Chinese man accused of making terror handbook

BEIJING - A 21-year-old Chinese man has been accused of preparing a handbook for terrorists that contained chapters on making explosives and then posting it on the Internet.

The man, surnamed Feng, appeared in court Saturday. He was allegedly responsible for making the book called “Handbook for Terrorists”.

Prosecutors stated that the 20-page document had information on at least 10 types of bombs or explosives and the 10 chapters also contained details on how to actually make explosives, China Daily Monday cited Beijing Youth Daily as reporting.

Feng posed questions like “Which type of explosive is most effective for use in Iraq?” at the end of each chapter.

He also advised: “To be well acquainted with the chemical properties of the explosives is to better serve terrorism”. The book also contained expressions like “Osama bin Laden, the defender of terrorism, once said….”

The handbook was viewed about 2,000 times. It was downloaded 116 times after it was put up on an online site in November 2009 and in April this year. The handbook was not deleted till May 20.

Feng said in Chaoyang district court that he had not created the handbook, instead it had things that he downloaded from the Internet. He said he put them together and named the collection “Handbook for Terrorists” only to get more attention.

He said it was supposed to be fun.

Feng stressed that he should not be held responsible if someone used the information in the book to commit a crime as he was only giving basic knowledge.