We twice had the federal police use our house to stake out some terror wrists back before it was cool to be one.I was in school at the time so it was awfully exciting but I never got told the full details. 20 years on (last night) I learned that one guy parked a car with a bomb in an embassy basement carpark. The bomb had a mercury tilt switch that was supposed to trigger the bomb when someone opened the door in the morning. The guy didn't realise that the switch was facing the wrong way when he connected the detonator. Apparently the bomb was big enough to cause substantial damage to the first floor above the carpark which would've been full during the day. I'll leave the condition of the bomber as an exercise to the reader (although comparisons to Crista McAuliffe would be fair).
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Ratsta,
Thu 7 Feb 2008, 2:36,
archived)