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CIA Left Inert Explosives On School Bus After Exercise (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the whoops dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Students were transported in a Virginia school bus carrying inert explosives left by the CIA, officials said. The explosives were discovered in the engine, only after the Loudoun County Public Schools bus was undergoing maintenance. "The CIA assured Loudoun officials the training material used in this exercise is stable and posed no danger to students on board the bus," it said in a statement. The school district said the inert explosives, left behind by a CIA canine team, were inside a container and part of them apparently fell out into the engine space.

42 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. April Fools... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...unfortunately not...

  2. Intert? by surfdaddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If they're intert, they're not explosives. They are imitation explosives.

    1. Re:Intert? by radaos · · Score: 4, Funny

      OMG! They left an oxymoron on the bus!

    2. Re:Intert? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Inert explosives: Safe enough to keep on your kids' school bus, but a 4oz container of it in your carry-on is an incident.

    3. Re:Intert? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      If they're intert, they're not explosives. They are imitation explosives.

      Thank God they didn't leave a clock.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    4. Re:Intert? by meerling · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Inert is a munitions that won't explode, period. Often a device filled with concrete. In the case of trying to imitate a c4 device, clay or playdo.
      However, almost anything can be made to explode if know what you're doing. So long ago in junior high (this was before all the stupid paranoia) in science class we made explosives from many things, including charcoal, sugar, and steel. It's just basic chemistry. As to the sugar, we didn't just make it explode, we also made some rocket motors from it. It's a high caloric material, so that kind of stuff is really easy with it. The worst of the lot was the steel. Needed oxidizers and stuff. It's been too long, and I don't remember what all we did with it. Oh well, posting that kind of stuff these days would probably have a swat team running a tank through your front door. It's amazing how ignorant and cowardly people are anymore.

    5. Re:Intert? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      However, almost anything can be made to explode if know what you're doing.

      And have access to a sufficient quantity of antimatter.

    6. Re:Intert? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, they were real explosives according to ABC (http://abcnews.go.com/US/cia-accidentally-left-explosive-training-material-school-bus/story?id=38079658)

      “CIA and Loudoun County explosives experts have confirmed that the training material did not pose a danger to passengers on the bus,” the department said. “As a precaution, all buses that were used or were near the training exercise at the Briar Woods High School were further searched and nothing was found."

      Wayde Byard, spokesman for Loudoun County Schools, told ABC News that a specialized blasting cap would be needed to detonate the explosives.

    7. Re: Intert? by clovis · · Score: 1

      Lucky you, all I got in school even remotely related to chemistry was a thought exercise. Something along the lines of "what would happen if we exploded light?" Fucking brain dead bullshit. Obviously we would wreck the planet if not more.

      Exploding light? You talking about Solaronite. It is well known that solaronite would explode the entire universe.
      There is a documentary film you should see:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    8. Re: Intert? by laurencetux · · Score: 2

      $10M for detector tech and its outdone by a $0.8K dog (not counting equipment and "programming" for either).

      shouldn't this kind of thing have a checklist/inventory sheet to prevent this from happening??

    9. Re:Intert? by TRRosen · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they would probably need something like a super high voltage shock to set it off. Luckily there's nothing like that in a engine compartment.

    10. Re:Intert? by IBitOBear · · Score: 1

      Was a photo also found of a someone making a gun shape with their fingers and holding a note making no demands?

      --
      Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
      --"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
  3. Intentional by WheezyJoe · · Score: 1

    They were investigating the potential for bomb-sniffing schoolchildren.

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  4. Re: Left shit behind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I left shit behind in a public restroom once... And it definitely wasn't inert.

  5. Re: Yawn by johnsmithperson123 · · Score: 2

    Nah, it's dihydrogen monoxide you should worry about. Dangerous, addictive, and produces explosive materials when electricity passes through. You know what Sandy Hook, Columbine and your local school have in common? Easy access to dihydrogen monoxide, that's what! Ban it today!

  6. Re:So what? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2

    Posts elsewhere concluded it was C4.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  7. The bus needed to get over 50 to arm them any ways by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    The bus needed to get over 50 to arm them any ways

  8. Re:So what? by chuckugly · · Score: 1

    How would C4 be inert? In that it's not presently exploding?

  9. Sooo.... by watermark · · Score: 3, Funny

    The bomb sniffing dogs failed their training then?

    1. Re:Sooo.... by DavidMZ · · Score: 1, Funny

      Or maybe trained so well that they just thought "this stuff is inert anyways, why bother?"

    2. Re:Sooo.... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Drug sniffer dogs don't need a signal, they've been trained to recognise a black person by themselves.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  10. What else has been dropped? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    "Hey Bobby, look what I found under the seat! It says, 'Area fifty one time portal module 7'. And a button! I wonder what happens if I pr [ZZZZERRRRRP]..."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  11. NOT An April Fool's Joke by McGruber · · Score: 1

    The story is NOT an April Fool's Joke -- it really happened!

  12. Re:So what? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    not presently exploding

    Just like the North Korean nuclear arsenal.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  13. Re:The bus needed to get over 50 to arm them any w by nintendoeats · · Score: 1

    Haha, I see the flaw in their terrorist plot.

  14. Re:So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You can cut chunks of C4 off and burn it like sterno to heat a can of beans. You can shoot C4 point blank with a rifle and it won't explode. So, yeah, it's explosively inert as a chunk of wood is... until you add the high voltage blasting charge.

  15. Whats the CIA doing this for by rossdee · · Score: 2

    Shouldn't this be the FBI's job?

    Yeah I know this is a joke anyway.

    1. Re:Whats the CIA doing this for by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      So the CIA has to go out of the US do to their training too?

    2. Re:Whats the CIA doing this for by tobiah · · Score: 1

      good point, the CIA is not allowed to operate in the USA ..or in my kid's school

      --
      "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
    3. Re:Whats the CIA doing this for by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      No shit; the CIA doesn't look for explosives in school buses; other people look for the CIA's explosives in school buses (and in this case would appear to have found them).

  16. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  17. All explosives are inert... by edibobb · · Score: 1

    ...until they explode.

  18. Or.... by Bugler412 · · Score: 1

    an ineptly failed false flag operation intended to justify continued war against brown people

    1. Re:Or.... by coinreturn · · Score: 1

      an ineptly failed false flag operation intended to justify continued war against brown people

      Extremely inept, considering that the exercises were announced beforehand.

  19. Let me guess... by blindseer · · Score: 1

    I would imagine that if *I* left an inert explosive on a school bus after a training exercise I had that I would not get off as lightly as these people in the CIA just did.

    I also noticed that the wording is such that the implication is that these were not in fact explosives but they stopped at saying that. If they were not explosives then they would say that these were not explosives. Since they were explosives then they have to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal by calling them "inert".

    I guess that everything is "inert" until it isn't. What would they call an explosive that was no longer 'inert"? Wouldn't they call that "hot gasses"?

    This is a problem and people should lose their job over this, or at least get a few days without pay to think about what they did.

    One question, doesn't the CIA have enough money to just *buy* a school bus for training like this?

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    1. Re:Let me guess... by coinreturn · · Score: 1

      FYI, I live in, and my daughter attends school, in this district. Here are a few details not in TFS (direct from LCPS):

      In response to this incident, the Sheriff’s Office, Fire Marshal, LCPS and the CIA announced that this particular training program has been suspended until a thorough review of all procedures is completed. As part of the training exercise last week, canine explosive detection training was conducted in areas inside and outside of Briar Woods. During the outside portion, a container holding the training material was hidden inside the engine compartment of a bus. At some point, a portion of the material appears to have fallen from the container into the engine compartment. The material that fell from the container was not recovered following the training. On Wednesday night, the Sheriff’s Office and Fire Marshall’s Office used three canine units to inspect any buses that were parked at Briar Woods during the training exercise purely as a precaution. No further traces of the training material were found.

      Saying that they "left some explosives on the bus" is a simplification.

  20. kids as a training exercise. by Hylandr · · Score: 1

    Don't you just love a country that uses our kids as a training exercise. Nothing worrisome about that at all!

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  21. why? by TRRosen · · Score: 1

    used busses only cost about a grand or two but they needed to borrow busses from a school district?

    1. Re:why? by coinreturn · · Score: 1

      used busses only cost about a grand or two but they needed to borrow busses from a school district?

      Actually, they borrowed the whole school.

  22. Re:I hope they drained the gas tank by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    gasoline

    I hope not, gasoline would really screw up those diesel engines.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  23. Re:The bus needed to get over 50 to arm them any w by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    But those a "bom"s, this is clearly a bomb, totally different thing.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  24. Re:They Can't Account For Their Own.... by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, that was my fault, I had beans last night.

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?