With the religion of love and peace hard at spreading its...

With the religion of love and peace hard at spreading its message, these technologies will be in great demand

QRS already has great links and deals in place BEFORE this last round of madness

Have a look...

Holdings Limited
ASX LODGEMENT COVER PAGE
Company: QRSciences Holdings Limited
Code: QRS
HOMEX: Perth
Document Date: 14/08/06
Document Ref: 316
Release Time: Immediate
Subject: Market Update
Holdings Limited
Market Update
14 August, 2006 Perth, Western Australia: QRSciences (QRS:ASX) (QRSHY:PK)
would like to confirm that together with Rapiscan Systems, it is currently supplying
the U.S. Government with the QXR-1000 combined x-ray / explosives detection
system and is in continuing negotiations in relation to the purchase and trial of
additional units.
Initial development and sales were concluded early this year and the company
expects further orders for the equipment to be forthcoming this financial year.
QXR-1000 is a hybrid security solution devised in conjunction with Rapiscan
Systems, itself a world leader in the development of x-ray devices. The QXR-1000
combines the x-ray imaging component with a high-end QR explosive detection
capability, and offers airport operators globally a total detection capability within the
same footprint of current x-ray only checkpoint screening systems.
The QXR-1000 is capable of identifying the range of threats normally detected by
airport x-ray devices, but is equally capable of positively identifying a range of
difficult to detect explosives. The QXR-1000 constitutes a system of systems ideally
suited to checkpoint screening at airports worldwide.
Separately QRSciences is in discussion with various Federal Government
departments and agencies in Australia and the United Kingdom on related matters.
Following this announcement is an article from The Wall Street Journal published on August 11, 2006.
About QRSciences:
QRSciences Holdings Limited is based in Perth, Western Australia with offices in
San Diego, California. The company designs, develops and sells advanced
technology systems, sub-systems, components and software for security related
applications. Applications for its technologies include the detection of explosives and
narcotics, metal detection and imaging, surveillance and monitoring, chemical
manufacturing quality control and assurance, mineral and material assay, and lab
instrumentation.
About Rapiscan Systems:
Rapiscan Systems, a division of OSI Systems, is a leading supplier of high-quality
security inspection solutions utilizing X-ray and gamma-ray imaging, and advanced
threat identification techniques such as neutron and diffraction analysis. The
company's products are sold into four market segments: Baggage and Parcel
Inspection, Cargo and Vehicle Inspection, Hold Baggage Screening and People
Screening. The company has an installed base globally of more than 50,000 security
and inspection systems. The Rapiscan Systems product lines are manufactured at
four locations worldwide and are supported by a global support service network. For
more information about Rapiscan Systems and the QXR 1000 please visit
www.rapiscansystems.com
For more information visit www.QRSciences.com or phone +61 8 9358 5011 in
Australia or +1(858)613-8755 in the United States
Menace in a Bottle
Assembling a Bomb Onboard
Could Be as Simple as Mixing
Chemicals and a Blasting Cap
By LAURA MECKLER, DEBORAH BALL and CASSELL BRYAN-LOW
August 11, 2006
Liquids may be the new box-cutters.
Take an explosive chemical like nitroglycerin, hydrogen peroxide or hydrazine, all relatively
easy to obtain. Pour it into a travel bottle of mouthwash or shampoo. Bring along a blasting
cap like those found on a firecracker, about the size of a short pencil. Jury-rig a travel alarm
clock or a cellphone to provide a charge strong enough to set off the blasting cap. Even a
small explosion could bring down a jet aircraft.
For all the advancements in aviation security since 9/11, the ingredients for deadly explosives
could be easily carried through airport checkpoints and onto an airplane -- until yesterday,
that is. In the wake of the foiled plot to blow up as many as ten airliners, carriers in the U.S.
and Europe suddenly banned shampoos, creams, gels, beverages and other liquids from carryon
luggage.
"This is a huge area of vulnerability," says Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general at the
Department of Homeland Security. Terrorists, he says, "are learning, adapting. They develop
countermeasures to our countermeasures. We are reactive, and they are proactive."
Aviation officials have been worried about the danger of explosives for years, and the
Transportation Security Administration has tried to shift its focus to address the threat. With
all the screening for weapons in carry-on luggage, it may now be easier to blow up a plane
than to hijack one.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, security officials banned box-cutters, scissors and sharp
objects that terrorists could use to hijack a plane. The TSA allowed small scissors and tools
back in passenger cabins in late 2005 because they were spending too much time confiscating
these items, and because it allowed airport security screeners to focus on the hunt for bombs.
In a similar vein, after Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to detonate a shoe bomb aboard a
plane in late 2001, the U.S. Congress banned cigarette lighters from U.S. flights. Now, TSA
officials complain that they are spending too much time confiscating 30,000 lighters a day.
Matches are allowed, but lighters are not. Mr. Reid tried to use a match -- not a lighter.
To focus on explosives, the TSA has installed 93 "puffer" machines that can detect minute
amounts of explosive residue on passengers in 36 airports. The machines also have been
installed at London's Heathrow airport, and TSA is rolling them out elsewhere.
The TSA also upped the number of bomb-sniffing dog teams. It added teams that watch
passenger behavior and try to assess those who exhibit unusual behavior and facial
movements. And it gave screeners special training on how to identify bomb-making
components hidden in carry-on bags.
Yet experts say the system remains highly
vulnerable to plots like the one broken up yesterday
in England. Most carry-on baggage passes through
an X-ray machine that can easily detect a gun or a
knife with its recognizable shape but can miss a
bomb component disguised to look innocuous or a
bottle of explosive liquid.
"An ordinary X-ray will not be effective in
examining a sealed bottle," says Cathal Flynn,
former security chief at the Federal Aviation
Administration. Screening mass numbers of bottles
that come through checkpoints every day is not
possible with equipment now available at the
checkpoint, he says.
All checked bags are screened for bombs, using CT
scans, and those have been considered for carry-on bags, but they are typically very large and
would eat up valuable square footage at the checkpoint.
The TSA is planning airport trials with an advanced scanner made by Rapiscan Systems, a
unit of OSI Systems Inc., Hawthorne, Calif., which enhances the detection of explosive
material. The scanner uses Quadrapole Resonance, a radio-frequency technology that can
detect certain explosives in liquids, as well as plastic and sheet explosives, and explosives
that might be distributed in packets throughout a piece of luggage and made to resemble
innocuous items. The government expects to test the machines at three or four U.S. airports,
but they are expensive -- $160,000 each vs. about $35,000 for a basic X-ray.
Another technology that hasn't been deployed by the government would specifically address
the threat of liquid in bottles. In the mid-1990s, a small company called Quantum Magnetics,
now owned by General Electric Co., began developing a machine that can detect liquid
explosives inside bottles. It got some attention in the wake of a 1995 terrorist plot, but has yet
to be rolled out in airports.
Dangerous chemicals are easily available. One chemical that has concerned authorities is
triacetone triperoxide, known among them as the "Mother of Satan" of explosives because it
is so unstable. It is used commonly among suicide bombers in the Middle East and has shown
up in a growing number of domestic plots, including in Phoenix where a drug investigation
turned into a terrorism probe when authorities found TATP in an apartment there.
Experts say a small amount of explosive material could be devastating. "It may not take a
huge blast," says Suraj Lakhani, a researcher on counterterrorism at Royal United Services
Institute, a think tank that advises the British government on security issues. "If the person
detonating [an explosive] sat near a window or near the fuselage, it could cause a big enough
hole to bring the plane down."
Even liquor and matches could be used to start a fire onboard. But aviation and security
experts say that as long as airline crews are able to quickly detect and fight a fire in the cabin,
it would be difficult for a terrorist to spark a catastrophic blaze. Flight attendants are trained
to use portable oxygen and hand-held fire extinguishers at the first sign of a fire, and
passenger seats are made of material that only ignites at high temperatures.
A Transportation Security Administration official
at Chicago's O'Hare airport (above) collects
liquid and gel products that are now banned
from carry-on luggage; a TSA security officer
(left) at Dulles airport in Dulles, Va., alerts
passengers to the new rules.
Liquid explosives haven't been used much because they are notoriously difficult to transport
and can be highly unstable. "The chances of [the explosives] going off while walking around
the airport or even when leaving the house is pretty great," says John Chase, a security expert
at Kroll Inc., a risk-consulting group and a unit of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
Yet terrorists have used explosive chemicals on planes before. The latest plot wasn't
unimaginable; it reminded several aviation experts of an al Qaeda plot to bomb 11 U.S.
passenger jets over the Pacific that was uncovered in the Philippines in 1995. Codenamed
"Bojinka," the Serbo-Croatian word for "explosion," the plot also included the assassination
of Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila and crashing a plane into the Central
Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Virginia.
Police in Manila stumbled across the conspiracy when they responded to a fire at an
apartment rented by Abdul Hakim Murad and Ramzi Yousef, who was later caught in
Pakistan and convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They found bomb-making
materials in a sink and a laptop computer full of coded information. The mastermind of the
Bojinka plot -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed -- later went on to orchestrate the Sept. 11 attacks
in the U.S. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003.
In what was believed to be a test run for the Bojinka plot, Mr. Yousef used a liquid bomb on
a flight from Manila to Tokyo. He used a stable form of liquid nitroglycerin carried in a bottle
labeled as contact lens solution, using cotton as a stabilizer. The device was placed in a lifejacket
pouch under a seat before he disembarked during a layover. The bomb exploded on the
second leg, killing one passenger but the plane was able to land.
At the time, some airports barred passengers from taking liquids onboard planes but relaxed
the rules after several months.
--Lynn Lunsford, Gary Fields, Jonathan Karp and Kathryn Kranhold contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Meckler at [email protected], Deborah Ball at [email protected]
and Cassell Bryan-Low at [email protected]