linked - Investigating the Terror

Explosives, and I don't recall specifically what it had said at that point.
The August 1996 explanation came after we confronted Williams with
page U103 from the Encyclopedia, and the new explanation appears
contrived to accommodate that text. Second, Williams' trial testimony did
not purport to be an estimate of the VOD of the urea nitrate made either
at Eglin or by the perpetrators. Rather, it was put forth as the general
range for the VOD of urea nitrate. The 14,000 feet per second figure was
explicitly limited at the trial to smaller quantities, which would be
inapplicable to both Eglin and the perpetrators. Third, density was not
the only variable mentioned in the Encyclopedia; the confinement also
varied (paper versus steel tube) and may have had as significant an
impact on VOD as the density. Thus, Williams' new explanation is based
on a misconstruction of the Encyclopedia. Fourth, Williams' statement in
the new explanation that he thought the urea nitrate used in the bombing
had a high density is speculative. If, as seems unlikely, the new
explanation is the true explanation, Williams should have given the same
information in court as he did in his letter--namely, that the VOD for urea
nitrate is about 11,155-15,420 feet per second, but that he thought the
VOD of the main explosive was at the high end of that range for certain
specific reasons. The new explanation reflects adversely on Williams'
credibility and competence.
We conclude that the 14,000-15,500 VOD range for urea nitrate that
Williams gave at the Salameh trial was clearly too narrow, and appears
tailored to correspond to the estimates in his report (14,000 feet per
second) and in his testimony (14,000-15,500 feet per second) of the VOD
of the main explosive used at the Trade Center. In his trial testimony
about the VOD of urea nitrate, Williams failed in his responsibility to
provide the court with complete and accurate information.
(2) The VOD of the Main
Explosive
Having told the jury that the VOD of urea nitrate was about 14,000 to
15,500 feet per second, Williams went on to testify as follows to the VOD
of the main explosive at the Trade Center:
On the brief two and a half hour walk-through [at the scene of
the bombing] I had the opportunity to inspect a lot of [damaged
materials]. . . . By putting all of these things together and
looking at the size of the hole I estimated that the velocity of
detonation was somewhere between 14,000 and about 15,500
feet per second, with a little bit of give on each side of that. []