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Ammonium nitrate

Important bomb-related advice from BATF Web Site:
"Agricultural retailers or anyone who encounters a stranger or suspicious person whom you suspect is purchasing ammonium nitrate fertilizer or other agricultural products for criminal purposes, please pay attention to the person's description and attire, attempt to discreetly obtain a vehicle license number, and immediately call 1-800-800-3855 or your nearest local law
enforcement agency." - BATF Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms

Ammonium nitrate stolen in Thailand

PM - Friday, 2 April , 2004 18:18:00

Reporter: Peter Lloyd

MARK COLVIN: Events in Thailand this week have set into sharp relief the dangers of terrorists getting easy access to the fertiliser and bomb-making ingredient, ammonium nitrate.

As we mentioned on PM yesterday, Islamic separatists escaped with a large quantity of the explosive material during an armed raid on a quarry in Thailand's south. But now, police believe one of the thieves was a relative of the Bali bombing mastermind Hambali, the al-Qaeda member arrested in Thailand last year.

South East Asia Correspondent Peter Lloyd reports.

PETER LLOYD: It's little wonder that security forces in southern Thailand are on high alert. In a raid on a quarry in the southern province of Yala, 10 men stole more than 1,300 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 58 sticks of dynamite and 170 blasting caps.

The fertiliser ammonium nitrate was the main explosive used in the Bali bombings, and the fear is that a major bomb attack is being planned to coincide with a national public holiday in two weeks time when tourists descend on the southern region.

Adding to concern is the police revelation that one of the thieves is an Indonesian national named Mukta, who is said to be a relative of captured al-Qaeda terrorist Hambali.

Thailand is a Buddhist country but the people of the five southern most provinces are majority Muslim and for decades the region has been a hotbed of separatist movements. The presence of foreign radicals highlights how a local issue has been seized upon by those with connections and sympathies for radical international terrorism.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, is a regional security expert from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

PANITAN WATTANAYAGORN: Militant Islamic movement, that has been active in the Middle East, that has been active elsewhere in the region, has now come, has now come to southern Thailand to seek more opportunities, networking.

They came with more, you know, experience with war fighting. They came with more experience of new, higher level of ideology. They came with a new leadership. They came with new instructions to fight a war.

PETER LLOYD: Since January at least 55 people have been killed in bomb, gun and knife attacks on government officials and security forces in southern Thailand. In the single biggest attack so far, nearly 30 people were injured in the bombing of a beer bar last weekend. Many of the victims were from neighbouring Malaysia.

Publicly at least, the government of Thailand is not accepting the analysis that a domestic insurgency has become a problem on the level of al-Qaeda connected terrorism in places like Indonesia and The Philippines.

Jakrapob Penkair, is the Prime Minister's official spokesman.

JAKRAPOB PENKAIR: The Government condemns such an act. The pattern of the terrorist and the insurgents remain the same. And the Government's standpoint remains the same also, that it is not an international terrorism as much as the insurgents would like to create the image for us to believe… it's not. It remains an insurgency in the country. It remains a disturbance that the Thai government has to handle and try to resolve.

PETER LLOYD: Confusion surrounds the precise causes of the trouble in Thailand's south. While some do blame separatists, others believe the violence is also politically motivated, either by rivals within the Prime Minister's own coalition government or supporters of the main opposition Democrat party.

With a general election due within a year, there's little doubt that the man with most to loose from unchecked violence is the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Dark forces may be at work and the atmosphere of fear in southern Thailand has never been greater.

This is Peter Lloyd in Bangkok reporting for PM.

Ammonium Nitrate: Regulate It

by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor

Usually I am opposed to government regulations, as they restrict our lives and impose excessive costs on the economy. But defense against violence and terror is a legitimate activity for the governance of a people, and we face greater dangers now than ever before.

It is well known that ammonium nitrate can be used to make a bomb. This chemical is normally used as a nitrogen fertilizer, and is widely available. No permit is required to sell or buy it, and there is no register of buyers or sellers. Some 1.7 million tons of ammonium nitrate were sold last year in the USA, at about $200 per ton.

Plants use nitrogen from two molecules, ammonium nitrogen (NH4) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3). Ammonium nitrate has the molecule NH4NO3, half ammonium and half nitrate. The product is also known as nitric acid and ammonium salt.

Ammonium nitrate is hazardous. It is a strong oxidizer. Contact with other materials can cause an explosion. It is harmful if swallowed or inhaled or comes in contact with skin. It is itself not combustible, but the heat of a reaction with other substances can cause a fire. It is, however, stable when properly stored for farm fertilizer. When released to the soil, ammonium nitrate leaches into groundwater, where it biodegrades.

According to experts on the subject, simple contact with other materials, (such as reducing agents) will not cause ammonium nitrate to explode. Heat, pressure and usually some initiator such as a regulated explosive must also be present to detonate ammonium nitrate. The high density grade of ammonium nitrate used as fertilizer is also more difficult to detonate than industrial grade used in commercial blasting. The World Trade Center bombing used Urea nitrate, not ammonium nitrate.

Ammonium nitrate was first synthesized by Johann Glauber in 1659; he combined ammonium carbonate and nitric acid. The full power of the explosive was not discovered until the end of World War I. Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918 for inventing the ammonia synthesis process. Throughout the war, ammonia synthesis plants were built and used in Germany to supply the country with explosives.

The main ingredient used in the truck bomb that murdered 168 people and destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 was two tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The Irish Republican Army, Tamil Tigers and some Middle Eastern groups have also used the ammonium nitrate bomb.

Despite its use in terror and destruction, today in the USA one still does not need a license or even personal identification to buy ammonium nitrate. The National Academy of Sciences has recommended banning sales of packaged ammonium nitrate unless dealers required IDs from buyers and keep accurate records. It also suggested putting chemical markers in fertilizer to aid bomb-sensing equipment and licensing fertilizer dealers.

In my view, it would be a legitimate part of national defense against terror to adopt the NAS suggestion for all sales of the substance. Farmers have been opposed to restrictions that would create delays and add to costs. But registration and tagging need not hinder the farmer. The cost should be borne by the U.S. government as part of national defense. There need also not be any delays. The chemical can be required to be tagged before a sale, and the identity of the buyer and seller recorded. Farmers could register personal and business information ahead of time so that there would be no delays when an ID is presented.

It is possible for terrorists to manufacture ammonium nitrate, but anything we can do to make it more costly and difficult for its use would reduce the dangers. It seems to me that the cost of monitoring the use of ammonium nitrate is well worth the reduction in the risk of its use in terrorist attacks. Ammonium nitrate is one case in which sensible regulation is warranted.

PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

% concentration figures below refer to ammonium nitrate content.

Appearance

Colourless clear liquid when free from crystals.

Odour

Weak ammonia odour.

pH water solution (conc. 10%)

> 4.5.

Freezing point

110°C (91-93%).

Boiling point

130°C (81.4%); 159°C (93.0%).

Vapour pressure at 100°C

39.6kPa (80%); 22.6kPa (89.9%).

Oxidizing properties

Not classed as an oxidizing material according to Directive 67/548/EEC

Explosive properties

Heating under confinement can lead to a violent reaction or explosion. Not classed as explosive.

Solubility in water

Miscible in all proportions.

Density

1.41g/cm³ at 100°C (91%).

STABILITY AND REACTIVITY

Stability

The product is stable when properly stored, handled and used.

Conditions to avoid

Temperatures below crystallisation point and above 150°C (decomposition).

Maximum temperature 140°C in transport - IMDG Code.

Acidification of solutions.

Dewatering of solutions.

Materials to avoid

Contact with combustible materials, reducing agents, acids, alkalis, soda ash, chlorides, chlorates, chromates, nitrites, metals such as copper, iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc and zinc alloys.

Hazardous reactions/decomposition products

Concentrated ammonium nitrate solutions react with organic materials (e.g. wood, oil or grease) in some situations after some time delay. They react vigorously with zinc and zinc alloys. (See Section 3.3.)

Becomes shock-sensitive when mixed with organic materials. Rinse contaminated clothes (fire hazard) with plenty of water.

Urea Nitrate. The directions on how to make Urea Nitrate are as follows:

Ingredients

1 cup concentrated solution of uric acid (C5 H4 N4 O3)

1/3 cup of nitric acid

4 heat-resistant glass containers

4 filters (coffee filters will do)

Filter the concentrated solution of uric acid through a filter to remove impurities. Slowly add 1/3 cup of nitric acid to the solution and let the mixture stand for 1 hour. Filter again as before. This time the Urea Nitrate crystals will collect on the filter. Wash the crystals by pouring water over them while they are in the filter. Remove the crystals from the filter and allow 16 hours for them to dry. This explosive will need a blasting cap to detonate.

Raed Hijazi, a onetime Boston cab driver, was ready for his mission. The chemicals for the explosives were stockpiled.

Two hours later, the police returned to the house, this time accompanied by Mr. Sumar, whom they had roused from his prison bed. "He took us in and pointed to a section of the floor," one policeman recalled. Four square cinder blocks had been perfectly cast to resemble the rest of the blocks on the floor, but they covered an iron hatch. Attached to its far side was a ladder leading into a basement chamber.

"When we opened the hatch, we couldn't believe it," said Kamel al-Naj, an explosives expert who accompanied the police that night and testified at the trial. "The smell was so foul we could hardly breathe. It burned my esophagus."

The chamber, its walls covered with thick plastic sheets, contained 71 large containers of acid, some dark green and some white. The dark green plastic containers held nitric acid; the white containers were filled with sulfuric acid. Several were leaking. The floor of the hidden chamber was two inches deep in flammable liquid.

"Only an hour before," Mr. Naj exclaimed, "we had all been walking around the house smoking! The house could have blown sky high had one of us dropped a match."

Attorneys for the defendants said the acids were intended to make fertilizer for the Hijazi family farm, but Mr. Naj disputed that assertion. He said he saw only one practical purpose for chemicals of that kind: to make explosives. And he estimated that the plotters had enough explosive ingredients to make the equivalent of 16 tons of TNT, which would flatten not only the Radisson but entire neighborhoods

In late 1998, Mr. Hijazi abruptly left Boston, leaving unclaimed his $150 deposit on his cab, a spokesman for the Boston Cab Company said. Using his American passport, he went to London and bought five Al Bico two-way radios at an electronics shop on Edgewater Road. The radios can be converted into remote-control detonators, investigators said.