It never ceases to amaze me how easily people are amazed.
Forty years ago, radical college students in the US and abroad, intent on violent protest as opposed to their more civil contemporaries, shared information on how to create bombs and where to place them to best make their anti-war statements heard. This information was spread via word of mouth and “underground” newspapers.
Twenty years ago, radicals and those who admired them shared information on making pipe bombs and other deadly devices via BBS (actually, this information, due to it’s electronic form, is still widely available to anyone interested in looking).
The http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974458902/qid=1121038720/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8974531-8756951?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 “Anarchist’s Cookbook” has it’s origins in the 60’s, and was widely discussed and propagated via BBS’s during the 80’s and 90’s. For those of us only expressing a natural curiousity about our fellow man, it was one of those things we saw, looked at, and moved on. For those with wicked intentions, it was a handy gathering of information easily used as a reference to carry out their evil plans.
Today, the internet is all-pervasive. Virtually everyone in the world is at least aware of its existence, and a large percentage of the world has the ability to access the internet. Just as newsletters, meetings, fliers, speeches, and BBS’s have been used for both good and evil, the internet creates an outlet intentionally open and easy to use.
The recent announcement that a video has been unearthed describing in detail how to make and deploy a suicide-bomber explosive belt was met with a lot of shock and disbelief. News outlets and blogs alike point this out as if it were something new and unexpected, even while the “experts” declare it was likely made several years ago. Media frothed at the mouth about the Anarchist’s Cookbook many years after it was first published, and remaining true to form, seem mystified that such information is freely available today.
A DIY video showing how to make a “suicide-belt” bomb for use on a crowded bus is being circulated among terrorist websites.
The 26-minute tape gives a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to pack the belt with shrapnel and high explosive, and then detonate it on board for maximum loss of life.
This is nothing new. If you think it is, you haven’t been paying attention.
While it is important to find and prosecute the purveyors of such information, it will always be out there somewhere. Don’t be surprised when it crops up into the limelight. It’s been said “information wants to be free” – anything put in writing or published electronically is out there waiting to be found. When you see it, be sure you read it, share it, analyze it; this is the only way to understand the depth of the measures people will take in their efforts to do you harm. The more we know about the animals willing to kill us indiscriminately, the more we can begin to understand the depths of their inhumanity.