more on TNT and Ammonium Nitrate

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 17:23:06 -0700
From: "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew () ceruleansystems com>
Subject: Re: [IP] TNT and Ammonium Nitrate
To: dave () farber net

> From: Joseph Traub <traub () cs columbia edu>
> Subject: TNT and Ammonium Nitrate
> To: dave () farber net
>
> A cache of TNT
> found in Manila and ammonium nitrate fertilizer
> found in London, were likely to be used in terrorist attacks.
> Apropos of the warning from The FBI and the DHS about attacks in the U.S.
> Congress should mandate the use of chemical tags to show the source of
> TNT and ammonium nitrate. Such tags would serve
> the same purpose as black box recorders after a plane crash.
> Indeed, I'm surprised congress has not already legislated
> such a requirement.


There are good technical reasons that identification taggants have not been 
added to commercial explosives.  In fact, there was a Congressional push 
circa 1996 to look into the feasibility of making identification taggants 
mandatory for anti-terrorism purposes.  It was the conclusion of both the 
National Academy of Sciences and the BATF that identity taggant 
technologies were generally unsafe, environmentally unsound, and 
ineffective as an anti-terror measure.
Given that all studies done on the subject suggested that identity taggants 
were at best ineffective and at worst hazardous, the issue has been 
shelved.  This issue has been studied in a number of other major countries 
with similar conclusions.

Ineffectiveness is the major issue here, even if taggant technology could 
be improved to the point of being safe and environmentally friendly.  98+% 
of bomb cases in the US do not involve commercial explosives (i.e. there 
would be no taggants even if implemented), and for the <2% of cases where 
it could apply, taggant technologies are not sufficiently robust to have 
much impact for law enforcement purposes.

The underlying problem is that modern high explosives, like modern 
firearms, are still fundamentally 19th century technologies and therefore 
trivial to manufacture from scratch in a 21st century world for anyone that 
cares to try, making them effectively uncontrollable technologies.

j. andrew rogers


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