I was talking with a friend who related a little story his wife told him about a woman at her work who met a drunk guy at the bar the other night that tried to pick her up and, of course, made a complete ass out of himself in the process.
The disturbing part in all this is the drunken man identified himself as a DHS dog handler who worked at one of America’s busiest airports. He revealed, among other things, that his bomb sniffing dog can’t detect certain types of explosives, especially if it was wrapped in plastic.
I would have otherwise dismissed this story as so much “vain talk” that you hear from people all the time, except for the fact that he mentioned what type of explosive his wife’s single girlfriend happened to mention in this case – “SEMTEX H.”
“SEMTEX H” immediately caught my attention, because I know for a fact it is odorless and extremely hard to detect by “sniffers.”
“Sniffers” are slang for bomb detection dogs.
Its been awhile for me but SEMTEX H was exported abroad, primarily to Vietnam for mine clearance and demolition.
Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN [also known as cyclonite and pentaerythritol tetranitrate].
It is used in commercial blasting and in certain military applications, and I have some experience with the product when I was in the service over 20 years ago. Semtex became notoriously popular with terrorists precisely because it was, extremely difficult to detect,as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103 ( Lockerbie bombing).
See wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103
Semtex H can also be molded into all kinds of shapes like molded plastics i.e, computer and cell phone cases. It is also extremely effective! Just 200 grams of the stuff, if I remember right is enough to blow up a commercial airliner.
Semtex is a plastic bonded explosive manufactured by Explosia near Prague in the Czech Republic. An article which appeared in the magazine, Chemical Week, Jan 30, 2002, stated that the Czech government will acquire Explosia from its owner Unipetrol during 2002.
An article in the Sunday Mirror (an English newspaper) stated that about 7000 metric tons of Semtex was exported to Libya, Iraq, and North Korea during the 1970’s and 1980’s, at least some of which was delivered to terrorists [see http://www.intellnet.org/news/2002/11/16/13551-1.html ]. Even after the Czech government took control of Explosia there were reports of Semtex seizures [ see http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text7-9-2002-22092.asp; http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06672497.htm ]. There are reports of stolen Semtex [http://www.rense.com/general20/sem.htm ].
Semtex is a favorite choice of terrorists [see http://www.kreten.8m.com/new/semtex.htm ].
It is believed that world stockpiles of Semtex may be 40,000 tons (give or take a few hundred tons)
Remember it took only 12 ounces of Semtex (molded inside a Toshiba cassette recorder) to bring down Pan Am flight 103 near Locherbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people. [see Christian Science monitor article, http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0226/p07s02-woeu.html for additional details].
The situation is very bothersome to me for a couple of reasons.
The first is that we have a security risk working somewhere within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in airport security as a dog handler shooting off his damn mouth to any pretty girl in a bar wearing too much makeup and a short skirt! And the second is that he may have revealed classified information pertaining to a real or ongoing security threat in the process while drunk and under the influence of alcohol.
I wish I could say such incidents involving DHS is rare – but that would not be the truth. Here are just a few examples:
See article: DHS security officer charged with 4th DUI http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-news/1599967-dhs-security-officer-charged-with-4th-dui/
See article: Police: DHS worker arrested outside office with BAC of .25 http://www.kptv.com/story/24352937/police-woman-claiming-to-be-dhs-worker-drunk-more-than-3-times-legal-limit
See also: DHS Explains: ‘We Bought Ammo While Shopping Online Drunk’ http://www.guns.com/2013/04/01/dhs-explains-we-bought-ammo-while-shopping-online-drunk/
See article: DHS Agent arrested in DUI crash, man in serious condition http://www.kswt.com/story/20228949/dhs-agent-arrested-for-dui-crash-man-in-serious-condition
In fact on my desk top computer I am currently tracking hundreds of reports right now involving DHS officers and drinking alone!
Repeated efforts to talk to the mans wife to find out the girlfriend’s name and contact information failed in this case because of the reluctance of these people to want to get involved – which is completely understandable, when you think about it, but completely ill advised.
I also lack the resources to travel to their location and investigate this situation to find out who the security risk is. This is completely frustrating for me.
Since the information is second hand and the description I am getting of the guy is so vague I can’t even submit a tip to the FBI at this point.
It should be noted however that screening procedures at airports across the nation and around the world have been intensified to the point that inspectors are now requiring passengers to allow inspection of computers and cell phones, which contain a lot of plastic materials.
Whether of not this is just a coincidence or not is purely speculation on my part. And I don’t believe in coincidences.
In this case all I can do is try and ferret out the information as best I can and hope I am entirely wrong in my assumption. Although my gut instinct tells me their is something there!
See report: Airport security: mobile phone checks stepped up http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/59266/airport-security-mobile-phone-checks-stepped-up