From Iraq, Bomb-Makers Spread

The Iraq war has been more than just a boon to terrorist recruiting. It's also served as a kind of of laboratory for the technology of mass-murder, allowing Islamicist to perfect weapons designs -- and then export them to the rest of the world.

Take the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which have become so common in Iraq. "Bomb makers [there] during the past four years have benefited from the lessons of trying to defeat a sophisticated enemy who is using complex countermeasures, National Defense magazine notes. Now, "the daily onslaught... is spreading to... Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Algeria." And there are "strong indications that [the Philippines'] Abu Sayeff, [Indonesia's] Jemaah Islamiyah and other terrorist groups are really collaborating to have a common type of IED."

The switches — or triggering devices — have been an area of rapid progress in IED technology, Nielsen said, particularly in Iraq, where insurgents are forced to innovate... Out of necessity, the triggering devices in Iraq have grown in sophistication, Nielsen said. Where jamming equipment is not used in the Philippines for example — insurgents have not needed complex switches, he said.

But there are some indications that this triggering know-how is migrating. High-powered cordless phones — a method first employed in Iraq — have been used in attacks in
Pakistan and Algeria, he noted...

And along with bomb making techniques, Iraq’s explosives are making it outside the borders. On at least two occasions, munitions smuggled from the country were used in terrorist attacks in neighboring Jordan,
Nielsen said.

Now, just about every modern war has been a laboratory, of sorts; think of the advances in rocketry and nuclear physics that came out of World War II. And there have been indications for years that terror groups have been swapping bomb-making tips. In Iraq, for example, we've seen infrared triggers, first perfected by the Irish Republican Army. And then there are those "superbombs," possible made in Iran. It's all part of what John Robb calls "open source warfare" -- small, seemingly-disparate guerrilla grouping banding together to sow mayhem. But what's especially nerve-wracking is the combination of these two trends. Let's hope the bomb-stoppers are moving as quickly.