Stopping the attacks before they can be executed
'Tripwires' Can Spot Would-Be Bombers
By DEVLIN BARRETT. WSJ
The powerful blasts at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday underscore why the Federal Bureau of Investigation has spent years refining its "tripwire'' system for catching would-be bomb makers before they can build a deadly device.
For years, federal agents have asked businesses that sell materials useful in making bombs to alert authorities to any suspicious orders. The types of tripwires in place have shifted over the years. In the 1990s, law enforcement worried mostly about fertilizer-based bombs after such devices were used in the Oklahoma City attacks of April 1995. In the past decade, chemical-based bombs have come into focus as authorities adapt to the changing threat.
"The tripwires have certainly been successful in the past,'' said Don Borelli, a former counterterrorism official at the FBI who now works for Soufan Group.
He pointed to the case of a Saudi man, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who was convicted last year of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. That case began in February 2011 with a tip from a North Carolina chemical-supply company about a suspicious $435 order by Mr. Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa. A shipping company separately notified authorities the same day that it had similar suspicions because the order didn't appear intended for commercial use.
(More here.)
By DEVLIN BARRETT. WSJ
The powerful blasts at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday underscore why the Federal Bureau of Investigation has spent years refining its "tripwire'' system for catching would-be bomb makers before they can build a deadly device.
For years, federal agents have asked businesses that sell materials useful in making bombs to alert authorities to any suspicious orders. The types of tripwires in place have shifted over the years. In the 1990s, law enforcement worried mostly about fertilizer-based bombs after such devices were used in the Oklahoma City attacks of April 1995. In the past decade, chemical-based bombs have come into focus as authorities adapt to the changing threat.
"The tripwires have certainly been successful in the past,'' said Don Borelli, a former counterterrorism official at the FBI who now works for Soufan Group.
He pointed to the case of a Saudi man, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who was convicted last year of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. That case began in February 2011 with a tip from a North Carolina chemical-supply company about a suspicious $435 order by Mr. Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa. A shipping company separately notified authorities the same day that it had similar suspicions because the order didn't appear intended for commercial use.
(More here.)
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