Spam Text Prematurely Blows Up Suicide Bomber

Hugh Pickens writes "A suicide bomber's plan to detonate explosives in Central Moscow on New Year's Eve was foiled when she received an unexpected spam text message that caused her deadly payload to blow up too early. A message wishing her a happy new year came hours before the unnamed woman was to set off her suicide belt near Red Square, an act of terrorism that could have killed hundreds of people. Islamist terrorists in Russia often use mobile phones as detonators. The bomber's handler, who is usually watching his charge, sends the bomber a text message to set off the explosive belt at the moment when it is thought they can inflict maximum casualties."

Re:Best story ever. [citation needed]

[Lord Byron II]

The "story" is a little light on details. The suicide bomber has no name and no location is given, other than she was in a "safe house". Why wasn't this news four weeks ago, when it was New Year's? Why do they think it was an errant text message that set the bomb off and not just a defective trigger (after all, the phone should have been destroyed in the blast)?

I expect to see this on Snopes shortly.

Re:If you're making a bomb anyway

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Worse than that. Virtually any cheapass phone allows you to set specific ring/vibration combinations for specific numbers. Set the trigger number to "vibrate", connect the vibration motor driver to the detonation stage, and set the default to "silent". Should take 25 seconds or so. Maybe a few minutes if VZ designed the interface...

Re:Oh, I laughed when I read this

[mangu]

Another funny story about a terrorist bomb premature detonation was one of a car bomb that detonated on a deserted Israeli road.

Comparing the remains of the driver's wristwatch with the clock attached to the bomb in the car's trunk, Israeli experts came to the conclusion that the bomb clock was set to Israeli time, which was in daylight saving mode, and the driver's was set to Palestinian time, which wasn't.

Re:Good

[DoofusOfDeath]

How are we going to rid the world of ISLAM? These peopel make me despair, they won't be happy until they convert or kill us all. There isn't a country in the world that hasn't suffered from this religion of hate

My impression is that this has as much to do with Russian unpleasantness in Chechnya, as it does religion.

I'd be intersted to see how much "Islamic" terrorism the West and Russia faced if they stopped pissing on so many Muslims.

Re:Countermeasure

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just send constant free "Terror Risk Updates" to an area, to "keep the population informed of the situation".

Re:Poor Engineering As A Plus:

[Beardo the Bearded]

If it's for religious reasons, and it usually is, then they are forbidden from committing suicide upon punishment of going to hell. Because they are dead, it's a sin that cannot be forgiven. The loophole exists that they aren't killing themselves if someone else does the actual button pressing. These guys take loopholes way more seriously than the character optimization board at WotC and they've had thousands of years to figure this shit out. The consequences are greater, sure, but they've got it figured out.

The murders, apparently, are kosher / halal / unicode error. Better than that, actually, by martyring yourself whilst killing the holy enemies of your chosen one then you are assured -- fucking assured -- that you get to escape this oppressed life and move to a perfect beautiful one (albeit a hilarious parody of adolescent fantasy) in paradise, with the blessing of your chosen one.

I know, it assumes facts not in evidence. I'm a Secular Humanist so don't try saying but there's no God because I already know that, I'm just saying that that's their mentality.

Re:Seems to me...

[bugs2squash]

What a line they tread: Wanting the bomber to believe it is not suicide but the public to believe that it is a desperate act of self sacrifice. How does anyone get to the point where they feel they can keep full faith and somehow pull one over on their god ?

In Red Square

[Jammer6502]

I was in Red Square on New Years Eve attending the festivities. There was no way the bomber could have made it in before midnight due to the massive police and military presence (to get in I went through 3 checkpoints where I lost my alcohol and bottled water). However, after midnight they dropped the security and a bomber could have made quite an impact at any of the several stages surrounding the downtown area that were still packed with people (the streets were closed off to cars so everyone was just walking around). This spam text was a lucky break for the Russians, things could have gone much worse.

Express their world view?

[rsilvergun]

Excuse me? WTF? They're not expressing anything. The bombers are confused people with no options or hope. The handlers are psychotic power hungry warlords using terrorism to get ahead in the world. War & terror are never statements, they're the wealthy (or aspiring wealthy) manipulating the hopeless and downtrodden.

Re:Oh, I laughed when I read this

[paiute]

On Okinawa, the Marines attacking Sugar Loaf Hill were under the threat of surprise attack 24/7. The stress and lack of rest took a toll, and after a week or so the troops were mentally and physically in very bad shape. One squad was cautiously advancing in daylight when two or three Japanese came running and screaming out of hiding. One was arming a grenade - which were activated by striking it against a hard surface. The Japanese were trained to hit them against their helmets. But the grenades had a high rate of failure, and this one went off in the soldier's hand, blowing off his head. His corpse continued on a step or two and then sank twitching to the ground. The Marines, who under normal circumstances would have been horrified by this sight, thought it the funniest thing they had ever seen and were helpless with laughter for quite some time. Luckily the attack on them was not followed up for a while.