Terrorist lack technical expertise to meet their ambitions

NY Times:

Militants’ Goal in Algeria Gas Plant Siege: Giant Fireball


Heavily armed fighters who seized a desert complex on Jan. 16 sought to turn the forest of pipes and tubes into a bomb. What none of them knew was how, in the vast maze of metal, to do it.
Al Qaeda has always like showy destruction.  The group attracts some people with technical  educations, but the gas plant designers' and engineers' idea is a facility that is able to isolate leaks and explosions.  There is also the aggressive response by the Algerian commandos which did not give them time to set up elaborate serial explosions.  That is a lesson others may learn in dealing with Islamic terrorist.

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