Continuing with our insistence that FEAR IS BACK, today's Transom has a downright disturbing item about Brooklyn artist Chris Hackett (at right), who is constructing a fully-functional suitcase bomb. The piece is courtesy of the Madagascar Institute, a radical art organization which is organizing an exhibition to be shown at either Cooper Union or South Street Seaport the week of September 11. Here's to the power of perfect timing:

[Hackett] said the strength of the bomb would be equivalent to about four pounds of TNT. It doesn t sound like much, he allowed, but it s enough to kill everyone in the gallery.

Mr. Hackett s bomb is designed to be triggered from anywhere else in the world you call a cell phone. He said that he had already purchased the cell-phone trigger. Only he knows the number but, of course, he has no plans to explode it.

Of course not. While this fellow constructs a bomb as "art," if only to demonstrate how easy it is to do such a thing, rest assured that the NYPD is keeping our city safe by checking all the old ladies' bags before they enter the subway. Stay vigilant, jackasses.

A Bomb Grows in Brooklyn [Observer]

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