[Infowarrior] - Stopping IEDs: DHS Tools and Resources for Law Enforcement

[Richard Forno]

(c/o DS)



        Stopping IEDs: DHS Tools and Resources for Law Enforcement

  //By William Flynn, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for
  Infrastructure Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
  Washington, D.C./

  /Editor’s Note: William Flynn became Deputy Assistant Secretary for
  Infrastructure Protection on November 1, 2010./

  /

  Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) continue to be the weapon of
  choice for terrorists seeking to inflict casualties and damage. The
  National Counterterrorism Center identified more than 4,000
  terrorist bombings worldwide in 2009.^1 <#1> Closer to home, the
  failed attempts by Faisal Shahzad in New York City’s Times Square
  and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253
  show that the United States’ adversaries have the tools and the
  intent to launch attacks within the United States.

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes the enormous
  challenge that preventing, protecting from, and responding to
  terrorist IED threats and incidents presents, and the DHS Office of
  Infrastructure Protection’s Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP) has
  developed programs to assist state and local partners at no cost to
  the receiving agency.


  *The IED Threat*

  Most well-known incidents of international terrorism have featured
  IEDs, such as the 1983 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut, Lebanon; the
  1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland; the 1993 World
  Trade Center Bombing in New York City; the 1995 Oklahoma City
  Bombing; and the 1998 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
  IEDs are relatively simple and inexpensive to construct and can be
  concealed and deployed in a variety of ways. Their design is limited
  only by the imagination of the bomb maker.

  Large vehicle-borne IEDs can damage or destroy large buildings,
  while suicide or person-borne IEDs can penetrate checkpoints or
  target public areas. IEDs can be delivered over the water, as in the
  attack on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, or placed on or under
  the road, as in Iraq and Afghanistan. They can be detonated by
  timer, by switch, or remotely. IED construction and deployment
  tactics change quickly to adapt to countermeasures and make use of
  available resources. For example, when commercial or military
  explosives became more difficult or costly to obtain, bomb makers
  relied more heavily on homemade explosives, such as those used by
  “the shoe bomber” Richard Reid in 2001 and in the trans-Atlantic
  aircraft plot in 2006. The constantly evolving terrorist tactics,
  techniques, and procedures associated with IEDs present unique
  challenges to law enforcement. The OBP programs take on this challenge.


  *The Office for Bombing Prevention*

  The OBP was created in 2003 to coordinate DHS activities and policy
  related to IED threats. It also serves as an advocate and resource
  for law enforcement specialists with an IED-related mission, such as
  public safety bomb squads, public safety dive teams, explosives
  detection canine teams, and special weapons and tactics (SWAT)
  teams. The OBP also works to improve knowledge and awareness of IEDs
  among general law enforcement, first responders, critical
  infrastructure owners and operators, and private sector security
  professionals. By better understanding terrorist tactics, first
  responders and private sector partners can improve their ability to
  stop terrorist attacks in the planning phase, thereby reducing the
  risk of successful IED attacks.

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http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=print_display&article_id=2385&issue_id=52011