Bomb making
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The availability of bomb-making instruction on the Internet has been a
cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
amongst lawmakers and politicians anxious to curb the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
frontier by censoring certain types of information deemed "dangerous" which is available online. "Simple" examples of explosives created from cheap, readily available ingredients are given. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
reports that there were 1,699 criminal bombings in 1989 and 3,163 in 1994.


Moral philosophy

Supporters of
digital rights Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particular ...
argue that managers of Internet traffic do not have a right to
deep packet inspection Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a type of data processing that inspects in detail the data being sent over a computer network, and may take actions such as alerting, blocking, re-routing, or logging it accordingly. Deep packet inspection is oft ...
, the automated system of analyzing what information is being transmitted, for example refusing to deliver a packet with the words "bomb instructions" and alerting authorities to the internet service provider
ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
that requested the information. They suggest that "we never seem to hear" about how the same instructions, including those for building nuclear devices, have been available in
public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...
for decades without calls for censorship. Godwin, Mike. "Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age", p. 67 In the late 19th century,
Johann Most Johann Joseph "Hans" Most (February 5, 1846 – March 17, 1906) was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchism, anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the dee ...
compiled Austrian military documents into a booklet demonstrating the use of explosives and distributed it at anarchist picnics without repercussion.Anna Larabee, "Bombs: It's Not the How, but the Why," Star-Telegram, August 7, 2005.
Mike Godwin Michael Wayne Godwin (born October 26, 1956) is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and he created the Internet adage Godwin's law and the notion of an Internet meme, as ...
, then of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
, claimed that journalists have played a key role in linking the creation of "bombs" with "the Internet" in the public conscious. Critics of the prosecution of Sherman Austin, an American anarchist charged with publishing instructions on the Internet, have pointed out that the
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
article on
Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
s contains more detailed instructions on the construction of homemade explosives, than Austin's website did.Caslon Analytics
Bomb info
Most American websites offering bomb-making instructions would not face
civil liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agencie ...
, since '' Hess v. Indiana'' and '' Waller v. Osbourne'' determined that
free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
restrictions can only be applied if the goal was "producing imminent lawless conduct" among a single target group – which is not the case for a website available to a large swath of the population – making the situation comparable to music advocating violence or suicide in its lyrics.Weissblum, Lonn
Incitement to violence on the world wide web


History

In 1986, prior to the widespread use of the Internet, police investigated the sharing of a computer print-out from a digital manual titled the "Complete Book of Explosives" written by a group calling itself "Phoenix Force", as students shared the list with classmates and experimented with building many of the bombs it listed.Hegarty, Stephen. Hernando Times, "Bomb-making instructions circulate in Pasco school", November 13, 1986 After the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry N ...
, anonymous
usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...
posts criticised the construction of the bomb, and offered suggestions on how to overcome the failure of the bomb to do its maximum intended damage. On March 23, 1996, the full text of the ''Terrorist Handbook'' was published online, including instructions on building the bomb used in the bombing, with the suggested upgrades.Steger, Manfred B. "Violence and Its Alternatives", p. 89 When
Mohammed Usman Saddique The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives, carried aboard airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada, disguised as soft drinks. The plot was discovered by British M ...
was arrested in 2006, he was charged with "possessing a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" for having a copy of the manual on
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
. Also in 1994, a thread was made on the
National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
's
bulletin board A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. B ...
by a user named ''Warmaster'' that detailed how to make bombs out of
baby food Baby food is any soft easily consumed food other than breastmilk or infant formula that is made specifically for human babies between four and six months and two years old. The food comes in many varieties and flavors that are purchased ready-mad ...
jars. A 1996 copy of the left-wing online German magazine ''Radikal'' hosted on a Dutch server provided detailed instructions of how to sabotage railroad lines. In March of that year, a
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
MP called for legislation regarding internet access for youth, following reports of a boy injuring himself while trying to follow a bomb recipe online. Through 1998, the common view of the instructions was that they were used by curious youth anxious to build explosives simply as a dangerous experiment "with no intention of hurting anybody". Controversy over the availability of this information on the internet started as a result of the
Columbine High School Shooting On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...
. Also, police claim that they found printed copies of bomb-making instructions downloaded from the Internet in the bedroom of Anthony "T.J." Solomon, the perpetrator of the 1999 Heritage High School shooting. Also in 1999,
David Copeland The 1999 London nail bombings were a series of bomb explosions in London, England. Over three successive weekends between 17 and 30 April 1999, homemade nail bombs were detonated respectively in Brixton in South London; at Brick Lane, Spitalfiel ...
planted nail bombs in London, killing 3 people and injuring 139, based on techniques discussed in ''The Terrorist's Handbook'' and ''How to Make Bombs: Part Two'', which he had downloaded from the internet. The militant
anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
movement Army of God also provided information on constructing bombs in preparation for
anti-abortion violence Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, in ...
on their website. In 2001, journalists discovered that
al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
members in Afghanistan had been using the internet to learn bomb-making techniques. In Finland in 2002, "RC" discussed bomb-making techniques on the internet on a Finnish website whose moderator displayed a picture of his own face on
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
's body, and then RC set off a bomb that killed seven people, including himself. In 2002, New Zealander Bruce Simpson published '' The Low Cost Cruise Missile; A looming threat?'' showing readers how they could construct a
cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
for under $5,000. In 2003, Jeremy Parker of the Southern Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
posted detailed bomb instructions on the internet in response to
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Mond ...
, stating "sure would hate to see anything happen". The report "How to Bomb Thy Neighbor: Hamas Offers Online 'Academy'" describes a
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
online interactive 14-lesson course for Muslims on bomb-making, as part of a campaign to increase the number of bomb-makers. In 2004, a Palestinian group posted an online video showing the proper construction of
suicide vest Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...
s, hoping to support the
Iraqi insurgency Iraqi insurgency may refer to: * Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War ** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency ** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq * Iraqi insurgency (20 ...
. The 2004 Madrid train bombers, who killed 191 people and wounded 1,800, downloaded their bomb-making instructions from the internet. The Canadian Saad Khalid admitted that he had downloaded bomb-making materials online in 2006, leading to the
2006 Toronto terrorism case The 2006 Ontario terrorism case refers to the plotting of a series of attacks against targets in Southern Ontario, Canada, and the June 2, 2006 counter-terrorism raids in and around the Greater Toronto Area that resulted in the arrest of 14 adul ...
. British student Isa Ibrahim made a suicide vest bomb using instructions he found online. He planned on exploding the device at a mall. He was sentenced in July 2009 to a minimum of ten years in jail.
Najibullah Zazi Najibullah Zazi (born August 10, 1985) is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City Subway system, and who pleaded guilty as have two o ...
, an al-Qaeda member who pleaded guilty in February 2010 to a plot to bomb the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
system, searched online for information on how to build a bomb and where to buy the parts.


Legislation

In 1995,
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
produced a bill to the
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
making it illegal to distribute bomb-making information, punishable by a $250,000 fine and 20 years' imprisonment. Two years later, the body voted 94–0 in favor of implementing it. Although it was frequently said to be in response to
Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third o ...
's Oklahoma bombing, he had actually used two traditional hard-copy books titled ''Homemade C-4, A Recipe for Survival'' and ''Ragnar's Big Book of Homemade Weapons and Improvised Explosives''. Critics later pointed out both books were still for sale at Amazon.com, suggesting that legislators were not concerned about the true dissemination of such information. When lawsuits erupted over
DeCSS DeCSS is one of the first free computer programs capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, open source operating systems (such as Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD and Linux) could n ...
technology available over the Internet, allowing users to "crack" DVD encryption, the founders questioned why bomb-making instructions were legal, while software cracks that simply cost corporations money were not. In 2004, German authorities forced a seventeen-year-old to shut down his Web site, entitled ''Der Abarisch Sturm'' after he posted detailed instructions of how to build a bomb.
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, "Organised Crime in Europe: The threat of cybercrime," 2004. p. 141
That year, French police also arrested a computer student in
Alfortville Alfortville () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. History The commune of Alfortville was created on 1 April 1885 from part of the commune of Maisons ...
who claimed he had posted similar instructions "for fun." A 2007 attempt by the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
to suppress bomb-making websites by making
ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
s criminally liable for allowing a user to view such a page was ridiculed by ''
The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...
'' as "fantastically ignorant of internet realities" Web sites offering advice on construction explosives are labelled as "Refused Classification" in Australia, as it is deemed to violate "all acceptable community standards".
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

Internet villain Stephen Conroy comes up with top spin
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References

{{Reflist, 30em *Brian Holland's 2005 'Inherently Dangerous: The Potential For An Internet-Specific Standard Restricting Speech That Performs a Teaching Function' in 39 University of San Francisco Law Review 353–406, *Liezl Pangilinan's 2005 'When A Nation Is At War: A Context Dependent Theory of Free Speech For the Regulation of Weapon Recipes' in 22 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 683–721 *Andrianna Kastanek's 2004 'From Hit Man To A Military Takeover of New York City: The Evolving Effects of Rice v Paladin Enterprises on Internet Censorship' in 99 Northwestern University Law Review 383–440. Bombs Internet censorship Terrorism Speech crimes