Originally Posted by
Loren Pechtel
The issue is a matter of risk. The risk that's acceptable to a government lab worker and the risk that's acceptable to a suicide bomber are very different.
The question is not a matter of how risky it is, but whether a sufficient boom could have been made.
That risk translates into the probability of success - mixing the liquids in a controlled lab environment (who knows how many times they tried and failed before getting one valid test to tape record), vs. the risk of mixing them onboard or before getting to the airport are different risk.
If the terrorists have a low probability (which is agreed by most experts), they are unlikely to try something which is going to blow up in their home, car or while mixing it in the terminal bathroom.
Are explosive liquids dangerous? Sure they are. Are they a practical tool for a terrorist to use in an attack? Not at all. There are far more stable substances available, still undetectable by conventional airport scans.
I could take a box of Whitmans, remove the chocolates and replace with blobs of Semtex or C4, bring it on board and recompile the material into one large block to detonate. To me, that would be 100x easier than trying to juggle a bunch of liquids which could blow my arms off if I make even the slightest mistake.