An asylum-seeker in Northern Ireland was downloading bombmaking data. Does this give anyone the idea that asylum-seekers should be subjected to greater scrutiny before being allowed to stay in Western countries? Not yet. “Algerian guilty of downloading bomb data,” from The Guardian, with thanks to JE:
A 27-year-old Algerian asylum seeker was yesterday found guilty of downloading information on bomb making from the internet in the first trial of an al-Qaida suspect in Northern Ireland’s no-jury Diplock courts.
Abbas Boutrab had gathered instructions on how to construct explosives and smuggle them on an aircraft. He also learned how to make a silencer for an M16 or AK assault rifle from metal tubing and rubber door stops.
During the seven-week hearing in Belfast an FBI agent, Donald Schtleben, demonstrated that 25 computer disks found in Boutrab’s possession could be used to build a bomb capable of bringing down an aircraft. He suggested the devices could have been disguised inside canisters of baby talcum powder.