Ustream

Concerns that terrorists could produce a new and particularly dangerous form of the explosive responsible for airport security screening of passengers’ shoes and restrictions on liquids in carryon baggage are unfounded, scientists reported today. The researchers used computer simulations to analyze a variety of potential peroxide-based explosives in the same chemical class as triacetone triperoxide (TATP). That powerful, easy-to-make explosive was used by the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, in his failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic airline flight in 2001. TATP has also been used by suicide bombers in the Palestinian Intifada.