You won't believe this one.

[thebullet]

This is word-of-mouth; perhaps even an urban legend, but:

According to The Nation, Security at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris wanted to test the efficacy of their bomb-sniffing dogs. As an experiment they slipped some plastique explosive in some randomly chosen luggage.

Whoops, the dogs screwed up and didn't sniff out the explosive.

Whoops #2, the security people lost track of the luggage.

ERGO: somewhere in the world there is someone carrying around a package of plastique explosive.

I'll let everyone come up with their own conclusions about what could happen next.

 

[The_Darkness]

Um yeah. So that's not good. Not good at all.

Hope the plastique wasn't next to some batteries....

 

[Guest]

Oh la la, zose crahzee Frenshees. Zoot allorh!

Perdita

 

[minsue]

Sadly, it's not an urban legend. What is even more horrifying to me than the fact that they lost them is that they put it in an unknown traveler's luggage. They don't even know what flight, much less what person. Un-fucking-believable.



Dec. 10, 2004, 5:12PM
Suitcase with plastic explosives still missing
Associated Press

PARIS -- A week after the disappearance of plastic explosives placed in a traveler's suitcase during a training exercise for bomb-detecting dogs at Paris' main international airport, French authorities conceded today they still have no idea where the material ended up.

Police have not recovered the suitcase despite an exhaustive search, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said.

"You don't play with this kind of material," an exasperated Villepin told RMC-Info radio. "This is a scandalous individual initiative."

The explosives, which police say pose no immediate danger because they were not fitted with a detonator, were placed in a random passenger's bag at Charles de Gaulle International Airport by officers working with dogs specially trained to detect hidden bombs.

Police since have halted the practice of planting explosives on unsuspecting travelers, which they conceded had been carried out for years on the theory that a real-life airport scenario was the best training venue.

The French public has ridiculed police for the bungled exercise, which has become an embarrassment for France.

Many here have criticized the United States for taking what they see as excessive security measures after the Sept. 11 attacks -- only to be stung by their own security mini-scandal.

Two police officers involved in the exercise stashed the cell-phone-sized pack of plastic explosives into the side pocket of the navy blue suitcase as it rolled along a conveyer belt.

One dog successfully identified the bag, but police then lost track of it when they went to fetch a second dog for the exercise.

Airport authorities say they believe the bag went missing between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Dec. 3 and could have wound up on any of about 100 flights.

Authorities at airports in New York and Los Angeles launched a fruitless search for the suitcase after French aviation officials issued a global alert to be on the lookout for the bag.

Villepin said today that passenger baggage "should never at any time be involved in such practices." He has vowed to punish those responsible.

"One can do special training with bags that have been organized by our gendarmes, but certainly not with individuals' bags," he said.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Man, this is like a Penn and Teller movie.

Shanglan

 

[The_Darkness]

Shan, or like a Peter Sellers movie...

 

[BlackShanglan]

Shan, or like a Peter Sellers movie...

No kidding. What d'you think the odds are that the poor bastard was on his way to somewhere like, oh, Turkey?

(Or Passaic, NJ?)

Shanglan

 

[BigAndTall]

At least they said they were not going to do this kind of operation again.


But I suspect all nations do this and just keeps it under wraps. Though I hope they are not randomly putting the stuff in strangers suitcases.

 

[Bridget69]

I really feel sorry for the person who's going to get caught with such a suitcase.

 

[minsue]

Though I hope they are not randomly putting the stuff in strangers suitcases.

That's the part that just baffles me. How overconfident can you get?!?

 

[BigAndTall]

That's the part that just baffles me. How overconfident can you get?!?

I suppose they could have accidently put it in the wrong one.

If not, what happens to the guy if he actually been "found"?

 

[The_Darkness]

But I suspect all nations do this and just keeps it under wraps. Though I hope they are not randomly putting the stuff in strangers suitcases.

Oh hell, why not! I have an old tree in the back yard that I need to get rid of....platique would do just the trick!

 

[R. Richard]

As minsue has pointed out so well, it is not an urban legend.

The stuff was C4. The package that the police lost is worth fairly substantial money. Now, you are a starving student on his way to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, fill-in-blank. You mention to someone that you are the guy with the explosives planted in his bag. Your buddy says, "We can sell it for big bucks!" What do you do?

 

[minsue]

I suppose they could have accidently put it in the wrong one.

If not, what happens to the guy if he actually been "found"?

They didn't track at all what bag they put it into, apparently assuming that they would definitely find it.

 

[The_Darkness]

Hell with that, starving student anywhere! Mercenary work pays damn well if you can find the contracts!

 

[BlackShanglan]

As minsue has pointed out so well, it is not an urban legend.

The stuff was C4. The package that the police lost is worth fairly substantial money. Now, you are a starving student on his way to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, fill-in-blank. You mention to someone that you are the guy with the explosives planted in his bag. Your buddy says, "We can sell it for big bucks!" What do you do?

In Turkey? Piss myself.

Shanglan

 

[Lisa Denton]

I was thinking like you all until I looked at the link mins put there, it seems that the exercise was a total success........

(One dog successfully identified the bag, but police then lost track of it when they went to fetch a second dog for the exercise.)

......maybe the problem is not to lose explosives after you find them, but of course that is a personal opinion and prolly not part of their Standard Operating Procedure. They should give the doggie a pet on the head and a milk bone dog treat.

I also liked the ...................

("You don't play with this kind of material," an exasperated Villepin told RMC-Info radio.)

.......... I think that means Don't Try This At Home.


http://www.mytempdir.com/13122004/2863.jpg

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Another in a long line of reasons why the French shouldn't have explosives.

 

[cantdog]

Like the people who test lab-created micro-organisms by just turning them loose on the world.

 

[rikaaim]

Another in a long line of reasons why the French shouldn't have explosives.

Perfectly said.

 

[cantdog]

Or any other humans, rikaaim. Buncha dumb house apes. Can't get out of their own way under a strong light. Why single out the French?


cantdog

 

[thebullet]

Originally posted by Joe Wordsworth
Another in a long line of reasons why the French shouldn't have explosives.

And American's should have explosives? We have shown a propensity in the last few years of shooting first and asking questions later.

As Asimov succinctly put it (paraphrasing Johnson):
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Or any other humans, rikaaim. Buncha dumb house apes. Can't get out of their own way under a strong light. Why single out the French?


cantdog

Amen! Listen to the dog, everyone. The problem is the damned homo sapiens.

Shanglan

 

[Liar]

They didn't track at all what bag they put it into, apparently assuming that they would definitely find it.

I do hope that someone high ranked got or will soon get publically spanked for that. That is stupid beyond belief.

Let's see if i get this straight... is someone somewhere walking around with explosives in his bag without having the first clue about it? What happenes if the dogs at the next airport decides to sniff for bombs instead of each other's butts? (Ok, it was a human error story says, but I had a cool line, so i used it.)

"No, officers, ya gotta belive me! I have no idea where that stuff comes from. Honest."

Now, what is he was travelling to...oh I don't know...China? Methinks he'd be majorly fucked.

#L

 

[thebullet]

Liar wrote:
Ok, it was a human error story says, but I had a cool line, so i used it.)

"No, officers, ya gotta belive me! I have no idea where that stuff comes from. Honest."

Now, what is he was travelling to...oh I don't know...China? Methinks he'd be majorly fucked.

When I originally posted this story, my final reference was to the very fact that somewhere shit was going to hit the fan when some security agency's dogs were actually successful in smelling out the stuff this poor sucker is carrying around.

But - totally off topic - Liar's response reminded me of a friend back in my semi-hippy days during the early 70's. He was at some sort of get together hoping to hook up and buy some speed when the place was busted. It was only then that he found out that the dealer didn't have any speed, he only had coke.

My friend thought he had found a loophole.
"But Judge, I didn't know there was Coke there. I only wanted to buy some speed!"