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Updated: Arrest made today. Amanda Prestigiacomo for The Daily Wire Thursday sourced a former Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officer Tom Sauer in a Twitter thread on the packages sent to prominent Democrats.
According to Sauer, it’s extremely likely the packages were meant to be intercepted and cause political damage, as opposed to an attempt to harm the targets.
Sauer, whose identity has been verified to The Daily Wire, used his expertise to analyze an image of a package addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, which was first obtained by CNN. The former bomb disposal officer, who emphasized that he only spoke on behalf of himself, said the device appears to indicate that it was intended to be intercepted. “It’s highly, highly unlikely that this was a genuine attempt,” he explained. “This is like holding up a bank with a toy gun.”
In his viral thread, Sauer made note of some of the red flags that support his assessment.
“A few observations from a former bomb disposal officer (i.e. Me),” started the former officer. “Proper pipe bombs don’t have wires connected to both ends. That’s dumb.”
Sauer also noted that the size and setup of the device struck him as odd. “You can find timers / remote control receivers WAY smaller than whatever that white box is. A proper timer would best be stored inside the pipe, making it fully encapsulated. That thing is just silly looking,” he wrote.
“Hoax devices,” as these appear to be, are far more common than real attempts, he explained in the thread. “In which case, we should ask ourselves what the motives of the ‘bomber’ are and ‘who benefits?’ Go ahead. Think deeply and critically.”