IEDsU.S. “bomb library” marks 10-year anniversary

It has been ten years since the FBI established the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC), and since that time the multi-agency operation — sometimes referred to as America’s bomb library — has become an important tool in the nation’s fight against terrorism.

Before TEDAC, no single government entity was responsible for analyzing and exploiting evidence and intelligence related to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by international and domestic terrorists. The FBI says that today, TEDAC coordinates all those efforts.

Located at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, “TEDAC is the government’s single repository for IEDs,” said Special Agent Greg Carl, TEDAC director. “The evidence and intelligence we gather from these explosives is used by law enforcement, the military, the intelligence community, and by our political decision-makers. There is no question that the work we have done — and continue to do — has helped to save American lives.”

Whether bombs come from the battlefields of Afghanistan or from homegrown terrorists within U.S. borders, TEDAC’s thirteen government agency partners and seventeen external partners collect the devices and send them to TEDAC to be analyzed and catalogued.

“We exploit the devices forensically,” said Carl, a veteran FBI agent who is also a bomb technician.

The results are analyzed by TEDAC’s Intelligence Unit, and disseminated to law enforcement entities and the intelligence community to provide key intelligence on terrorist networks. “Based on the forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, and other biometrics — we try to identify the bomb maker and also make associations, linking devices together from separate incidents.”

Since its creation in 2003, TEDAC has examined more than 100,000 IEDs from around the world and currently receives submissions at the rate of 800 per month. Two million items have been processed for latent prints — half of them this year alone. “Just from the sheer volume,” Carl said, “we have a lot of experience identifying IED components and blast damage.” As a result, he added, “we have identified over 1,000 individuals with potential ties to terrorism.”

Also based on TEDAC analysis, more than 100 people have been named to the U.S. government’s Terrorist Watchlist, a database that identifies subjects known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity. “Putting individuals on the list prevents them from entering the country,” Carl said.

The FBI says that subject matter experts from TEDAC can quickly deploy to incidents — such as the Boston Marathon bombings last April — and work with FBI Evidence Response Teams and local law enforcement to collect critical evidence and quickly transport it to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico for analysis. “We sent our folks immediately to the scene in Boston to help coordinate the collection and processing of evidence,” Carl said.

The agency notes that TEDAC is capable of much more than evidence collection for criminal prosecution, though. “Since we also partner with the military and the intelligence community, our work is utilized by many different sources,” Carl said. The military, for example, uses TEDAC intelligence for force protection and to disrupt terror networks. Decision-makers can count on TEDAC’s intelligence — based on forensic science — to help them form policy.

“And our interagency partners use TEDAC for research,” Carl added, explaining that agencies can “check out” a bomb — much like a library book — for testing and further analysis. “We maintain all of the devices that we’ve collected going back to the inception of the center.”

Looking back over a decade, and forward to the future — TEDAC is building a state-of-the-art facility in Huntsville, Alabama — Carl said, “I see TEDAC as good government. The fact that you have multiple agencies coming together, working toward one common cause, without duplicating resources, means that everyone benefits. And that helps make the country safer.”