Article

2010-08-19 China-Japan-Koreas

Radar data shows 2 small boats near damaged Japanese tanker before attack

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Posted by tu3031 2010-08-19 01:34|| || Front Page|| [10 views ] Top

#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|| 2010-08-19 02:49|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-08-19 07:15|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-08-19 18:54|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-08-19 21:25|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-08-19 23:35|| Front Page Top

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