- Nato chiefs and US army experts are putting pressure
on the Czech Republic to increase security at army depots, amid fears that
international terrorists are regularly obtaining large stocks of stolen
Semtex.
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- In the past few months there have been several attempts
to smuggle the Czech-made plastic explosive out of the country. Although
some thefts have been foiled, security experts around the world fear that
large quantities of Semtex - a favourite with terrorists because it is
versatile and hard to detect - have recently fallen into the hands of organised
crime.
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- Military stocks across the country are vulnerable to
sabotage, due to lax security, according to a Czech intelligence report,
recently leaked to the press. According to the source, Czech soldiers,
who are poorly paid, have been selling large quantities to middlemen in
the pay of terrorist organisations. "It is being stolen during training,
pyrotechnical work or directly from the depots," the source said.
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- Two army officers were recently caught trying to smuggle
42.5kg of Semtex out of a military depot in Prostejov. In the beer town
of Pilsen, a Belgian man reportedly paid a soldier $500 (£350) for
1kg. Another soldier, who was serving in Croatia, was discovered trying
to transport 35kg into Yugoslavia in the petrol tank of his car.
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- These recent incidents come on top of a whole series
of others throughout the 1990s, including the purchase in July 1999 of
an unspecified amount of Semtex in Pilsen by members of the INLA, a radical
IRA splinter group, according to German intelligence sources.
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- The explosive's market price is about £4 per kg,
but this is restricted to licensed buyers, such as mining companies. On
the black market abroad, it sells for as much as $1,300 per kg; it costs
up to £100 on the domestic black market.
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- At present there are estimated to be about 60 tonnes
of unmarked Semtex in Czech army depots, which are almost undetectable
by dogs or equipment. Just 250g is enough to blow up an airliner.
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- After pressure from leaders of Nato, which the Czech
Republic joined three years ago, the government last month renationalised
Explosia, the factory in eastern Bohemia which has produced Semtex since
its invention more than three decades ago. A government spokeswoman said
that after the September 11 attacks on the US, it was one of "a number
of adopted security measures that are expected to prevent further terrorist
attacks in the world".
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- But the gesture, experts say, is an empty one if the
ministry of defence does not have tight control of existing military supplies,
as the recent attempted thefts indicate.
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- Semtex's makers are keen to stress their attempts to
reduce the chances of batches getting into the wrong hands. In recent years,
scientists have shortened its shelf-life from 20 years to just three, and
marked all new supplies with a metallic code which is said to be traceable
even after an explosion. They have also introduced an odour that sniffer
dogs can detect.
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- But despite an international treaty that banned the production
of unmarked explosives more than a decade ago, the Czech army is allowed
to use its old stocks until 2013. In terms of its international standing
as a partner in the US-led fight against terrorism, and just seven months
before Prague is to host a major Nato gathering, what is pricking the Czech
conscience more than anything is a problem which has its origins in the
communist era.
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- In the 1970s, Omnipol, the commercial arm of Explosia,
found a huge market for Semtex in Libya, and it exported about 690 tonnes
to Muammar Gadafy's regime between 1975 and 1981 - enough, experts say,
to produce 1.4m bombs like the one which destroyed a Pan Am aircraft over
Lockerbie 14 years ago. Or, as President Vaclav Havel put it, "enough
bomb-making potential to support terrorism throughout the world for 150
years".
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- Colonel Gadafy is believed to have sold about 2.75 tonnes
of his supplies to the IRA. Real IRA suspects were arrested last autumn
in Slovakia, where they were allegedly buying Semtex. At the works in Semtin,
the suburb of Pardubice which gave Semtex its name, Explosia workers are
less worried about safety than about job security. Jana Novackova, 45,
an employee for 15 years, said she had confidence in the safety procedures
at the plant. "They've tightened up considerably since September 11,"
she said. "But that doesn't stop us being scared about the possibility
of some crazy person getting his hands on the stuff.
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- " But at the factory gates, there are no security
guards in sight, merely closed-circuit cameras and a notice forbidding
the use of guns or mobile phones.
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- Vlasitimil Novak, editor of the local paper, Pardubicke
Noviny, said that for too long the city had carried the responsibility
for terrorist attacks.
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- "Whenever there's a terrorist attack somewhere in
the world, the focus returns to the factory in Pardubice, as if we were
to blame," he said. "But no one blames a steel producer in Sheffield
when a man stabs his wife to death with a kitchen carving knife."
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- 'Magic marble'·
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- Stanislav Brebera, now 77, the scientist son of a bookbinder,
invented Semtex in 1966 following orders from the Czech government on behalf
of Vietnam. Brebera only ever received a few hundred dollars as the idea
was considered the state's intellectual property.
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- · Semtex, dubbed "magic marble", is
a crystalline high explosive with a binding agent that is effective in
a wide range of temperatures. It can be cut to size and moulded. It comes
in a choice of red, yellow and black.
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- · During the 1970s and 80s, almost 700 tonnes
of Semtex were exported to Tripoli by communist bosses; other batches were
sent to Iraq, Iran and North Korea. It was habitually given as a gift to
fellow communist countries by the Czech political elite.
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- · In 1988 the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over
Lockerbie was thought to have been caused by Semtex. The 1993 bombing of
the US embassy in Nairobi and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre
were other terrorist attacks where Semtex is thought to have been used.
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- · A "smelly" version of Semtex has recently
been invented that is detectable by sniffer dogs. Metal traces have also
been added to aid detection. Its 20-year lifespan has been reduced to three.
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- · In 1997 one of the scientists who helped to
invent the explosive, Bohumil Sole, 63, strapped Semtex to his body and
blew himself up in the spa town of Jesenice where he was being treated
for depression.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,655727,00.html
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