Explosives have become terror weapon of choice

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 5:10 a.m.

The Middle Eastern hijackers who turned four American airliners into jet fuel bombs Sept. 11 joined a growing list of terrorists who have relied on explosions to create fear.

Evidence of that trend can be found in the list of "significant" global terrorist incidents recorded by the State Department since 1961. Four bombings made the list in the 1970s, and 11 occurred in the 1980s. Since 1990, 37 explosions have been linked to terrorists.

The list includes only the top headline-grabbing incidents, however. Excluded are countless bombings involving lone perpetrators with few or no casualties, including domestic attacks against places of worship, federal field offices and abortion clinics.

The blasts have come in many forms, including truck and car bombs first used on a frequent basis by the Irish Republican Army. Middle Easterners have strapped dynamite to their bodies on suicide missions, and an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1995 in retaliation for American strikes on Serb positions in Bosnia involved a rocket-propelled grenade.

"Truck bombs in particular are still a very definite menace," said Edward Arnett, chemistry professor emeritus at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "They are a continual fact of life in Israel. When England was under attack by the Irish Republican Army, truck bombs were a traditional way of terrorizing people. That ought to be pretty high on the list of our worries."

The federal government eventually asked the National Research Council to study terrorist bombings to determine how to prevent them -- at least in the United States. Arnett was a co-chairman of the 1998 study.

The study was prompted by the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic extremists and the 1995 blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh.

Those were merely two of the 33 bombings involving U.S. targets or citizens that the State Department attributed to terrorists before Sept. 11. The first incident involving Middle Eastern assailants occurred in 1983, when the Islamic Jihad took credit for a 400-pound truck bomb that killed 63 and injured 120 at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

Almost all of those bombings occurred overseas and involved American soldiers, military installations, embassies or businesses. And almost all the perpetrators were foreigners.

But the council expressed concern in its study that terrorists had several ways to obtain explosives in this country.

"They may be obtained illegally from military sources, purchased legally or fraudulently or stolen from commercial sources, or improvised by mixing together widely available chemicals, such as ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil," the report stated.

"Given the many types and sources of explosives and precursor chemicals for use in constructing bombs, it seems impossible to prevent all illegal bombings by controlling bombers' access to these materials."

The council reported that the military plastic explosive C-4, which has been used in car bombs, is a particular threat because of its "high energy and concealability." However, such explosives are difficult to obtain because they are expensive and typically stored in military magazines protected by high security. Therefore, they are not as likely to be used by terrorists.

Instead, the study suggested tighter regulations on purchases of commercial explosives and ammonium nitrate, which was used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

But Arnett said the committee's recommendations to make it more difficult to purchase explosives have been ignored.

"We made a presentation to congressional aides, and I would say that the reaction was rather passive," Arnett said. "People had gotten over Timothy McVeigh's coup, and ... no one was very uptight over these things."

The council concluded that ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used to grow pasture grass, is the most dangerous explosive because it is so easy to obtain. McVeigh was able to build a 4,800-pound bomb that was packed into a rented truck by purchasing the combustible fertilizer from Kansas farm stores. He also obtained readily available race car fuel. The mixture killed 168 people.

McVeigh was able to build his weapon thanks in large part to lax state and federal regulations that enable buyers to escape background checks.

There were only 1,819 short tons of ammonium nitrate sold in Nevada last year, representing about one-tenth of 1 percent of the 1.698 million short tons sold nationwide, according to the Fertilizer Institute in Washington.

But only wholesalers are required to be registered through Nevada's Department of Agriculture. Retailers such as nurseries and consumers need not fill out any paperwork. The same was true in Kansas as McVeigh discovered.

One of Clark County's two wholesalers, Helena Chemical Co. in Las Vegas, will sell the combustible fertilizer only to familiar customers. Helena branch manager Larry Jensen said those customers include golf course operators and large landscaping companies.

"If we don't know the people, we don't sell to them," Jensen said. "They have to produce a business license and we check that."

Jensen, however, said he is not convinced that it would be a good idea to require customers to be licensed to buy the fertilizer.

"One more permit may be one too many," he said. "But I'm sure that if the golf courses needed a permit, I suppose they would buy a permit."

Nevada's Agriculture Department is researching ways to better regulate ammonium nitrate sales. Chris Mason, the department's chemistry section chief, said one possibility is to ask the Nevada Legislature in 2003 to require buyers to obtain licenses similar to those issued to pesticide users.

"It's something that has come up ever since Oklahoma City," Mason said. "Unfortunately, we have no authority to do that. It would require a change in the Nevada Revised Statutes."

The Fertilizer Institute has issued a reminder to its members to be on the lookout for suspicious customers in light of the terrorist attacks and to report suspicions to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"Ever since Oklahoma City, we've been in constant communication with ATF to make sure our products stay in the right hands," institute spokeswoman Kathy Mathers said. "Our members know their customers, and that is the best defense against the illegal use of our products."

The 1998 National Research Council study identified numerous other chemicals, fuels, oxidizers and precursors requiring chemical reactions that are available commercially in this country and could be used to construct large bombs.

One such chemical is nitromethane, an industrial solvent that is also used in rocket fuel.

Fuels include sulfur, widely used in the chemical, paper and rubber industries; and nitrobenzene, a solvent.

Oxidizers on the list include potassium nitrate, which is found in gunpowder; fertilizer and medicine, sodium nitrate, which is also used in fertilizer and to cure meat; and potassium chlorate, which is used in explosives, matches and fireworks.

Precursors include acetone, a solvent, and urea, which is found in resins, plastics and fertilizers and was used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

If a terrorist wanted to get his hands on commercial explosives, plenty are available. About 5 billion pounds of commercial explosives are used annually in this country: about 90 percent for mining; 7 percent for road building, tunneling and trench work; and 3 percent for small jobs such as removal of large rocks and tree stumps.

Buyers of commercial explosives are required to obtain federal permits if they intend to transport them across state lines.

But a Nevadan who indicates he wishes to buy explosives for use in this state need only show identification and complete an ATF form that asks why he is making the purchase. The form is kept by the seller, but it doesn't prevent an individual from using phony identification or lying about the reason for the purchase.

It was largely because of fears over possible liability that Sanders Construction Inc. owner Danny Sanders of Henderson said he quit selling explosives about 10 years ago. Sanders, who retains a federal permit to use explosives for mining, road construction and real estate development, said there needs to be better screening of consumers.

"We quit selling explosives because of the discomfort we felt with some of the individuals who wanted to buy them," Sanders said. "We would see a lot of guys who had no idea about the rules and regulations for transporting explosives. They just wanted to throw them into the back of their trucks."

Some critics say the United States has done little to ensure that explosives don't get into the wrong hands. One such critic is the Institute of Makers of Explosives, a Washington association that promotes safety in the commercial-explosives industry.

The institute advocates federal licenses for individuals who wish to purchase commercial-grade explosives, detonators and blasting agents. The group also would like to see fingerprinting to make it more difficult for an applicant to provide false information.

But Lon Santis, the institute's technical manager, said the agriculture lobby is an opponent of such measures.

"There may be a perception out there by certain people that purchasing explosives is a right they should have and the government should stay out of it," Santis said.

Acting state fire marshal Vicki Stevens said she plans to revisit state laws that currently do not require farmers, ranchers or miners to obtain permits for explosives used on private property.

"We probably should look into changing that," Stevens said. "I could foresee some opposition from individuals with small mining claims."

And ATF intends to inspect all explosives permit holders by the end of this year, accelerating inspections that usually occur only once every three years. That includes 40 licensees and permit holders in Clark County.

"Prior to the recent events we were looking for storage violations," bureau spokeswoman Marti McKee said. "But now we are looking for any surplus purchases. If someone has purchased a large quantity of explosives, somebody from the bureau will probably follow up to see what the person is doing with them. We are also talking to the distributors and asking them to be more cautious of customers they don't know."

ATF also issued a post-Sept. 11 notice to all license and permit holders to conduct a full inventory of explosives in their possession, and to report shortages to the bureau.

Even if state and federal regulations are tightened, ATF still faces the issue of theft. The bureau reported that there were 31 known thefts of high-grade explosives in the United States during the first six months of the year.

Included was a Nevada case in May: Orica Mining Service in Winnemucca reported the theft of a "large cache" of explosives. The explosives were never recovered, and the case remains under investigation.

"The truth is, I don't think most people who obtain explosives for criminal use will buy them," McKee said. "They'll steal them."

The National Research Council study came to a similar conclusion, stating that common targets of theft are believed to be "small-end users, many of whom may not have the legally required magazines for storing high explosives securely."

But the council also advocates tighter controls on bulk chemical sales, and uniform national regulations for the purchase of commercial explosives, including those bought and used in the same state.

Another issue of growing concern is whether Osama bin Laden and other terrorists can obtain nuclear weapons. He told a Pakistani newspaper earlier this month that he possesses nuclear weapons, a claim the Bush administration said it doubts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group, reported earlier this month that since 1993 there have been 18 cases of global trafficking involving small amounts of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, which is needed to produce a nuclear bomb.

The Nuclear Control Institute, a nonprofit Washington research organization, has long held that the global spread of nuclear technology, reactor security problems and lax policies governing the use and recycling of certain radioactive material makes it easier for terrorists or rogue governments to build nuclear bombs.

The institute would like the United States and other countries to destroy excess plutonium stockpiles and eliminate weapons-grade material from nuclear power plants.

"I certainly think it would be a sensible move by the United States to adopt our initiatives after the actions of Sept. 11, but there's no indication that the government is reconsidering them," Steven Dolley, the institute's research director, said. "The nuclear power industry is opposed to our initiatives to make power plant security upgrades."

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