This article caught my bleary eye in the news this morning. I know several regular contributors to this forum are interested in the subject, so here it is:
...The danger became clear in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh used 4,800 pounds of the common farm fertilizer to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people. The same chemical was used in the October 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Bali and has been used in other terrorist attacks around the world, some attributed to al-Qaeda.
In 1998, a National Academy of Sciences panel of scientists and security experts recommended that Congress require buyers of ammonium nitrate to provide identification and that stores keep records of the purchases. But a law was never passed.
Fertilizer industry officials say farm-store employees already know their customers and would be suspicious of unexplained sales of ammonium nitrate. And farm organizations have lobbied against the restrictions.
"It's hard to regulate it because farmers use a lot of it for legitimate reasons," said Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa....The article notes that just two states - South Carolina and Nevada - require ID for and track ammonium nitrate purchaces. It seems to me state-level tracking of sales of ammonium nitrate or anything else serves no purpose because of our nation's open borders.
For rest of copyrighted article please see
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040612/news_1n12bombs.html
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