UK Bookstores Found Selling Banned US Bomb-Making Handbooks (engadget.com)

Three major online retailers in the UK have been listing a number of bomb-making manuals on their websites. Engadget adds:These books were originally made back in the 1960s for US military personnel and include titles like Improvised Munitions Handbook, Boobytraps, and Explosives and Demolitions. But since the end of the Vietnam War, these books have become popular resources for terrorists of all stripes. Thomas Mair, the man who assassinated Labour MP Jo Cox, reportedly owned a copy of Improvised Munitions, for example. The surfacing of these books for sale on the WH Smith, Amazon UK and Waterstones websites, has at least one of the companies scrambling to scrub the listings. WH Smith shut down its entire website for more than four hours on Thursday to eliminate the offending material, however it appears they are still available on Amazon and Waterstones.

Comments

Yes, because banning books totally works.

[Mal-2]

Isn't it nice that banning books makes all the content in them inaccessible? There is no international network to carry such data from outside your borders, there is no way anyone could scan and burn existing copies, and no way anyone could buy a copy outside the country and ship it in or bring it home. Good thinking UK, I'm sure this will turn out really well!

Re:Yes, because banning books totally works.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no, you are incorrect. I read (on Facebook, I think) that Barbara Streisand was actually able to have all images of her home removed from the Internet. I think Google is required to remove things from the Internet if you ask them.

And?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing makes me want to learn more about something than having someone tell me I can't be trusted with knowledge.

Re:And?

[tsotha]

Yep. Andy Grove famously did just that back when people didn't take it so seriously.

For decades I've wondered how many more top-notch chemists we'd have if you were still allowed to have that kind of fun.

Re:And?

[HornWumpus]

It is still done. Just more discreetly.

When I was 14 I thought I was smart. Asked dad (chem prof) for some high molar nitric, made up some nonsense experiment. Got it. Waited about 4 weeks, thinking dad has to have forgotten the nitric. Asked him for some high molar sulphuric (IIRC). Dad says: 'Nitrocellulose is much safer than nitroglycerin, don't be an idiot'. Then he gave me the sulphuric acid.

Granted that was awhile ago. The 4th gives me great confidence. Things that go bang are illegal here, 99% of what you hear is clearly homemade and large.

It gets worse!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Just wait until someone reminds the UK that their own government designed(and widely disseminated both the hardware and the schematics); for a low cost, easy to build submachine gun perfectly suited to the requirements of irregular warfare, guerrilla activity, and abundantly lethal anywhere close range and high rate of fire is an advantage.

There are all kinds of dangerous radicals out there, irresponsibly popularizing implements of mayhem; whatever shall we do?

Thomas Mair

[Motherfucking Shit]

Thomas Mair, the man who assassinated Labour MP Jo Cox, reportedly owned a copy of Improvised Munitions, for example

So what? He shot and stabbed her, no improvised munitions were involved. If we're going to start banning books, I'm willing to bet he owned a copy of the Bible as well...

available free all over the frigging internet...

[Lumpy]

Non story, non issue. Anyone with an IQ above 80 can find a copy for free on the internet as a PDF.

Re:time to invade england

[ShanghaiBill]

I was a Marine, and participated in some of those invasions, and I have read the manuals. Everything in these books is also on the web, and much of what is in them is not very useful to a terrorist because the books often assume that you have access to military supplies like blasting caps and C4. There are far better online resources for terrorists. Terrorists focus on killing people. Military booby traps are more focused on area denial, slowing enemy movement, and causing non-ambulatory casualties that drain resources: some shrapnel in a leg takes out both the wounded man, and the guys who have to carry him.

Re:"banned" - oh you mean in UK

[tsotha]

There's a big difference between looking up highly exothermic reactions in a textbook and having step-by-step instructions for creating a bomb from readily available materials. For one thing, if you don't know what you're doing there's a good chance you'll blow yourself up.

Re:Bookburning socialists

[david_thornley]

I'd bet that there are places with certain freedoms, like the freedom to not have a SWAT team break into my house at night and shoot my dogs and terrify my family and break my stuff because somebody else wanted to play a prank. How about the freedom to fly without worrying if someone with my name (at least it's not a common one) is on a secret government list somewhere? How about the freedom to not be shot dead if some police officer panics? The US isn't as free as some people think.

Re:time to invade england

[Jamu]

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