The Growing U.S. “Bomb Library”

The Growing U.S. “Bomb Library”

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

The U.S. has a “Bomb Library” and it serves as an important tool in the fight against terror.

Iraq, 2007: Controlled IED expliostion (Wikimedia Commons)
Iraq, 2007: Controlled IED expliostion (Wikimedia Commons)

It has been ten years since the FBI established the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC), and since that time the multi-agency operation — sometimes referred to as America’s bomb library — has become an important tool in the nation’s fight against terrorism.

According to HLS News Wire before TEDAC, no single government entity was responsible for analyzing and exploiting evidence and intelligence related to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by international and domestic terrorists. The FBI say that today, TEDAC coordinates all those efforts.

Located at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, “TEDAC is the government’s single repository for IEDs,” said Special Agent Greg Carl, TEDAC director. “The evidence and intelligence we gather from these explosives is used by law enforcement, the military, the intelligence community, and by our political decision-makers. There is no question that the work we have done — and continue to do — has helped to save American lives.”

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Whether bombs come from the battlefields of Afghanistan or from homegrown terrorists within U.S. borders, TEDAC’s thirteen government agency partners and seventeen external partners collect the devices and send them to TEDAC to be analyzed and catalogued.

Since its creation in 2003, TEDAC has examined more than 100,000 IEDs from around the world and currently receives submissions at the rate of 800 per month. Two million items have been processed for latent prints — half of them this year alone. “Just from the sheer volume,” Carl said, “we have a lot of experience identifying IED components and blast damage.” As a result, he added, “we have identified over 1,000 individuals with potential ties to terrorism.”

Also based on TEDAC analysis, more than 100 people have been added to the U.S. government’s Terrorist Watchlist, a database that identifies subjects known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity. “Putting individuals on the list prevents them from entering the country,” Carl said.

The agency notes that TEDAC is capable of much more than evidence collection for criminal prosecution, though. “Since we also partner with the military and the intelligence community, our work is utilized by many different sources,” Carl said. The military, for example, uses TEDAC intelligence for force protection and to disrupt terror networks. Decision-makers can count on TEDAC’s intelligence — based on forensic science — to help them form policy.