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How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker
April 7, 2011 | 0855 GMT
By Scott Stewart
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released the
<javascript:launchPlayer('gyk7yq1g','http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM8sYSQR
Csw')> http://media.stratfor.com/stratfor_images/playbuttonsmall.giffifth
edition of its English-language jihadist magazine "Inspire" on March 30.
AQAP publishes this magazine with the stated intent of radicalizing
English-speaking Muslims and encouraging them to engage in jihadist militant
activity. Since its inception, Inspire magazine has also advocated the
concept that jihadists living in the West should conduct attacks there,
rather than traveling to places like Pakistan or Yemen, since such travel
can bring them to the attention of the authorities before they can conduct
attacks, and AQAP views attacking in the West as "striking at the heart of
the unbelievers."
To further promote this concept, each edition of Inspire magazine has a
section called "Open Source Jihad
<http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110118-aqap-inspiring-jihadists-during-t
imes-failure-and-defeat> ," which is intended to equip aspiring jihadist
attackers with the tools they need to conduct attacks without traveling to
jihadist training camps. The Open Source Jihad sections in past editions
have contained articles such as the pictorial guide with instructions titled
"Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100721_fanning_flames_jihad> " that
appeared in the first edition.
In this latest edition of Inspire there are at least three places where AQAP
encourages jihadists to conduct "lone wolf" attacks rather than coordinate
with others due to the security risks inherent in such collaboration
(several jihadist plots have been thwarted when would-be attackers have
approached government informants looking for assistance). In recent years
there have been a number of lone wolf attacks inside the United States, such
as the June 2009 shooting at an armed forces recruiting center in Little
Rock, Ark.; the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting; and the failed bombing
attack in New York
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100505_uncomfortable_truths_times_square_a
ttack> 's Times Square in May 2010. Of course, the lone wolf phenomena is
not just confined to the United States, as evidenced by such incidents as
the March 2 shooting attack against U.S. military personnel
<http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110303-details-emerge-frankfurt-airport-
attack> in Frankfurt, Germany.
In the past, STRATFOR has examined the challenges that lone wolf assailants
and small, insulated cells
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090603_lone_wolf_lessons> - what we call
grassroots jihadists - present to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
We have also discussed the fact that, in many cases, grassroots defenders
such as local police officers
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/jihadist_threat_and_grassroots_defense> can
be a more effective defense against grassroots attackers than centralized
federal agencies.
But local federal agents and local police officers are not the only
grassroots defenders who can be effective in detecting lone wolves and small
cells before they are able to launch an attack. Many of the steps required
to conduct a terrorist attack
<http://www.stratfor.com/themes/terrorist_attack_cycle> are undertaken in a
manner that makes the actions visible to any outside observer. It is at
these junctures in the terrorist attack cycle that people practicing good
situational awareness
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100609_primer_situational_awareness> can
detect these attack steps - not only to avoid the danger themselves, but
also to alert the authorities to the suspicious activity.
Detecting grassroots operatives can be difficult, but it is possible if
observers focus not only on the
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091104_counterterrorism_shifting_who_how>
"who" aspect of a terrorist attack but also the "how" - that is, those
activities that indicate an attack is in the works. In the past we've talked
in some detail about detecting preoperational surveillance
<http://www.stratfor.com/themes/surveillance_and_countersurveillance> as
part of this focus on the "how." Now, we would like to focus on detecting
another element of the "how" of terrorism and discuss the ways one can
detect signs of improvised-explosives preparation - in other words, how to
tell if your neighbor is a bombmaker.
IEDs and Explosive Mixtures
In the 11th edition of "Sada al-Malahim," AQAP's Arabic-language online
jihadist magazine, Nasir al-Wahayshi noted that jihadists "don't need to
conduct a big effort or spend a lot of money to manufacture 10 grams of
explosive material" and that they should not "waste a long time finding the
materials, because you can find all these in your mother's kitchen, or
readily at hand or in any city you are in." Al-Wahayshi is right. It truly
is not difficult for a knowledgeable individual to construct improvised
explosives from a wide range of household chemicals like peroxide and
acetone or chlorine and brake fluid.
It is important to recognize that when we say an explosive mixture or an
explosive device is "improvised," the improvised nature of that mixture or
device does not automatically mean that the end product is going to be
ineffective or amateurish. Like an improvised John Coltrane saxophone solo,
some improvised explosive devices can be highly-crafted and very deadly
works of art. Now, that said, even proficient bombmakers are going to
conduct certain activities that will allow their intent to be discerned by
an outside observer - and amateurish bombmakers are even easier to spot if
one knows what to look for.
In an effort to make bombmaking activity clandestine, explosive mixtures and
device components are often manufactured in rented houses, apartments or
hotel rooms. We have seen this behavior in past cases, like the December
1999 incident in which the so-called "Millennium Bomber
<http://www.stratfor.com/u_s_border_security_looking_north> " Ahmed Ressam
and an accomplice set up a crude bombmaking factory in a hotel room in
Vancouver, British Colombia. More recently, Najibullah Zazi
<http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090924_u_s_more_revelations_zazi_case> ,
who was arrested in September 2009, was charged with attempting to
manufacture the improvised explosive mixture tri-acetone tri-peroxide (TATP)
in a Denver hotel room. In September 2010, a suspected lone wolf assailant
in Copenhagen
<http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100910_explosion_and_arrest_copenhagen_l
one_wolf_or_plot> , accidentally detonated an explosive device he was
constructing in a hotel. Danish authorities believe the device was intended
for an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which was targeted because
of its involvement in publishing the controversial cartoons featuring the
Prophet Mohammed
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110105-mohammed-cartoon-dust-has-not-settl
ed> .
Similar to clandestine methamphetamine labs (which are also frequently set
up in rental properties or hotel rooms), makeshift bombmaking operations
frequently utilize volatile substances that are used in everyday life.
Chemicals such as acetone, a common nail polish remover, and peroxide,
commonly used in bleaching hair, can be found in most grocery, beauty, drug
and convenience stores. Fertilizers, the main component of the bombs used in
the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center attack, can
be found in large volumes on farms or in farm supply stores in rural
communities.
However, the quantities of these chemicals required to manufacture
explosives is far in excess of that required to remove nail polish or bleach
hair. Because of this, hotel staff, landlords and neighbors can fairly
easily notice signs that someone in their midst is operating a makeshift
bombmaking laboratory. They should be suspicious, for example, if a new
tenant moves several bags of fertilizer into an apartment in the middle of a
city, or if a person brings in gallons of acetone, peroxide or sulfuric or
nitric acid. Furthermore, in addition to chemicals, bombmakers also utilize
laboratory implements such as beakers, scales, protective gloves and masks -
things not normally found in a hotel room or residence.
Additionally, although electronic devices such as cell phones or
wristwatches may not seem unusual in the context of a hotel room or
apartment, signs that such devices have been disassembled or modified should
raise a red flag, as these devices are commonly used as initiators for
improvised explosive devices. There are also certain items that are less
commonly used in household applications but that are frequently used in
bombmaking, things like nitric or sulfuric acid, metal powders such as
aluminum, magnesium and ferric oxide, and large quantities of sodium
carbonate - commonly purchased in 25-pound bags. Large containers of methyl
alcohol, used to stabilize nitroglycerine, is another item that is unusual
in a residential or hotel setting and that is a likely signal that a
bombmaker is present.
Fumes from the chemical reactions are another telltale sign of bombmaking
activity. Depending on the size of the batch being concocted, the noxious
fumes from an improvised explosive mixture can bleach walls and curtains
and, as was the case for the July 2005 London attackers, even the
bombmakers' hair. The fumes can even waft outside of the lab and be detected
by neighbors in the vicinity. Spatter from the mixing of ingredients like
nitric acid leaves distinctive marks, which are another way for hotel staff
or landlords to recognize that something is amiss. Additionally, rented
properties used for such activity rarely look as if they are lived in. They
frequently lack furniture and have makeshift window coverings instead of
drapes. Properties where bomb laboratories are found also usually have no
mail delivery, sit for long periods without being occupied and are occupied
by people who come and go erratically at odd hours and are often seen
carrying strange things such as containers of chemicals.
The perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing manufactured the
components for the truck bomb used in that attack in a rented apartment in
Jersey City, N.J. The process of cooking the nitroglycerine used in the
booster charges and the urea nitrate used in the main explosive charge
created such strong chemical fumes that some of the paint on the walls was
changed from white to blue and metal doorknobs and hinges inside of the
apartment were visibly corroded. The bombmakers also flushed some of the
excess chemicals down the toilet, spilling some of them on the bathroom
floor and leaving acidic burn marks. The conspirators also spilled chemicals
on the floor in other places, on the walls of the apartment, on their
clothing and on other items, leaving plenty of trace evidence for
investigators to find after the attack.
Given the caustic nature of the ingredients used to make homemade explosive
mixtures - chemicals that can burn floors and corrode metal - and the very
touchy chemical reactions required to make things like nitroglycerin and
TATP, making homemade explosives can be one of the most dangerous aspects of
planning an attack. Indeed, Hamas militants refer to TATP as "the Mother of
Satan" because of its volatility and propensity to either severely burn or
kill bombmakers if they lose control of the chemical reaction required to
manufacture it.
In January 1995, an apartment in Manila, Philippines, caught fire when the
bombmaker in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, Abdel Basit (aka Ramzi
Yousef), lost control of the reaction in a batch of TATP he was brewing for
his planned attack against a number of U.S. airliners flying over the
Pacific Ocean - an operation he had nicknamed Bojinka
<http://www.stratfor.com/special_report_tactical_side_u_k_airliner_plot> .
Because of the fire, authorities were able to arrest two of Basit's
co-conspirators and unravel Bojinka and several other attack plots against
targets like Pope John Paul II and U.S. President Bill Clinton. Basit
himself fled to Pakistan, where he was apprehended a short time later. This
case serves to highlight the dangers presented by these labs to people in
the vicinity - especially in a hotel or apartment building.
Another form of behavior that provides an opportunity to spot a bombmaker is
testing. A professional bombmaker will try out his improvised mixtures and
components, like improvised blasting caps, to ensure that they are
functioning properly and that the completed device will therefore be viable.
Such testing will involve burning or detonating small quantities of the
explosive mixture, or actually exploding the blasting cap. The testing of
small components may happen in a backyard, but the testing of larger
quantities will often be done at a more remote place. Therefore, any signs
of explosions in remote places like parks and national forests should be
immediately reported to authorities.
Obviously, not every container of nitric acid spotted or small explosion
heard will be absolute confirmation of bombmaking activity, but reporting
such incidents to the authorities will give them an opportunity to
investigate and determine whether the incidents are indeed innocuous. In an
era when the threat of attack comes from increasingly diffuse sources, a
good defense requires more eyes and ears than the authorities possess. As
the New York Police Department has so aptly said, if you see something, say
something.
Reprinting or republication of this report on websites is authorized by
prominently displaying the following sentence, including the hyperlink to
STRATFOR, at the beginning or end of the report.
"How to Tell if Your Neighbor is a Bombmaker
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110406-how-tell-if-your-neighbor-bombmaker
> is republished with permission of STRATFOR."
Read more:
<http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110406-how-tell-if-your-neighbor-bombmaker
?utm_source=SWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110407&utm_content=readmor
e&elq=1fcc1749e48a4d7fb6af8a817a4b3753#ixzz1Iqs7QvzI> How to Tell if Your
Neighbor is a Bombmaker | STRATFOR
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