Friday, April 01, 2016

CIA Left Explosives a VA School Bus After Training Exercise

The Washington Post reports CIA left explosive material on Loudoun school bus after training exercise. "The CIA left ‘explosive training material’ under the hood of a Loudoun County school bus after a training exercise last week, a bus that was used to ferry elementary and high school students to and from school on Monday and Tuesday with the material still sitting in the engine compartment, according to the CIA and Loudoun County officials."

Ok, to test bomb detection dogs they got a school bus, put some explosive in it and ran their tests. Either they forgot to remove it or (as they say) some of the putty-like material fell deeper into the engine compartment and they missed it. Apparently their safety procedures don't include weighing the material before and after to make sure they got it all, or even using the successful dog at the end of the day. I guess accidents happen and there was no detonator but this is quite egregious.

Also egregious is the language in this article. Fine they quote the stupid CIA-speak in the first line, “explosive training material” but then they use the terms:

  • the material x 6
  • the explosive material x 5
  • training explosives
  • putty-type material
  • putty or plastic explosives
  • the package

They never just say, the CIA left explosives on a school bus.

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