From: Jasper
Remote User:
Date: 06 Feb 2005
Time: 10:23:29 -0500
Nomi and Mario …..I don’t know if this helps you or confuses things farther but I should mention why I couldn’t tell “fresh” C-4 from old C-4 and why I regarded the word with suspicion. ……..Reading the article again I noticed that the FBI special agent called in an explosive expert from the Sheriff’s Department with over twenty years of experience. That sounds impressive but I doubt that he handled C-4 as much as I did in six months. It’s just too hard to get relative to other explosives like gasoline, gunpowder and stuff you can make with household food preparation and cleaning supplies. If the Explosives expert encountered it moue than once every two or three years in his career I’d be surprised. I used it every day on one 20-day mission and two 45-day missions. The condition it was in when I started the mission was the same as when I ended it (if I had any left). I also used it when I came out of the field to blow up old worthless stuff (to us) like dynamite, TNT and C-3. I never destroyed any “old” C-4” ………Four other things I found suspicious in the report: ……1) The “opinion” of the expert that the plastic explosive was C-4. That’s like a surgeon expressing an “opinion” that a kidney is a kidney. C-4 has a distinctive texture, a distinctive odor and it burns in a distinctive way. An expert only needed to pinch off a little and hold it to his nose to know what it was. I imagine that the “test burn” was done for some legal reason or for somebody to pick up a little overtime money. ……..2) The description of the M-26 practice grenade is not quite accurate and the wrong part is crucial. A practice grenade does not have the segmented coil inside that a fragmentation grenade has. The way these two were modified they were more dangerous to the user than any intended victim. …..3) The expert should have known the name of the explosive in the detonation cord and that it was the same stuff used in fragmentation grenades. Apparently he didn’t. I know the name. I just don’t know how to spell it. ……4) The expert should have seen at least the possibility that the jewelry (shrapnel) in the safe as well as the content and configuration of the safe’s contents were armed components of a single bomb set to go off where it was. I saw no indication that he did. --Jasper