Investigators believe the New Orleans truck attacker used a strong explosive to make two bombs that could have shot shrapnel hundreds of yards away and perhaps killed or injured hundreds of people.
New Year’s Day did not see the explosion of the bombs. However, experts claim that if it weren’t for a careless error, the devices that Shamsud-Din Jabbar constructed using a substance thought to be RDX would have had disastrous consequences.
Scott Sweetow, a retired executive with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a former director of the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, stated that while it is terrible that he killed and injured all of these people, it could have been much worse if these devices had truly worked. There would be hundreds of casualties, literally.
According to Sweetow, a bomb detonating in a tourist area of New Orleans would be like throwing several hand grenades into a busy street.
He went on to say that it would have been pure slaughter.
According to federal law enforcement sources, Jabbar detonated the explosive using the incorrect device, which is why the devices did not detonate.
A standard pipe bomb made with powder explosives may be detonated by the electric match he used. However, it is much more difficult to set off a complex like RDX. It is regarded as a high explosive material, which means that it won’t explode unless a main explosion is caused nearby by a device called a blasting cap or detonator.
In an interview with NBC News, three explosive specialists expressed their confusion about Jabbar’s apparent knowledge of how to use a little-known substance that was more potent than TNT but not how to make it explode.
Tony May, a former ATF agent who served as an Army explosive enforcement officer in Afghanistan, stated that it simply doesn’t make logic.
Experts claim that by utilizing RDX, Jabbar was imitating the strategies of terrorist organizations that operate in the Middle East, where it is much more accessible. Powder explosives, which are much less potent and easier to build, are used in the great majority of bomb attacks in the United States.
According to David Hyche, a former ATF agent who is currently the chief of police in Calera, Alabama, “what worries me the most is that other people might try to do this now.”
At around 3:15 a.m. on January 1, 42-year-old Jabbar, a Texas Army veteran who was motivated by the Islamic State terrorist organization, drove a rented pickup truck down a part of Bourbon Street that had been sealed off. He killed 14 people and injured dozens more. He was shot dead in a gunfight with police after wreaking havoc for three blocks.
About an hour prior, Jabbar had placed his homemade bombs on Bourbon Street, the well-known party district in the center of the French Quarter, after placing them inside two coolers. It’s still unknown if he used the vehicle attack because the bombs didn’t go off or if it was always part of his intention to kill people. According to law enforcement officials, Jabbar also possessed a semiautomatic rifle with a privately manufactured silencer and a handgun.
Investigators discovered explosive materials at his Houston house that field tests revealed were RDX. Additionally, they discovered explosive chemicals at a New Orleans rental house he rented that tests first determined to be R-Salt, an explosive with a chemical composition similar to RDX. However, the ATF stated on Sunday that it now thinks more comprehensive laboratory testing will prove that it was also RDX.
In the US, getting an RDX is difficult. It is a military-grade explosive that can only be obtained with a federal authorization and is also employed for specific purposes by mining and demolition businesses. Although thieves have been known to obtain stolen RDX, several experts told NBC News that they believe Jabbar synthesized it himself, which is a very risky and time-consuming process.
The New York Post’s film of Jabbar’s Houston home, which included a property receipt outlining the goods the federal investigators had seized—including standard lab supplies and precursor chemicals like potassium nitrate, sulfuric acid, and acetone—is the basis for that theory.
According to Sweetow, the former ATF and FBI official, there is no proof that he has the necessary competence to carry out this task independently. Therefore, he would have needed to undertake extensive study on the Internet or have gotten information from outside sources.
Although it is uncommon in the United States, terrorist organizations in the Middle East have bombmakers who create their own high explosives. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing are the two most well-known examples of that.
Experts suggested the bombing would have been far more devastating if Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had used RDX.
According to Hyche, the former ATF agent who is now the head of the police department, you wouldn’t have had a single structure destroyed. You would have several structures destroyed.
Additionally, using RDX to build a bomb is riskier and more difficult.
According to Sweetow, most people lack the necessary abilities and are unwilling to follow instructions. Because they are not very good chemists, people constantly murder themselves while attempting to manufacture this thing.
Investigators are most likely examining how Jabbar learned to use a substance like RDX, according to the retired ATF personnel. Was he directly collaborating with an ISIS or other terrorist organization member? Or did he stumble upon instructions on a little-known website?
Where is the person who taught him how to do this stuff? “Sweethed,” Sweetow said. Is there a pattern to this?
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