OKAY, NOW THIS IS WEIRD. A rental truck with two “Israeli nationals” in it was found to have residue of explosives. That might not mean anything, as the residues could be from prior renters — explosives are in much more common use than most people realize, and though you’re supposed to have a special license, and execute special rental agreements, to haul explosives even in small quantities, people don’t always do that. On the other hand, while the story says that there was residue from TNT (common), it also says there was residue from RDX plastic explosive, which I think is considerably less common. I’d also be interested in knowing whether these Israeli nationals are of Arab extraction, or not. No information on that appears in the story.

I’m also interested that the authorities thought to test the truck for explosives, which I tend to doubt is a routine thing. Am I wrong about that?

There could easily be innocent explanations for this, but it’s troubling, and warrants further investigation.

UPDATE: A reader writes:

With regards to this story, I just wanted to mention that anyone familiar with moving business in Boston or New York City knows that it is completely dominated by Israelis (some even might be working their without proper documents). So, it does’t strike me as odd to find out about 2 Israeli guys moving furniture in the odd morning hour (for example, my friend used an Israeli company when moving from Boston to Seattle, and I can’t imagine that they must have been driving the truck with his stuff only during the day). As far as explosives are concerned, you listed all the possibilities.

Yes, that’s why I don’t want to make too much of this. This story seems far more worrisome.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader N.D. “Buck” Smith writes: “RDX is pretty commonly used in oil well drilling.” Interesting. I know a lot about explosives for a law professor (where knowing that TNT isn’t identical to dynamite makes you, well, a rocket scientist) but that’s about it.