Watch Out for the Mother of Satan

Can the mother of Satan affect your life? To find out, you need to ask the right question. You will be misled if you go on a religious track. The name has less to do with religion but much more to do with misled people harming innocent people. “Who is the mother of Satan?” – is the wrong question. The right question to ask is, “What is the mother of Satan?”

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Mother of Satan is the name for triacetone triperoxide (TATP). TATP is a highly unstable explosive substance often used by suicide bombers and terrorists targeting innocent civilians.

Origin of Name “Mother of Satan”

The name “Mother of Satan” has been given to TATP by Islamic terrorists, because the substance is highly unstable and treacherous. Many of the “experts” manufacturing these horrendous bombs have nasty burn marks, missing fingers or even whole hands missing as accidents occur frequently.

Why They Choose “Mother of Satan”

Terrorists choose this substance as its basic ingredients (acetone, bleach and drain cleaner) are cheap, easily available and can be bought without attracting too much attention of authorities. Compared to other standard explosives (TNT, RDX, C4, etc.) mother of Satan is less efficient but easier to have access to.

The second reason is that no sophisticated laboratory equipment or specialist skills are needed to manufacture it.

The third reason is that most sniffer dogs or old-fashioned explosive detection system cannot detect it easily. Since no electrical charge or wires are required to ignite TATP, the metal detectors can’t detect it. Many terrorists choose TATP, as TATP detection is extremely difficult at places with high pace of traffic.

This is what the Mother of Satan looks like to a chemist.

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Any chemist with common sense will warn against going near this substance.

History of Mother of Satan

A German scientist, Richard Wolffenstein discovered TATP in 1895. But it never really caught on as a military or commercial explosive due to it being very unstable. However, in recent decades, terrorists have started using it as an explosive or as a trigger against innocent civilian targets. TATP was probably used in the horrendous London 7.7.2005 terrorist bombings. In December 2001, British citizen, Richard Reid, tried to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 by concealing plastic explosives with a TATP trigger in his shoe.

Palestinian terrorists Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer and Lafi Khalil had planned to explode a device on the New York City Subway. Mezer boasted of his plans to his Egyptian roommate, who did not want these atrocities to happen and immediately went to the police. The police raided the apartment and caught the terrorists before they could do any harm.

A member of the French terrorist group Front National Anti Radar, who blow up radar stations and traffic cameras, to prove their point, blew up his own hands while using Mother of Satan.

The dark side of the Internet is evident in how irresponsible people become with dangerous information. Unfortunately, do-it-yourself instructions for making TATP can be found relatively easily on the Internet and terrorist organization even distribute How-to CD-Roms.

A Times journalist, Anthony Loyd, claimed to have located such instructions among documents abandoned in an Al-Qaeda safe house after Kabul in Afghanistan (ruled by the Taleban before) fell to the Northern Alliance in November 2001.

Methods of Detecting Mother of Satan

Conventional explosives detection devices (EDDs), like those used at many airports, rely on the presence of nitro groups or metallic elements.

Other methods like infrared and Raman spectroscopy, enzyme-based tests and mass spectrometry (MS) are very slow for use at public places. Newer methods using liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) or desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) require sample handling and can’t be quick like a metal detector.

Law enforcement nowadays has another deterrent in the ACRO-P.E.T. (Peroxide Explosives Tester). Based on the research of Israeli Professor Ehud Keinan, it is the first pocket sized explosives identifier, effective against TATP and other Peroxide Based IEDs. Intensified intelligence efforts ensure that most terrorists are caught before they can cause any harm.