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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Radar data shows 2 small boats near damaged Japanese tanker before attack |
| 2010-08-19 |
| The plot thickens... TOKYO — Japanese authorities have found radar data showing two small unidentified boats near the Japanese tanker M. Star that was damaged in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz on July 28, transport ministry sources said Tuesday. The data retrieved from the tankers voyage data recorder showed two small boats changing directions many times and making other suspicious moves, raising the possibility that they may have been involved in the purported attack. The Japan Transport Safety Board, a body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the state-run National Maritime Research Institute are currently analyzing the images left in the M. Stars data recorder, the sources said. The National Police Agencys National Research Institute of Police Science is also checking substances collected from the damaged part of the tanker to see if they were components of an explosive. The radar data showed the small boats sailing parallel to the tanker, passing it and then turning around. They also showed that at some point, one of the boats disappeared from the radar, a move believed to indicate that it had moved to its blind spot around the tanker, according to the sources. After the ship was damaged, a manager of the UAEs Fujairah port said something collided with the tanker. In early August, a militant group linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attack on the Japanese tanker. Later, the UAEs state-run news agency WAM, citing a UAE coast guard source, reported that local explosives experts ‘‘found a dent on the starboard side above the waterline and remains of homemade explosives on the hull. Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives, the source was quoted as saying in the report. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #5 There is also the issue that homemade explosives and seawater don't mix. "Keeping your powder dry" isn't a cliche. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2010-08-19 23:35 |
| #4 From Strategypage... Investigators recovered traces of homemade (fertilizer and fuel oil) explosives. An Islamic terror group, the "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" took credit. This outfit is believed to be a name of convenience for several independent terrorist operations. The "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" took credit for recent rocket attacks against the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eliat. But these failed and the rockets fell in nearby Jordan, killing and injuring people. The attack on the tanker was amateurish, as the explosives were not prepared properly. The fertilizer based explosives are difficult to make correctly (the fertilizer and fuel oil must be mixed in the right proportions, and mixed properly). When the explosives are mixed badly, there is a much smaller explosion, and a very slow going one as well. This sort of thing works well for naval mines or torpedoes, where slow moving explosion creates a more effective pressure wave that does more structural damage to ships. Keep in mind that explosives are simply very fast burning materials. The slowest burning "explosives" are used for rocket motors. Thus for explosions in the air, you want "high (speed) explosives" to punch through metal. Apparently the suicide boater got as close he could to the huge tanker (whose wake makes getting close, especially for a small boat, very difficult), then detonated. All the "low (speed) explosives" could do was dent the hull, while turning the suicide bomber into fish food and his boat into kindling. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-08-19 21:25 |
| #3 "Blow'd up good, blow'd up real good!" Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok. |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2010-08-19 18:54 |
| #2 Damage like this makes no sense when compared with internal damage like this. According to Japanese newspaper Mainichi, "suggest that there was a powerful blast outside the ship. A lifeboat mounted on its starboard deck was apparently blown away by the force of the blast, while the door of the ship's bridge on its rear starboard side was damaged, exposing insulation materials in the walls and the ceiling inside the room. Another photo shows the window frames of the dining room scattered on tables." "The area around the door was not wet, and it is unlikely that a wave caused the damage," Mainichi quotes a company official, as saying. Also notice the deck railing. It is straight up until above the site of damage, then some sections are missing, and others are bowed upward. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-08-19 07:15 |
| #1 One boat on a suicide mission, and the other to videotape them as they vaporized themselves? No virginz for you, losers! |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-08-19 02:49 |
