There is no conclusive proof as Yet that the World Trade Center explosion was caused by such a device. But it suggests the random terror that can fill even peaceful moments in Lebanon, or in Medellin or Belfast, with terrible fears. That Americans have had so little experience with these horrors on their home turf is largely a matter Of luck. As leftist radicals proved in 1970 when they blew up an army research center at the University of Wisconsin, the expertise required to make an effective bomb is minimal. They simply used a mixture of fertilizer and diesel fuel.
Over the last 20 years, international terrorists have greatly refined their techniques. More sophisticated bombs require access to better explosives, preferably plastics like C-4 or Semtex, and carefully calibrated detonators. But many terrorists trained by foreign intelligence services during the 1970s and ’80s have the connections needed to acquire this hardware and the expertise to use it. The most devastating bombs, like the one that hit the Marines in Beirut, use gas as well as high explosives. An initial charge disperses acetylene, butane or similar gas, and another charge a split second later ignites it. The effect has been compared to a small atomic explosion.
The proliferation of car bombs as weapons of random terror–or as blunt, bloody instruments of targeted assassination–can be seen today in every corner of the globe. In places like Northern Ireland, Colombia, Lebanon, Spain and Sicily, car bombs go off so frequently that they barely make headlines. In mid-February, 17 people were killed by a single explosion at an oil port in Colombia. Last October, car bombs placed by the Irish Republican Army detonated–or were discovered-almost daily in the streets of London.
For those who use car bombs, choosing the driver is as important as choosing the explosives. “Anyone can prepare a car,” says a Lebanese intelligence source, “but not anyone can prepare a driver to go into places where you can’t easily go.” In Lebanon, terrorists had to prepare the driver to accept suicide. Or they used a more insidious technique: lying to the driver about when the bomb would go off, leading him to his unwitting death in the blast. A third option, useful against unprotected installations is simply to park the car and leave it to explode. “For such an operation,” says the intelligence source, “all you need is money.”
In the United States, few places really are protected from such attacks. “People in the intelligence community have been warning for years that this kind of thing could come to the United States,” says a munitions expert who formerly worked with the CIA. “And in the United States,” he adds ominously, “we have bigger cars than they do in Europe.” American cities may never have to endure all the horrors known to European, Latin and Middle Eastern capitals, but for a moment last week New York shared in their fears.
