOB77H48Y4XIK@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


	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 &copy 1996 Nando.net
>      Copyright &copy 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 &copy 1996 Nando.net