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FBI agent Margaret Cronin testified Friday about the
explosives, saying preliminary tests on Reid’s sneakers showed
the presence of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.
The substance can be
manufactured from common chemicals such as acetone, peroxide and
acid — and it has emerged in recent years as an improvised
explosive for terrorist bombs, even though it is notoriously
difficult to handle. TATP, sometimes referred to as “The Mother
of Satan,” was used in last summer’s Tel Aviv disco bombing in
which 21 people died.
Tests also turned up the
presence of another high-explosive chemical called pentaerythritol
tetranitrate, or PETN, U.S. officials told NBC News on condition
of anonymity.
PETN is commercially
available in blasting caps and detonator cords, and is useful for
construction and military applications. But the substance can also
be separated from such commercial products to create deadly
plastic explosives, and terrorists have used it in that way for
decades. PETN is a key ingredient in the Czech-made Semtex plastic
explosive, which brought down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, killing
270 people.
Agence France-Presse reported
Friday that Reid told the FBI he bought $1,500 worth of PETN
explosive in Amsterdam. The report was attributed to unnamed
French officials familiar with the investigation.
Reid was said to have found
the sellers over the Internet, Agence France-Presse reported. The
news agency said the FBI was contacting police in Belgium, France
and the Netherlands to inform them of the Web danger, but an FBI
spokeswoman in Washington denied that aspect of the report.
“We have not done that,”
she told MSNBC.com on condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials told NBC News
that the TATP would have served as the bomb’s detonator, and the
PETN would have been the main charge. The PETN was mixed with
petroleum jelly to form a putty-like substance, the officials
said.
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