In an editorial today, The Washington Times expresses its support for legislation authored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) that will help make our nation better prepared for the threat of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks. The bipartisan “National Bombing Prevention Act of 2007,” which was introduced last week, will enhance DHS’s ability to better prepare State and local government officials, emergency response providers, and the private sector to deter, detect, prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorist explosive attacks. During a recent hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, of which Senator Collins is Ranking Member, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff listed IED attacks as a major threat to the U.S. In addition, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) identified IEDs as a significant homeland security threat.
IEDs on home turf
November 8, 2007
A bill introduced last week in the Senate brings to light a burgeoning threat many Americans usually associate with distant wars and our European friends across the pond. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) pose an increasing problem for homeland security here in the United States, and law enforcement officials are working to heighten their preparedness for detecting and responding to this growing menace.
Further bolstering their efforts are Sens. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut independent, ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the Senate homeland security committee, who last week introduced the National Bombing Prevention Act. The worthy measure would increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Bombing Prevention by authorizing a cumulative $50 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. That represents an increase over the $10 million for fiscal 2008 approved by the Senate in the homeland security appropriations bill currently pending in conference committee.
These funds would buoy local, state and national systems that lack a streamlined anti-IED coordination effort by providing them additional training on how to combat this threat, including expanded use of an online system called TRIPwire containing data on terrorist IEDs.
The bill would also speed up release of the National Strategy for Bombing Prevention and require the president to update it every four years. It would help take the anti-IED technology born out intensive research and development by the Department of Defense and translate it into domestic uses.
In July, the National Intelligence Council issued a National Intelligence Estimate that gives a sober warning that IEDs are fast becoming the weapon of choice among terrorists, particularly cells with links to al Qaeda that hope to target the United States. Internationally, IED attacks have recently unfolded in Madrid, London and Glasgow. In Iraq, IEDs have caused an estimated 1,659 of the 4,159 U.S. military deaths, according to icasualties.org.
"IEDs are only limited by the resources and the imagination of the bomber," FBI spokesman Bill Carter told The Washington Times.
The occurrence of IED and other types of bombings in the United States have remained stagnant in recent years, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, dropping from 676 in 2000 to 621 in 2005. These dismal figures indicate that lawmakers and law enforcement must maintain their vigilance.
Next week the Collins-Lieberman bill is slated for Senate committee markup. We hope the panel will favorably report the bill for a full Senate vote and that the House will follow suit.
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