June 2005           www.isca.org.il

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We hope you'll enjoy the first edition of our "monthly magazine".

Every month we will publish professional articles dealing with various issues which made the headlines, and the latest development within the academy.

Based on ISCA's rich experience and knowledge we hope to contribute to struggle against global terror and organized crime.

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By Tal Hanan

In the wake of the Riyadh terror attack on May 11, 2003, the homeland security community should take a closer look at, and reevaluate the dangers of suicide terrorism.

So far, the United States homeland has experienced only one major terrorist suicide attack—Sept. 11 2001—but it has had a profound impact on the economy and society, and has prompted the U.S. to declare war on terrorist groups and their state sponsors worldwide

This article will review the reason that terrorist organizations choose the method of suicide attacks, the way the perpetrators are recruited and trained their profile and the ways in which law-enforcement personnel can cope with them.

What is a Suicide Attack?

According to Israeli terrorism researcher Yoram Schweitzer a suicide attack is defined as an "operational method in which the very act of the attack is dependent upon the death of the perpetrator" meaning the suicide bomber carries the explosives on his body or in a vehicle, and by  personal choice and with full self-awareness he approaches the selected target and blows himself up, or deliberately causes an accident where he has no chance whatsoever of survival, such as the 9/11 attack.  

Why do Islamic Terrorists Favor Suicide Attacks?  

Suicide attack is relatively easy to carry out, and is ‘inexpensive’ to execute— the poor man’s ‘smart bomb.’ What is more accurate than a bomb with a ‘human’ driver that chooses the time and place to execute the attack in such a way that it will cause the maximum effect? The damage to the target is relatively heavy in a suicide attack and the effect on ‘enemy’ public morale is high. Suicide attack will always attract media coverage, giving prominence to the organization responsible. Another motive is the psychological effect that terror organizations try to achieve, namely causing the enemy to believe that if the terrorists are willing to sacrifice their life they will prevail, and there is nothing you can do to stop them. This is not necessarily true, as this article will illustrate below.  

Can We Compose a Profile for Suicide Bombers?  

Israel security professionals have attempted to create a profile of a suicide bomber of HAMAS, the Palestinian Islamic terrorist organization, who is typically:  Male and unmarried; 18 - 27 years of age;  high school graduate; unemployed; a graduate of Islamic fundamentalist education centers; someone arrested by Israel in the past for terrorist-related activity; and someone who expressed their desire to avenge the death or injury of a relative.  

However, looking at the profiles of the 9/11 perpetrators we see a different picture. Most were students; many had studied in the West, of middle class background, with more opportunities than their countrymen. The majority was Saudi, with a few Yemenis and the leader, Muhammad Atta, was an Egyptian urban planner who had excelled at his studies in Germany. Women have been used as suicide bombers around the world by the Palestinian Fatah group, Chechen terrorists and the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

Therefore it is not recommended to look for a very narrow profile of a possible suicide bomber in the U.S., as it very much depends on the origin of terrorist cell, its affiliation and their recruitment possibilities in the U.S. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is an example of a terrorist’s successful attempt to bypass the classic profile.

It is fair, however, to posit that the motivation for committing a suicide attack is first and foremost religious fanaticism combined with nationalist extremism, but not necessarily despair on a personal level    

How are Suicide Attackers Recruited and Trained?  

Different fundamentalist organizations use different methods but we can recognize the main phases:

Identification – the recruiter searches for a disciple that regularly attends mosque activities. The potential candidates are usually given special attention by the Imam (leader of the mosque). This stage May take months during which the candidate is monitored closely.

Recruitment– After a long period of closely observing the candidate and after concluding that he is suitable for the mission, a person of authority informs him that he has been chosen, and details what rewards await a martyr or ‘Shahid’ (i.e., eternal life in paradise, the privilege to see Allah, God, face to face, 72 virgins who will pleasure and serve him, and the promise that dozens of his close relatives will join him in

paradise). The candidate is told that his family will be taken care of financially and will be accorded great honor and respect. There are hardly any refusals

Mental Preparation – This stage will include religious and in some cases Nationalistic indoctrination in the precepts of Jihad (“Holy War”), invoking the “Fatwa” (official Islamic ruling) urging Jihad against America published in 1998 by Usama Bin Laden and other Jihad leaders from Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh:  “… the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—

is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.” In some cases it is known that candidates were driven to a cemetery and left to lie in an open grave for several hours, to condition them to the idea of death Suicide Terrorism The Overlooked WMD and not to fear it.

Tactical training — How to infiltrate public places, move in a crowd, execute an operational plan, including detonation of the explosive device.  

Last preparations– Purification of the body, shaving of their beard, prayer, writing a will, and recording a farewell video with their weapons and the explosive device. In some cases narcotics are used to relax the suicide bomber, so that he will not draw attention to himself.  

Pre-Attack phase — The suicide bomber will be driven to the target area which he has already studied photos of and possibly even visited, is bid farewell and dispatched to the target.  

Attack — He will approach the target, avoiding law enforcement personnel, if necessary bypassing security, or force his way through to his precise target where he will press the switch and activate his explosives.  

The Explosive Device

Explosive devices used by suicide bombers are very simple, even primitive. The activation device is usually a simple lamp switch or similar connected to a battery and a detonator.

The explosives themselves vary. The Palestinians used TNT—based explosives stolen from old mine fields, until the Israelis succeeded in denying this source to them. They then started to produce a home-made explosive called T.A.T.P (acetone based explosive) which looks like a white powder and is highly volatile—so sensitive that it will explode from heat, friction or even just falling on the floor. That sensitivity has driven them to Urea-based explosives: a simple to use fertilizer-based material.

Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 killing 168 people and completely destroying the building, used another explosive-based on ammonium-nitrate.

The weight of the explosive charge ranges from 11-29 lbs. for a vest or a bag, commonly packed with nails, ball bearings and other metal fragments around the explosives in order to maximize casualties.  

Car bomb explosives charges range typically from 110-1,200 lb. and more as was the case in the recent suicide attack in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia.

As for the effect, with only 11 lb of TNT a Hamas suicide bomber in Israel killed 22 and injured 56 people riding a bus in Tel-Aviv, the effect in a closed space being several times stronger. Causing fatal accidents, overlooked before 9/11, where hijackers  

crashed two airliners into the two towers of the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon is now considered the best explosive device there is, as jetliners laden with thousands of gallons of highly flammable fuel are essentially flying bombs.

It is also conceivable that suicide attackers may attempt to cause dangerous substances to be released, ignited or detonated by crashing an aircraft, boat or other vehicle into high-risk or hazardous material storage facilities.

Coping with Suicide Attacks  

Coping with a suicide attack is a complicated matter. It is best to prevent it before it is launched and an explosives-strapped man is on the loose.  

Israeli security services have developed several methods and means in response, and are thus able to prevent and intercept over 85% of suicide attack attempts, by any measure a highly successful rate, yet those that get through are devastating nonetheless.

The U.S. law enforcement community can take advantage of Israeli experience and expertise in preparing itself to face the suicide attack threat. However, that expertise must be tailored to the unique environment of each locality in order to be implemented successfully.

Generally speaking efforts to combat suicide terrorism must be made at three levels:

The Strategic Level  

The U.S. government has decided after 9/11 to adopt the offensive approach, ‘draining the swamp,’ toppling the Taliban regime that hosted Al-Qaeda, and Saddam Hussein’s regime, which had supported various terrorist groups, in particular funding Palestinian suicide bombers directly.

Special operations are currently taking place in Yemen and the Horn of Africa and in other terrorist enclaves worldwide, which also produces documentation and prisoners that are extremely valuable to intelligence agencies. This strategy is forcing the terror organizations to move from place to place, invest resources in defense and escape routes. It also minimizes their ability to train, prepare and execute major operations.

The U.S. has also targeted aggressively the funding mechanism of terrorist groups, vital to their weapons purchasing, training and operational needs.

The Intelligence Level  

The intelligence capability of the local police department to deal with terror threats is a weak point in the U.S. homeland security structure, and whether one likes it or not, no one else can collect as they can the basic information which will lead to the capture of terrorist cells in their jurisdiction.  

Once a terrorist cell has covertly entered the U.S. and gone underground in a locale, it is very difficult for federal agencies to uncover them, as the country and population is simply too large to monitor properly. Local departments are more likely to notice and detect suspicious activity due to their intimate knowledge of their area and citizens.  

Local police officers must be trained regarding the threat, in particular the identification of suspicious activities and patterns used by terrorist cells in preparation for attacks. Police intelligence functions should include training on terrorist-related intelligence gathering methods, especially the monitoring of ‘risk groups’ and the components used to prepare bombs. This is not the place to review these methods but to cite just a few examples. Timothy McVeigh purchased all the components for his bomb on the free market, openly, as did the 1993 WTC bombers. It is also necessary to survey regularly vital assets that are potential targets for terrorists, and thus detect suspicious activity which may indicate preparations for an attack.

The Operational Level

Local police departments must ensure that every police officer is properly prepared for his or her role in combating suicide attacks, as they are the last line of defense. It is imperative that officers receive proper lessons and training that familiarizes them with the threat of suicide terrorism and its modus operandi.

Fire/rescue, EMS and municipal emergency services must also learn to identify terrorists, suicide bombers and bomb-making equipment, and the proper integrated response. Accordingly, the entire first responder community must be coordinated to act effectively upon receiving federal alerts, specific or general, of possible attacks.

The police and fire departments need to guide and supervise the private sector in reinforcing critical infrastructure assets under their responsibility and establishing communication channels to their security officers.

The importance of proper preparation is illustrated by the following example. Recently, an Israeli border patrolman noticed an unusually large pile of matches near the trash on a street he was patrolling. He knew from his training that the heads of matches are commonly used as crude but effective ingredients in the preparation of improvised explosive devices by Palestinian terrorists, and his suspicion was immediately aroused. The nearby house was searched and indeed a bomb-making operation was uncovered. Possibly, several terrorist attacks were thwarted. A first-responder not trained to identify telltale signs of terrorist preparations would have passed by such seemingly innocuous evidence without much of a thought.  

Conclusion  

The suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco during May of 2003 among others  have demonstrated that the attacks of 9/11 were not just a One-time occurrence but rather a pattern experienced by those targeted by Islamic terror groups worldwide, a pattern from which there is no reason to presume the continental U.S. will be exempt.

The Israeli experience shows there is much to do in preparing for and preventing these attacks, or mitigating their effects if they occur. Local and state authorities must acquire the necessary training and guidance since they have the best prospects of preventing such attacks due to their familiarity with their jurisdiction. As President Bush stated: “State and local levels of government have primary responsibility for funding, preparing, and operating the emergency services that would respond in the event of terrorist attack. Local units are the first to respond and the last to leave the scene. All disasters are ultimately local events.” 

(Strategy for Homeland Security - July 16, 2002(

Decision-makers should be aware of these threats and their gravity and allocate additional funds for educating and training the first-responder community, especially the police dept, in addition to utilizing federal grants for this purpose.

To conclude, training means investing in the most important assets we have in law enforcement and counter-terrorism, namely the human element. Training should include getting to know the threat, developing and adopting the method to cope with it, and training and testing your capabilities in simulations and drills. Local intelligence officers should be the spearhead of their department and enhance their abilities to monitor suspicious behavior in risk groups, and the connection between criminal and potential terrorist activity.

Edited by IACSP member Jonathan Friedman

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