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The do-it-yourself terrorist menace

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Imagine this scene. You are sitting in a trendy Internet cafe, some time in the near future. A young man sits at the computer next to you. He sips a cappuccino and eats a croissant. He looks like any other young man.

He is not. In fact, he hates society, and he wants to kill people. He is using the Internet to get the recipe for a 'pipe bomb', the same kind of homemade explosive that killed two people and injured more than 100 at the Atlanta Olympics. And once he has the recipe, he will go out and buy all the ingredients he needs - at his local hardware store.

The man sitting next to you is a new and frightening kind of criminal. He is a DIY terrorist, and he is changing the face of modern terrorism. And, if the concerns of Western security experts are realised, homemade explosives are just the start.

The technology and training required to make sophisticated biochemical weapons like nerve gas or botulism is now so widespread that a new era of do-it-yourself terrorism is inevitable. Today, ordinary people can make extraordinary weapons.

Already, getting the ingredients and know-how to make simple explosives is alarmingly easy. The Internet is one main source of information. Type the words 'homemade' and 'explosive' into one of the powerful search engines on the Worldwide Web and a home page called 'Homemade Explosives' is one of many that appear.

This advertises a list of so-called 'Black Books', which can be ordered by mail from America for around US$10 (HK$77.30) each. The titles include Home Workshop Explosives - 'a guide to making demolition-strength explosive at home'.

Improvised Explosives: How to Make Your Own - written by 'a former top explosives expert with the Israeli army', promises to teach you how to make 'booby-trapped doors, landmines and sound-detonated bombs'.

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