Letter bomb

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A mail bomb on display at the National Postal Museum Mailbomb.jpg
A mail bomb on display at the National Postal Museum

A letter bomb [a] is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agencies whose duties include the interdiction of letter bombs and the investigation of letter bombings. [1] The letter bomb may have been in use for nearly as long as the common postal service has been in existence, as far back as 1764 (see Examples ).

Contents

Description

Letter bombs are usually designed to explode immediately on opening, with the intention of seriously injuring or killing the recipient (who may or may not be the person to whom the bomb was addressed). A related threat is mail containing unidentified powders or chemicals, as in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Use by suffragettes

One of, if not the first, groups to consistently use letter bombs on a wide scale were the British suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union in the years before the First World War. [2] The group were the original inventors of a form of letter bomb designed to maim or kill politicians or opponents. [2] In 1913, numerous letter bombs were sent to politicians such as the Chancellor David Lloyd George and Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, but they invariably all exploded in post offices, post boxes or in mailbags while in transit across the country. [3] Suffragettes also once attempted to assassinate a judge they considered to be anti-women's suffrage, Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, with a "deadly" letter-bomb made partly out of bullets, but the bomb was intercepted by London postal workers before it could reach him. [4]

Patentability

Letter-bombs, along with anti-personnel mines, are typical examples of subject-matter excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention, because the publication or exploitation of such inventions are contrary to the " ordre public " and/or morality (Article 53(a) EPC). [5]

Examples

Robert Harley was targeted in one of the earliest modern parcel bombing incidents Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt (2).jpg
Robert Harley was targeted in one of the earliest modern parcel bombing incidents
Parcel bomb sent to Madame Tussauds in 1889 Tussauds story The Times Sat July 20 1889.jpg
Parcel bomb sent to Madame Tussauds in 1889
FBI reproduction of one of Theodore Kaczynski's bombs Unabomber bomb.jpg
FBI reproduction of one of Theodore Kaczynski's bombs
Michael Lapsley lost both hands and was blinded in one eye after a mail bombing attack Michael Lapsley, March 2017.jpg
Michael Lapsley lost both hands and was blinded in one eye after a mail bombing attack
Mail bomb sent by a pro-Trump extremist, 2018 Suspicious-package-exterior-oct-2018.jpg
Mail bomb sent by a pro-Trump extremist, 2018

See also

Notes

  1. Alternative names include parcel bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, note bomb, message bomb, gift bomb, present bomb, delivery bomb, surprise bomb, postal bomb, and post bomb.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipe bomb</span> Improvised explosive device consisting of explosive material within a sealed pipe

A pipe bomb is an improvised explosive device (IED) that uses a tightly sealed section of pipe filled with an explosive material. The containment provided by the pipe means that simple low explosives can be used to produce a relatively large explosion due to the containment causing increased pressure. The fragmentation of the pipe itself creates potentially lethal shrapnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nail bomb</span> Anti-personnel explosive device

A nail bomb is an anti-personnel explosive device containing nails to increase its effectiveness at harming victims. The nails act as shrapnel, leading almost certainly to more injury in inhabited areas than the explosives alone would. A nail bomb is also a type of flechette weapon. Such weapons use bits of shrapnel to create a larger radius of destruction.

Franz Fuchs was an Austrian domestic terrorist who killed four people and injured 15, some seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and 24 mail bombs, which he sent in five waves between 1993 and 1997.

The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Al-Qaeda.

John Patrick Tomkins is an American who was convicted of sending several threatening letters and bomb-like devices to financial firms in the Midwestern United States under the pseudonym The Bishop. A machinist and lifelong resident of Dubuque, Iowa, he is now serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison.

A bicycle bomb is an improvised explosive device that is placed on a bicycle.

This is a timeline of actions by the Irish republican paramilitary groups referred to as the Real Irish Republican Army and New Irish Republican Army. The Real IRA was formed in 1997 by disaffected members of the Provisional IRA. Since July 2012, when Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and other small republican groups merged with it, the group has been called the New IRA; although it continues to call itself simply "the Irish Republican Army".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei</span> Greek anarchist militant organization

The Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, also translated as Conspiracy of Fire Cells or Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, is an anarchist urban guerrilla organization based in Greece. The SPF first surfaced in January 2008, with a wave of 11 firebombings against luxury car dealerships and banks in Athens and Thessaloniki. Monthly waves of arson have been followed by proclamations expressing solidarity with arrested anarchists in Greece and elsewhere. In September 2009, following an escalation to the use of crude time bombs, four suspected members of the group were arrested. In November 2010 two more suspects were arrested while attempting to mail parcel bombs to embassies and EU leaders and organizations.

On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 grams (11–14 oz) of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's security chief. They were in transport from Yemen to the United States and were discovered at stopover locations: one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts</span> Series of mail bombing attempts to high profile figures in the United States

From October 22 to November 1, 2018, 16 packages found to contain pipe bombs were mailed via the U.S. Postal Service to several Democratic Party politicians and other prominent critics of U.S. President Donald Trump. Targets included former U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffragette bombing and arson campaign</span> 1912–14 campaign orchestrated by British suffragettes

Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland orchestrated a bombing and arson campaign between the years 1912 and 1914. The campaign was instigated by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and was a part of their wider campaign for women's suffrage. The campaign, led by key WSPU figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, targeted infrastructure, government, churches and the general public, and saw the use of improvised explosive devices, arson, letter bombs, assassination attempts and other forms of direct action and violence.

In late November and early December 2022, a number of letter bombs were mailed to locations across Spain. Packages were received at high-profile individuals and locations, including the Prime Minister of Spain's Moncloa residence, the Ukrainian and U.S. embassies in Madrid, Torrejon Air Base, and the arms manufacturer Instalaza. One person was injured in the attacks—a security officer at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid.

References

    • (USPIS) In the United States, the Postal Inspection Service is responsible for investigating the use, or threat of use, of letter bombs, harmful chemicals and dangerous devices sent through the postal system.
  1. 1 2 3 "Letter bombs and IEDs: Were the suffragettes terrorists?". Sky News. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Riddell, Fern (2018). Death in Ten Minutes: The forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 122. ISBN   978-1-4736-6621-4.
  3. Riddell, Fern (2018). Death in Ten Minutes: The forgotten life of radical suffragette Kitty Marion. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 155–156. ISBN   978-1-4736-6621-4.
  4. Guidelines for Examination in the EPO , section g-ii, 4.1 , "Matter contrary to "ordre public" or morality".
  5. Eiler Nystrøm(ed.) - Luxdorphs Dagbøger, volume I, p. 207 & 209, Copenhagen, 1915
  6. Luxdorphs Dagbøger, volume I, p. 293. The reference Luxdorph mentions is this: Theatrum Europæum, tome XI, p. 745 column 2, fin
  7. "The Times". July 20, 1889. p. 6.
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  9. "Thomas R. Marshall - Articles". www.nmanchesterhistory.org. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  10. 1919 United States anarchist bombings
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  25. Konnelly, Kate "Austrian racist gets life for five-year bomb terror" The Guardian, Wednesday March 10, 1999.
  26. "Man Sends Singer Bomb, Then Tapes Suicide" . Retrieved March 21, 2018.
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  28. "Iowa man arrested in Janus threats – The Denver Post". April 25, 2007. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
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  38. Package addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters prompts evacuation of South L.A. mail facility Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2018
  39. Two new pipe bombs said to target Joe Biden Vice, October 25, 2018
  40. Similar Package Sent to Top Democrats Sent to Robert De Niro's NYC Home: Sources NBC New York, October 25, 2018
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