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Bali C4 Standard Military Explosive Manufactured in U.S.

C4 is a very powerful substance mainly manufactured in the U.S.

With Additional Reporting By Soheib Jasem, IOL South East Asia Correspondent

JAKARTA, October 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Recent investigations of the Bali blast that killed more than 180 people and injured dozens others showed that the substance used in the explosion is C4, a material mainly manufactured in the United States and is a standard military substance.

The results, which confirmed the blast was highly sophisticated and could only be planned by professionals, came as many Islamic national figures and Indonesian experts accused international foreign parties of being behind the blast in order to achieve certain goals.

The C4 plastic explosive used in the Bali bombing is a very powerful substance mainly manufactured in the United States but widely supplied to military forces around the world, an expert said Tuesday, October 15.

C4 resembles white, uncooked pastry or bread dough, and can be kneaded and molded into any shape in total safety, said Mark Ribband, head of a British company that manufactures this explosive.

"You can even shoot bullets in it. It needs a detonator to make it explode," he said.

"C4 is pretty well used only by the military although there are some small civilian uses for it," Ribband told Agence France Presse (AFP) in a telephone conversation from Wiltshire, southern England.

"It's a standard issue, military plastic explosive based on an explosive ingredient called RDX, to which a polyisobutene plasticiser is added."

Ribband said C4 was manufactured "in several countries, but it's primarily U.S."

"If you see C4 in another country's military inventory, it tends to be because there has been American influence there, like C4 and M-16s means America, and AK-47s and Semtex mean Eastern Bloc."

The M-16 is the standard U.S. military assault rifle whose Soviet equivalent is the Kalashnikov, or AK-47. Semtex is a powerful plastic explosive that, in the Soviet era, was made in Czechoslovakia.

Ribband's company, Ribbands Explosives U.K., sells explosives under a closely controlled process that requires a government licence.

"C4 is hard to buy," he said. "The best analogy is that it's considerably more controlled than heroin, but if you want to buy heroin, you can. Like all things, everything's available for a price.

"For legitimate sales, it's very hard to get hold of if you are not a government, or a user with the correct government certificate. Within the community of explosives users, it's around, it's something that's used but mainly it's a military explosive.

"If it's been misused, I would suspect that it's been stolen from a military force. That's the easiest way to get it, via a friendly soldier who can, let's say, do a demolition somewhere, write off the demolition as 100 kilos (220 pounds) but would only use 90 kilos (200 pounds). That's the easiest way to steal it."

Earlier, Indonesian intelligence chief Hendropriyono told AFP that C4 was used in "one" of the Bali bombs.

"Yes, one of them [bombs] is of C4," he said during a visit to a local hospital, declining further comment.

Also, National police spokesman, Brigadier General Saleh Saaf, said later police were certain that C4 explosive was used.

"We have together with experts from the FBI processed the data jointly and we are now really certain that the material used was C4," he said.

Saturday night, a small bomb went off outside a bar in the island's Kuta district, followed seconds later by a huge car bomb blast outside a nightclub. The blast and subsequent fire killed 183 people, mostly foreign tourists, according to a provisional toll.

Meanwhile, an independent Australian website reported that police investigating the deadly bombing of the nightclub have found traces of plastic explosive manufactured in Israel at the site of the attack.

The discovery of the explosives suggests a sophisticated bombing operation and the explosive was a type known as C4, tacked to manufacture in Israel, the Independent Media Center reported.

Identifying components of the explosive have been matched to the C4 manufacturer in Israel. Tests for matches with explosive are conclusive, tracking the manufacturer through analysis of components in residue, it added.

Mossad operations have been exposed in a series of leaked CIA documents and in statements by security officials in the U.S. and Singapore, and are linked to the bombings in Bali, the Australian website added.

After the massive peace rally in Australia that same weekend, these Mossad operations where put into high gear in a deadly way. Mossad terror network operations are working hard to draw the western world into war.

The discovery of traces of Israeli made plastic explosive could be a vital clue to who was responsible.

The Israeli-made C4 explosive used in the Bali bombing is a powerful agent manufactured in Israel by the United States and is widely used by the American-led axis of evil military forces around the world.

Explosives experts can tell a lot from the type of explosive used, like who manufactured it and its origin.

A large area was devastated by the explosion in this professionally executed slaughter that was extremely effective in the American fascist’s goal of maximum casualty inflicted.

Brian Caddy, Emeritus Professor of Forensic Science at Strathclyde University in Scotland, says that identification might enable investigators to track down the potential sources of the explosive material used.

Although Indonesian officials, after declaring their certainty about the material of the explosives, did not directly accused Israel of planning the attack, this new information will give people another possible scenario different than the one the western media was promoting, namely the alleged links between the Bali blast and Al-Qaeda network or Asian Islamic groups.

Supporting this assumption, they said that one motive Israel has to plan this blast is the public opinion in south east Asia which is against attacking Iraq, in addition to the Indonesian government position also against striking Iraq.

The Bali blast also followed the Australian anti bombing rally during which Australians demonstrated their opposition to an attack against Iraq and they also protested their government participation in the attack, one expert said.

"This may be the reason for targeting Australian citizens, so the public opinion in the country will be in favor of the attack," he added.