DAVE ROSS

Pressure cookers. Who knew?

Apr 17, 2013, 5:36 AM | Updated: 9:33 am

As the FBI noted in a report three years ago, these bombs are easy to hide because they look like p...

As the FBI noted in a report three years ago, these bombs are easy to hide because they look like pressure cookers, and we should all keep an eye peeled for abandoned pressure cookers in high traffic locations.

This is how out of the loop most of us are.

Who knew that pressure cookers had become the go-to bomb design?

But apparently that’s the way it’s been for years. When the FBI revealed pictures of the mangled pressure cooker used in the Boston bombing – they also pointed to a list of pressure-cooker attacks.

2001: Maoist Rebels used two pressure cooker bombs to blow up a convoy, and killed four policemen.

2002: Terrorists in Nepal blew the roof off an airport control tower with pressure cookers.

2003: Four Algerians were convicted of plotting to bomb a French market – with pressure cookers.

2006: The deadly attacks in Mumbai involved seven pressure cookers.

And the failed attack in Times Square in 2010: It included 120 firecrackers packed into a pressure cooker.

As the FBI noted in a report three years ago, these bombs are easy to hide because they look like pressure cookers, and we should all keep an eye peeled for abandoned pressure cookers in high traffic locations.

So once again, the message is that potential weapons are everywhere. Because we are not going to register pressure cookers. Or require background checks at kitchenware stores. We have to accept that a determined killer will always be able to find the parts.

“But the reality is, and this is hard for people to absorb a day after an attack like this,” Mayor Giuliani told CNN, “this is not the way you’re going to die.”

Mayor Giuliani reminds us that what ultimately keeps us safe is that the heroes far outnumber the monsters. Of course, it didn’t help that as he was trying to be reassuring CNN was again running the video of an exploding pressure cooker.

Related:

Authorities recover pressure cooker lid on roof
Photos from the terror attack

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Pressure cookers. Who knew?