Mdtony,
I have heard the same reports but at the same time much of what is being said does not add up. I expect we will find out that he had some people helping him because of finances. That is not gauranteed though. McVey paid for his operation through theft mainly and Reid was a thief. He could have also lived off radical muslims that did not necessarily know exactly what he was doing.

Yet I still doubt that he was part of any major network. First his explosive was amaturish to an extreme and he would have know better about how to insure detonation if he had a bomb expert help him. I also believe we are getting a certain amount of misinformation. The main item that the FBI expert testified to today was that this was an improvised explosive. She also stated that it was not either semtex or C4 but basically a homemade version. He probably bought it, though instead of making it. Like buying designer drugs. Hollowing out the heal of a shoe is not really that complex but must have been done relatively well to not be real obvious. She stated that the amount of explosive involved if detonated could have blown a hole in the aircraft. That said the amount she discussed was in 2 shoes that would not have detonated at the same time. Just because the same chemical is in both semtex and this concoction does not mean they are not equal in explosive potential. The great thing about semtex was it was pound for pound more explosive than even C4. You also can not compare the Lybian device with this. One was a professionally made bomb and the other was again homemade by the FBI definition.

Finally based on the way our legal system works, if the government says that the device would not have been able to work it would eliminate the most serious charge. You would still have making an explosive device but if you pull the trigger on an empty gun you have not commited attempted murder, though you have maybe committed other crimes. The government also probably does not want to explain how bad the device was so that someone else can fix the problem. That said professionals would not have made this mistake and amateurs made probably will not solve all the mistakes that seem to have been made with this device.


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Robert