Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
In his memoir,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
(1922), Lawrence revealed his most
effective tactic: “Mines were the best weapon yet discovered to make the regu-
lar working of their trains costly and uncertain for our Turkish enemy.” Today's
terrorists are not using mines but are using improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
to attack everything from Humvees to trains to other pieces of infrastructure. In
2004, Chechen terrorists used the renovation of Grozny's Dynamo Stadium as an
opportunity to plant a massive IED under the reviewing stand where then Chechen
President Akhmad Kadyrov was seated during a Victory Day parade. The device
killed Kadyrov and five others.
In Iraq, AQI and other Sunni groups used networks to build, place, and deto-
nate the IEDs. The IED threat in Iraq was countered by up-armoring vehicles and
using jamming devices, along with arresting members of the various IED networks.
Because the Taliban in Afghanistan has learned about the countermeasures used
in Iraq, it has littered Afghanistan's roads with IEDs. This is clearly an obstacle for
U.S. and Coalition forces, yet it will be difficult for the enemy to keep up that pace
as it is expensive and, in order to thwart the countermeasures, the Taliban will have
to place more and more of these devices at great expense. However, the IEDs being
used going forward, while perhaps not at the same rate, will be more powerful in
nature.
In the United States, Eric Robert Rudolph developed IEDs that he used in
the fatal bombing at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, which killed
Olympic spectator Alice Hawthorne and seriously injured more than 100 peo-
ple; the bombing of a Sandy Springs, Georgia, family planning clinic on January
16, 1997, which injured more than 50 people; and the bombing of a Midtown
Atlanta nightclub, the Otherside Lounge, on February 21, 1997, which injured
five people. Rudolph used secondary devices to target responders, including the
secondary device used at the Sandy Springs, Georgia, abortion clinic in 1997.
Rudolph planted a secondary device aimed at first responders when it exploded an
hour after the first and wounded seven people. He also used a similar device at the
Otherside Lounge in Atlanta in 1997 but that device was discovered and rendered
safe by police.
Although the IED does not have the cache of the VBIED in terms of flashiness,
it is still very effective especially when using remote detonation. The technology is
easy to obtain—anything from garage door openers to toy car remote controls can
be easily disguised as something innocent if discovered—and for nonsuicide opera-
tions it allows the terrorist to be at a safe distance from the pursuer. In Iraq, IEDs
were not only hidden in the ground but strung from poles and other locations off
the ground, which increases the size of the killing zone. Even in suicide operations,
the remote detonator can be used to successfully detonate a squeamish bomber, a
tactic the Chechens have used to deadly effect.
The IED, unlike a VBIED, can be hidden under a number of different guises
from backpacks to garbage debris. In 1982, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación
Nacional planted three bombs in lower Manhattan. One bomb was secreted in a
