[Saurgrist]

This is ridiculous... this may never end

ABC News US | August 10, 2006 | Richard Esposito, Ned Potter, Jonathan Silverstein and Len Tepper & Staff


Suspects Allegedly Planned to Hide Dangerous Chemicals in Modified Sports Beverage Bottles

Aug. 10, 2006 — ABC News has learned the details of an alleged terror plot to bring down nine commercial airliners, using liquids concealed in sports beverage drink bottles.

According to sources, the suspected plotters arrested in London today planned to use liquid or gel explosives, triggered with the flash from a disposable camera.

The plotters planned to leave the top of each bottle sealed and filled with the original beverage, but add a false bottom filled with the explosive. The volatile mixture would have been dyed to match the color of the beverage.

Sources say the suspects believed this would guarantee them safe passage through security, even if they were ordered to sip the beverage to prove it was harmless, sources said.

The flash in a disposable camera, the plotters apparently believed, would have enough power to trigger the homemade explosive.

Experts say there are a number of homemade or easily modified commercial explosives that could have enough power to damage or destroy a jetliner.

A law enforcement source outside the United States provided ABC News with the names of three arrested suspects, believed to be major players in the plot: Rashid Rauf, Mohamed Al-Ghadra and Ahmed Al-Khan.

One of the suspects arrested is a woman, the source said, and not everyone authorities believe would have aided in the attack would have been aboard the planes.