Guarding Against Improvised Explosive Devices

摘要

Once confined to troubled and distant lands, pipe bombs and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs) now pose a serious threat to federal, state, and local government facilities here in the United States. These devices can be easily and inexpensively assembled and placed in busy population centers. Schools, shopping malls, stadiums, and other public places where people walk freely all are potential targets for terrorist attacks. Guarding against terrorist attacks involving IEDs starts with a basic understanding of a typical bomb. People must recognize that a bomb usually is made to look like an everyday widget and that the stereotypical bombs with burning fuses are virtually nonexistent. The only common denominator that exists with all explosive devices is that they are intended to explode. For this reason, it is important to suspect anything that looks unusual, and to let a trained bomb technician determine whether it is an explosive device.