Andy R. Oppenheimer is the author of IRA: The Bombs And The Bullets, which tells the story of how the Irish Republican Army became the most skilled insurgent group in the world – and masters of the improvised explosive. He is also consulting editor of NBC (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) International magazine and an acknowledged expert on explosives and counterterrorism. Here he talks exclusively to Danger Room about the parallels between the IRA and modern terrorism, the fight against jury-rigged weapons in Afghanistan, and how to ultimately beat even the craftiest bomb-maker.

DANGER ROOM: The IRA had quite a sophisticated arsenal. In contrast, the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) we've seen in these al-Qaeda-affiliate attacks in Britain have been rather crude. Is that because they lack the sort of hands-on training that IRA volunteers had?

ANDY OPPENHEIMER: The current lot do seem to be a bunch of amateurs. It's true that, in theory, you can get all this stuff on making bombs from the Internet. But it still takes a lot of practice to get it right. It took the IRA several years and suffered a lot of "own goals" [where bomb-makers were killed by their own bombs] before they became proficient in using explosives. They were in the IRA for life and learned their skills over many years. They had a proper training program where each engineer passed on their knowledge to others in a classroom, within families, and within the republican community, as well as from previous campaigns and Irish and British military sources of expertise.

But [the current crop's] expertise could grow – it’s early days. A lot of pre-empted cases are awaiting trial in the UK, and some are never publicized.

Continue reading "IRA Historian: Today's Terrorists Are 'Amateurs' - and Still Deadly" »

"IRA: The Bombs and the Bullets," by A. R. Oppenheimer, is a history of the long war fought by Irish insurgent groups; it has some vital lessons for the current conflicts. In particular, it describes the bombing campaigns, from the first gunpowder blast at Clerkenwell in London in 1867 to the immense "city destroyers" of the 1990's. Subtitled "a history of deadly ingenuity," it gives and detailed insight into how the improvised explosive device was developed by the world's most proficient insurgent group. And it examines the deadly, technological game between the bomb-makers and the authorities who sought to stop them across the course of some 19,000 bombings.

Oppenheimer really did his homework for this book, interviewing not only former bomb disposal officers but also individuals associated with the Irish Republican Army. He visits the headquarters of the Irish police in Dublin to see their unique museum of IRA weapons. As well as mortars, AR-15 Armalites (the IRA's favorite), booby-traps and letter-bombs there is even a partially-completed torpedo, intended for use against patrol boats.

Oppenheimer repeatedly shows how the Irish were highly adept at picking up the latest technology. Within two years of the invention of dynamite, Clan na Gael were starting to use it, and the subsequent campaign against the British was known as the "dynamite war." The new explosive was powerful, portable and stable, making it ideal for terrorist bombings. Gelignite was also adopted as soon as it became available.

But the IRA also excelled at home-made explosives. They pioneered fertilizer bombs using ammonium nitrate and developed several recipes or their own such as 'Donegal Mix' or ANNIE – ammonium nitrate, nitrobenzene and diesel. (The book recounts how fertilizer had to be ground up using coffee grinders – a slow process when making a 3,500 lb bomb.) The IRA were also masters at the use of Semtex, an advanced plastic explosive known as 'the magic marble' for its destructive power; although they acquired several tons from Libya, they used Semtex very sparingly, often as a 'booster' to set off cruder explosives.

Oppenheimer gives a good account of the  arms race between bomb-makers and bomb-disposal, and the "deadly ingenuity" is very much in evidence. Sometimes, the escalation is simple. In the early days, the IRA used to lob grenades into open-top army trucks. The army put chicken wire over the top of the trucks so grenades would bounce off –- so the IRA started using grenades covered in hooks to catch on the wire. The game of cat-and-mouse eventually became far more sophisticated, with multiple bombs being set to go off in sequence, and devices with dummy mechanisms set as traps to catch bomb squad officers.

Continue reading "Inside the Longest Insurgency's Lethal Arsenal" »

In the mid-1970's, the UK government put together a script to be read over the airwaves, in case of a nuclear attack. Its main message: "There is nothing to be gained by trying to get away."

Instead, the script -- recent released by the National Archives -- advised Britons to stay in their homes, where "roofs and walls offer substantial protection" against radiation.

"By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger. If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection," it added. "Radioactive fall-out, which follows a nuclear explosion, is many times more dangerous if you are directly exposed to it in the open."

Continue reading "70's Nuke Attack Message: Don't Try to Get Away" »

Over the past week, Copehill Down Village, the British Army's urban combat training facility, saw its oddest contest ever -- one that involved flying saucers, swarming robots, remote-control buggies, and inventors from all over the country. This was the Ministry of Defence's Grand Challenge, to develop new technology for urban reconnaissance.

Yesterday, they announced the winners. Robot-makers from Southampton's Stellar Research Services snagged the top prize. Stellar's approach, called SATURN, involved three separate machines: a high-level flying robotic aircraft, a low-level drone, and a tracked vehicle (pictured) that looks like a relative of WALL-E.

The mechanical trio had to navigate a mock village, crawling with threats: hidden snipers, armed "militia" in the open, and roadside bombs. Of the eleven teams competing, Team Stellar scored the highest points in identifying and locating the targets, using cameras and radar and thermal sensors.

Continue reading "WALL-E Look-a-Like Wins British Robot Showdown" »

The Zeppelins are back over London. This summer, a German airship company is offering the chance to take scenic flights over London starting at $390 for a half-hour trip. The craft is a Zeppelin NT (New Technology, to remind people it's filled with non-flammable helium rather than hydrogen), and the visit has been sponsored by a brewing company. 

It's all very different from the first time around, when the Zeppelins came during the First World War.

On January 15th, 1915, the Kaiser issued the authorization for bombing raids on Great Britain. This was a bold move, as attacks which would endanger civilians had previously been avoided as they were considered unlawful. After various minor raids, on 13th may 1915 the Zeppelin LZ 38 succeeded in attacking the capital, dropping its load of thirty-five high-explosive and ninety incendiary bombs over London. The first bomb killed a three-year old girl, and a total of seven people died.

The attack was widely seen in Britain as an outrage. Thomas Fegan's book on the WWI raids is called Baby Killers -- a term frequently applied to the raiders. People with German-sounding names were attacked in the streets and businesses were destroyed by mobs.

The idea of aerial bombardment was new. Something had to be done, but the defenses were very haphazard at first. Fegan quotes one account, from a Lt Commander Rawlinson, of pursuing a Zeppelin with the capital's only effective anti-aircraft weapon, a 75mm cannon mounted in the back of an armored truck. Unfortunately, he had to negotiate London's crowded streets at high speed in the process:

Continue reading "Achtung! Zeppelins Back Over London" »

Sir Hugh Orde, Northern Ireland's top cop and potential candidate to head the London Police, says we ought to think about negotiating with Al Qaeda. More cops and counterterror agents won't be enough to deal with Osama's followers, he contends. So it's time to start "thinking the unthinkable."

Asked whether Britain should attempt to talk to al-Qaida, he said: "If you want my professional assessment of any terrorism campaign, what fixes it is talking and engaging and judging when the conditions are right for that to take place.    

"Is that a naive statement? I don't think it is ... It is the reality of what we face. If somebody can show me any terrorism campaign where it has been policed out, I'd be happy to read about it, because I can't think of one."

After all, Orde argues, the Irish Republican Army did finally decide to put down its weapons. 

"It got to a point where those combatants realised ... certainly on the republican side, it wasn't ever going to work. So there's a certain pragmatism in there. The question, does Bin Laden see it that way, probably not. If you don't ask, you don't know."

Orde's heart may be in the right place, but AQ and the IRA are totally different.  What worked for one probably won't work for the other.  The IRA had territory, interests, goals, and even political organization. There was a distinct hierarchy to either be targeted or negotiated with.  AQ is, at present, a loose coalition, literally "the base" for various Islamist groups to pool their resources and ideology.  Plus, it isn't the only Islamic extremist game in town.

Continue reading "Northern Ireland's Top Cop: Negotiate with Al Qaeda" »

In America, this is a day for remembering those who died in service to their country.  In Britain, the armed forces are now so unpopular that a new law is being put forward to protect them.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reports on reasons for the new law which being proposed to outlaw discrimination against members of the armed forces.

The armed forces minister, Bob Ainsworth, said the government was engaged in discussions about how the new law could be introduced, since discrimination against personnel in military uniform was "totally and utterly unacceptable".

The report cited a number of cases of discrimination, including a Harrods security assistant in 2006 preventing an army officer from entering the store after a Remembrance Day ceremony.

Staff at Birmingham airport last year told troops returning from Afghanistan to change into civilian clothes, and troops passing through Edinburgh airport were directed away from public areas.

Patients from the armed forces rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Surrey were subjected to abuse by members of the public at a swimming pool, and abuse levelled at RAF personnel in parts of Peterborough led to restrictions on their wearing uniform in public.

Continue reading "British To Outlaw Discrimination Against Military" »