Thursday, May. 20,
2004
FBI Issues Homeland Suicide
Bomber Warning
U.S. law enforcement warned to look for
tell-tale signs
By ELAINE SHANNON/WASHINGTON
The FBI is warning law enforcement agencies to be on the alert for the
possibility that suicide bombers may attempt to strike inside the United
States. A lightly classified intelligence bulletin circulated Thursday to
18,000 U.S. law enforcement bodies is headlined "Possible suicide bomber
indicators," and was distributed via the Bureau’s secure Law Enforcement
Online (LEO) Intranet. It warns local badge-carriers to look for obvious
signs of trouble — people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days,
smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets — as well, more
subtle ones, such as tightly clenched fists. Someone who never shows his
palms could be gripping a detonator rigged to go off when a button is
released. "If you shoot him, you ' re still not safe because his hands
relax and the bomb explodes," says a counter-terrorism official.
The FBI bulletin also notes that suicide bombers may disguise
themselves in stolen military, police or firefighter's garb, or even as
pregnant women.
FBI sources say there's no hard intelligence warning of specific plans
by terrorists to launch suicide attacks here like those wreaking havoc in
Israel and Iraq. But, says one official, the circular was prompted by "a
renewed concern" that fury at the U.S. for its occupation of Iraq or its
support of Israel could move some extremists to attempt to bring the war
to the American homeland. "At the end the day, it's probably one of the
simplest forms of attack, and it's one of the hardest to detect," says one
counter-terror veteran.
In fact, U.S. analysts are at a loss to explain why the homeland has
thus far escaped such attacks, since a number of extremist groups,
particularly Hamas, have a sizeable presence here. One factor, officials
say, is that terror leaders still regard America as a cash cow, and don't
want to antagonize moderate Muslim donors. Another reason, says one
specialist, may simply be that while there seems to be an endless supply
of fanatical youths willing to die for the cause in the Middle East, most
of them simply can't get visas to the U.S.
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