A strange tale of a Brisbane "Bomber"

A BRISBANE high school teacher denies being a terrorist and has told a court that a stockpile of explosives found at his home on Monday 8th May 2006 - including bombs stuffed with razor blades and nails - were for use in a television production.

John Howard Amundsen, 40, Ferny Grove State High School, Brisbane's Aus.has been founf to have 53kg of Powergel mining explosives explosives, some manufactured into bombs with nails and razor blades embedded in them, at his home.

Mr Amundsen told the court he had no affiliation to any violent terrorist organisation and had a high-level security clearance.

"Your honour, prior to the current charges I've worked for three years in public relations at the (Brisbane) airport and have a red ASIO security clearance," Mr Amundsen told Magistrate Lindy Bradford-Morgan.

"The explosives are being used in a TV shoot." he claimed.

Police will oppose bail.

A curious story. How does a school teacher get 53 kilos, near a hundreweight of explosives - Powergel is commonly used in mining and is produced as a proprietary, easily used mine blasting product by African Explosives Ltd.,It is said to be very stable.It was developed by ICI in Australia as the world's first gassed emulsion explosive 'Powergel 2510'.

So why did the 7/7 bombers go to all the trouble of making a highly volatile bathtub mix ? Especially when it is evident that it has been in use in Northern Ireland. Viz ;

From University of Ulster History Timeline
Monday 3 March 1997
A bomb was found outside the office of Sinn Féin (SF) in Monaghan, Republic of Ireland. The bomb, which contained two and a half kilos of Powergel (a commercial explosive), was defused by members of the Irish Army. [There was no claim of responsibility, but the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was believed to be behind the attack. The UVF have used Powergel on a number of occasions.

Solicitor Rosemary Nelson, was killed with a car bomb using one pound of powergel by the Red Hand Defenders on March 15 1999... and had been used in other car bombs.

A very odd story.

LATER NEWS

The Courier reports that Queensland Premier Peter Beattie told Parliament that while it was not completely ruled out, terrorism was not considered a factor in the case.

"The police minister has advised me that the commissioner has indicated that there is no known terrorism threat in Queensland," Mr Beattie said.

"It should be dealt with on the facts and there shouldn't be any alarmism."