ATF, U.S. Military Team To Defeat Roadside Bombs

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced that it has expanded its program to help the U.S. military combat the use of improvised explosives devices (IEDs) by terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. IEDs, or homemade, roadside bombs, are a top killer of U.S. troops in combat.

The expanded program, under a Department of Justice initiative, includes detailing an ATF special agent certified explosives specialist to the military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device DefeatOrganization (JIEDDO) Joint Center of Excellence (JCOE) at Ft. Irwin,Calif., and assisting in the training of military bomb technicians before they deploy overseas in post-blast explosives investigations and homemade explosives.

Under a memorandum of agreement signed late last year by ATF acting Director Michael Sullivan and JIEDDO Director Montgomery Meigs, the ATF detailee will be the Department of Justice's representative to JCOE and provide technical instruction for the roles ATF and other Justice Department components play in the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell (CEXC) in Iraq and the Terrorist ExplosiveDevice Analytical Center (TEDAC) in the United States.

CEXC provides immediate, in-theater technical exploitation and operational analysis of the IEDs that insurgents have used againstmultinational forces, and assists in the development of measures and procedures to counter the insurgent bombing campaign. TEDAC exploits and analyzes the returning IED components, confirming the intelligence received by CEXC for assessment and eventual sharing with law enforcement and U.S.allies.

"This agreement and the military's decision to have ATF assist intraining its bomb techs further strengthens the collaboration essential to winning the war against terrorism," Sullivan said. "We're proud to be ableto share our well-established expertise in explosives training and investigations with our comrades in uniform."

Since 2001, ATF's National Center for Explosives Training and Researchhas trained almost 6,000 bomb technicians and investigators in explosivedisposal and investigative techniques. ATF also provides explosivestraining to the new Iraqi Police Service and at the International Law Enforcement Academies in Botswana, El Salvador, Hungary and Thailand.


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