Glasgow Bombing (ADDENDUM)

Not much to add at this point, other than a half baked (ha!) theory about why these guys were pouring gasoline on the flaming jeep and on themselves.

The two bombs yesterday failed to go off. They were apparently some sort of ambitious fuel-air explosive. The theory behind regular fuel-air munitions is that a burster charge spreads a cloud of fuel vapor far and wide, and then a second explosion ignites the cloud. I would imagine this the sort of thing best left to General Dynamics to engineer, but it produces huge, spectacular explosions when it works.

So you're part of a third crew of jihadis and you know the bombs you have are duds and they fail to detonate. Maybe the CIA gave you a bum detonator. Oh, wait, they can't do that.* But anyway, there's a flaw in the system and it's only a matter of time till the rest of your cell gets caught and turn on you.

So you improvise a plan to set off the bomb as best you can. You get fireproof boiler suits on and put on a suicide belt. You get some extra gasoline and molotov cocktails and by gum, you're going to stay alive as long as you can in order to get this thing to go off. You even take two guys along to keep the cops away and distract interlopers while you get 'er done.

Only you don't; your bombmaker is just an idiot and you end up burning yourself and getting captured.

Just a theory. What is really remarkable about this is the reaction of the local ordinary Scots John McDoes who jumped in to kick ass when duty called. I'd write more about that, and probably will, but Right Wing Bob has a good start.

It's a damn shame they'll probably get sued for their trouble.

ADDENDUM: That Hot Air post says one of the guys was a bail jumper. I wonder if it was the guy I wrote about here, an accused Al-Qaeda recruiter who was already the subject of a manhunt.

*That's from here:

In 2004, CIA operatives in Iraq believed that they had identified the signatures of 11 bomb makers. They proposed a diabolical -- but potentially effective -- sabotage program that would have flooded Iraq with booby-trapped detonators designed to explode in the bomb makers' hands. But the CIA general counsel's office said no. The lawyers claimed that the agency lacked authority for such an operation, one source recalled.