Foiled Terror Plot Puts SMU Professors in News Spotlight
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Foiled Terror Plot Puts SMU Professors in News Spotlight
Jim Hollifield, professor of International Relations at SMU, is showing up a LOT on television today in interviews about the most recent foiled terror plot.
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SMU Professor Ed Biehl is also in the limelight!
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS The foiled terror plot is putting new focus on liquids as possible explosives.
It's not a new ploy - in the mid-1990’s terrorist mastermind Ramsey Youssef was reportedly planning to use improvised bombs from contact lens solution to bring down aircraft… fortunately, it never happened.
There are common things around us that can be murderous. The Oklahoma City bombing was done with fertilizer and diesel fuel.
Most everyday toiletry products are not dangerous items and in no way present a threat. But it's useful to know terrorists can and do refill otherwise harmless bottles and tubes with dangerous materials.
Carrying two relatively harmless chemicals onto a plane and then mixing them later could be disastrous. For 150 years scientists have known about a reaction between a common, odorless, acid and glycerol.
"When you mix them, though, you get nitroglycerin, and that is dynamite, and how much you mix, the more you mix, the more the explosion will be," said Professor Ed Biehl, Southern Methodist University chemistry department.
Biehl wants travelers to know there may be no liquid container that is small enough to be harmless.
"I just think in this day and age and the safety of the people involved on the plane that they should err on the side of caution. Even this Scope bottle over here might be sufficiently big enough to cause the explosion," he said.
No personal toilet item is a threat when used properly. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms tells CBS 11 News there are 19,000 known combinations of liquid or gel explosives.
"We have, on a full-time basis, terrorists who will try to take advantage of leaks in the system or leaks as they present themselves. We are never out of the woods," said U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, (R) Texas.
No one knows how long the ban on carry-on liquids will be in effect, but federal safety experts believe that at least for now, it is necessary.
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS The foiled terror plot is putting new focus on liquids as possible explosives.
It's not a new ploy - in the mid-1990’s terrorist mastermind Ramsey Youssef was reportedly planning to use improvised bombs from contact lens solution to bring down aircraft… fortunately, it never happened.
There are common things around us that can be murderous. The Oklahoma City bombing was done with fertilizer and diesel fuel.
Most everyday toiletry products are not dangerous items and in no way present a threat. But it's useful to know terrorists can and do refill otherwise harmless bottles and tubes with dangerous materials.
Carrying two relatively harmless chemicals onto a plane and then mixing them later could be disastrous. For 150 years scientists have known about a reaction between a common, odorless, acid and glycerol.
"When you mix them, though, you get nitroglycerin, and that is dynamite, and how much you mix, the more you mix, the more the explosion will be," said Professor Ed Biehl, Southern Methodist University chemistry department.
Biehl wants travelers to know there may be no liquid container that is small enough to be harmless.
"I just think in this day and age and the safety of the people involved on the plane that they should err on the side of caution. Even this Scope bottle over here might be sufficiently big enough to cause the explosion," he said.
No personal toilet item is a threat when used properly. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms tells CBS 11 News there are 19,000 known combinations of liquid or gel explosives.
"We have, on a full-time basis, terrorists who will try to take advantage of leaks in the system or leaks as they present themselves. We are never out of the woods," said U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, (R) Texas.
No one knows how long the ban on carry-on liquids will be in effect, but federal safety experts believe that at least for now, it is necessary.
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