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How to get your bomb materials through shipping customs and international regulations. Have a ship loaded with explosives come to port. Openly report it as il

How to get your bomb materials through shipping customs and international regulations. Have a ship loaded with explosives come to port. Openly report it as illegal. Levy fines and fees to someone that you know will reject paying them. Declare the ship unsafe to leave unless it is repaired by the same people that refuse to pay the fees. Do nothing. Now you have a legal bomb supply station.

CPLX 5y ago
I mean it’s a theory, but ammonium nitrate is an incredibly common farming input. At the nation state level especially I don’t think you’d need to concoct a complicated scheme to get your hands on it.
- ipnon 5y ago
  But Hamas, ISIS, FSA, Hezbollah, cannot simply park their bomb materials in a well-functioning port. No, they would need some sort of semi-failed state, in a big city with many places to hide, yes ... and one sharing a flimsy border with a warzone like Syria. And once the materials enter the warzone, they effectively disappear, and could reappear anywhere in the region. Where on the map could we find such a port?
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  I read this as another group, not a nation state, wanting and stealing the ammonium nitrate. Most of it was stolen before the blast — terrorist groups? Low-level thugs? Who knows, but you’re right that a nation state doesn’t need to steal it in this way. That’s why it points to other parties. It may be incredibly common but not in the quantity that was stolen.
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    Must take in mind that the stuff also decomposes spontaneously. If stored for many months in bad conditions of conservation some amount just would go silently to the air in form of water vapor and laughing gas.
- qubex 5y ago
  > ammonium nitrate is an incredibly common farming input True, but this stuff was intended for use as a mining blasting agent in Africa so lacked most of the stabilisers added to the agricultural stuff specifically to make it less suitable for deliberate or accidental use as an explosive. In the context of this theory at least, this makes the material more valuable/suitable for ‘military’ use.
- mike_d 5y ago
  The EU bans export of fertilizer containing more than 16% ammonium nitrate. Many countries won't even ship it to the Middle East. The Beruit stockpile was from a ship that was held in port on its way to another country, with "weapons grade" ammonium nitrate intended for an explosives manufacturer.
jldugger 5y ago
How to level a city: As a national administrator, assume that was what was happening, and that the entire affair was a ruse to supply covert operatives without leaving a paper trail linking them to any government. Further assume they only left a tiny amount behind not worth executing any safety protocols over beyond a cursury 'inspection' to ensure the shipment hasn't left, when they in fact left 20 percent behind as an insurance policy in case you consider betraying the conspiracy.

CPLX 5y ago

I mean it’s a theory, but ammonium nitrate is an incredibly common farming input. At the nation state level especially I don’t think you’d need to concoct a complicated scheme to get your hands on it.

ipnon 5y ago
But Hamas, ISIS, FSA, Hezbollah, cannot simply park their bomb materials in a well-functioning port. No, they would need some sort of semi-failed state, in a big city with many places to hide, yes ... and one sharing a flimsy border with a warzone like Syria. And once the materials enter the warzone, they effectively disappear, and could reappear anywhere in the region. Where on the map could we find such a port?
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
I read this as another group, not a nation state, wanting and stealing the ammonium nitrate. Most of it was stolen before the blast — terrorist groups? Low-level thugs? Who knows, but you’re right that a nation state doesn’t need to steal it in this way. That’s why it points to other parties. It may be incredibly common but not in the quantity that was stolen.
- pvaldes 5y ago
  Must take in mind that the stuff also decomposes spontaneously. If stored for many months in bad conditions of conservation some amount just would go silently to the air in form of water vapor and laughing gas.
qubex 5y ago
> ammonium nitrate is an incredibly common farming input True, but this stuff was intended for use as a mining blasting agent in Africa so lacked most of the stabilisers added to the agricultural stuff specifically to make it less suitable for deliberate or accidental use as an explosive. In the context of this theory at least, this makes the material more valuable/suitable for ‘military’ use.
mike_d 5y ago
The EU bans export of fertilizer containing more than 16% ammonium nitrate. Many countries won't even ship it to the Middle East. The Beruit stockpile was from a ship that was held in port on its way to another country, with "weapons grade" ammonium nitrate intended for an explosives manufacturer.

jldugger 5y ago

How to level a city: As a national administrator, assume that was what was happening, and that the entire affair was a ruse to supply covert operatives without leaving a paper trail linking them to any government. Further assume they only left a tiny amount behind not worth executing any safety protocols over beyond a cursury 'inspection' to ensure the shipment hasn't left, when they in fact left 20 percent behind as an insurance policy in case you consider betraying the conspiracy.