more on unexploded bombs

just taking a brief memory trip through my archives, lets have a look at where else we've seen unexploded bombs and unexploded suicide bombers before...

firstly, lets go to karbala, basra and baghdad in march 03 where a dozen suiciders conducted simultaneous bombings at shiitye mosques killed perhaps 270 - "several of whom were captured before they were able to detonate their explosives." see here and here.
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the same thing happened in madrid in march04, although if you remember, the details are a bit murky.
heres the nyt: "The most important clue by far was the unexploded bomb found in a gym bag on one of the trains. Mr. Astarloa called its discovery 'a blessing' because, he said, "it is the only bag planted by the terrorists that allows us to investigate something that isn't just ashes." A cellphone found in the gym bag presumably led to the arrests. " LINK

heres wikipedia: "Two unexploded bombs were found at the centre and rear of the train." LINK

there were even other reports that a backpack with bombs was found in the lost property department of the police station!
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and then if we step forward a month to the apartment explosion where the madrid trainbombers supposedly commited collective suicide (except for those who escaped, despite the building being surrounded), the NYT explains: "Officers recovered some 200 detonators and about 22 pounds of unexploded dynamite in the apartment building in Leganés, Mr. Acebes said. The explosives were of the Goma 2 kind used in the March 11 train bombings... The Goma 2 explosive recovered was also the same kind that had been used in an unexploded bomb found in a backpack on one of the trains attacked on March 11" LINK

i dont know anything about dynamite, but im surprised that the dynamite didnt blow up like everything else (except for the passport of the ringleader...). again, from the nyt: "At least 16 families in the area saw their homes reduced to rubble, and dozens more need alternate housing until their buildings are repaired." - do you see how that works? houses got blown to pieces, but not the dynamite.

and to add some more confusion: "DNA experts are still trying to identity the fourth man, found next to a nearby swimming pool with 4.4 pounds of explosives strapped around his badly mutilated body."

and in case you are wondering whether the dynamite was somehow inert, the beeb offers this: ""They were going to keep on attacking because some of the explosives were prepared, packed and connected to detonators," Mr Acebes said."
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and now on to basra in april 2004 when 68 people were killed, including a bus full of school girls in a series of 3 simultaneous bombings. i wrote about it here - the Guardian offers this: "Last night Iraqi officials were interrogating one suicide bomber who had failed to blow himself up."
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im not sure if thats qualifies as a pattern yet, but if we see the same thing coming out of london, then my curiousity might be re-piqued - especially if it leads us to a koran, a 'well-thumbed terrorist handbook', and a map of damascus, or a ticket stub from tehran or a passport with some incriminating stamps or some such.

the thing that stands out in all these cases is the incongruity of the apparent sophistication inherent in the simultaneity (and we are repeatedly told that they require "weeks and months of preparation"), but we repeatedly see a failed bomb which turns into the smoking gun which invariably proves that 'alqaida did it'

maybe the famed "terrorist training camps" cant quite teach the basics. id have to think that explosives are actually quite reliable, otherwise we'd see building demolitions go wrong quite regularly.