Lone-wolf terroristsThe first lone-wolf terrorist
Muharem Kurbegovic is considered the first “lone-wolf” terrorist. He was born in Sarajevo in 1943 and immigrated to the United States in 1967 to pursue a career in engineering. In 1973 he launched a series of bombing in and around Los Angeles. What especially alarmed the authorities was his interest in building chemical weapons, including nerve-gas munitions, to use in his planned attacks:
Dr. Keith Ludwick has written an interesting review of Jeffrey D. Simon’s latest book, The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Ahead of His Time. Ludwick is an expert on lone-wolf terrorists, and his other books on lone wolf terrorism include Lone Wolf Terrorism: Understanding the Growing Threat and The Terrorist Trap: America’s Experience with Terrorism (Simon, 2019).
Muharem Kurbegovic was born in Sarajevo in 1943 and immigrated to the United States in 1967 to pursue a career in engineering. In time, he became convinced that, as an immigrant, he would never be allowed to pursue the American dream. Embittered and disillusioned, Kurbegovic, in 1973, launched a series of bombing in and around Los Angeles.
He was arrested in 1974, and eventually convicted of 25 counts of murder, arson, attempted murder, possession of explosives, and exploding a bomb. He has been in a high-security federal prison ever since.
Ludwick writes:
While not necessarily a textbook, A Lone Wolf Terrorist Ahead of His Time offers insight of use to a wide variety of individuals including scholars, practitioners, and students. By presenting detailed information about the history of Kurbegovic, his terrorist attacks and plots, and arrest, Simon provides a resource for future investigators and practitioners from which to draw information and details pertinent to their work. Of note, investigators who seek information about the ‘early’ use of chemical weapons by lone wolf terrorists, Kurbegovic’s case, as presented by Simon, would be particularly interested in Simon’s discussion. Kurbegovic’s represents a lone wolf who assimilated one of the largest caches of chemical weapon precursors to date (Simon, 2019, p. 115). While he did not realize his goal of fully developing or deploying a chemical weapon, it is apparent that his terrorist attacks were escalating, he had the necessary material, the motivation, and the knowledge to develop and deploy such a weapon.
Ludwick notes that Kurbegovic was clever and dangerous, and that what especially alarmed the authorities was his interest in building chemical weapons, including nerve-gas munitions, to use in his planned attacks:
…one of the unique characteristics of Kurbegovic was his desire to acquire and use chemical weapons. According to Simon, Kurbegovic’s interest in chemical weapons was more than a passing interest. He took advantage of his employer’s laboratory which provided him opportunities to conduct experiments and acquire precursor chemicals without much suspicion (Simon, 2019, p. 39). After Kurbegovic’s arrest and authorities searched Kurbegovic’s home, the list of incendiary items and chemicals included “black and smokeless powders; kerosene; liquid mercury; ammonium nitrate prills; dinitrobenzene; picric acid; mercury fulminate;…moreover, many other chemicals and devices” in addition to a small library of books such as Explosives and Demolitions, Guide to Germ Warfare, Guide to Chemical and Gas Warfare, andBooby Traps clearly demonstrating his ability to acquire the knowledge and the means to build chemical weapons (Simon, 2019, pp. 111–112).
However, what establishes Kurbegovic’s drive toward acquiring and using chemical weapons is what occurred two years later during a competency hearing; Kurbegovic announced that the authorities had not recovered all the chemicals and other items from his apartment (Simon, 2019, p. 112). We will never know why Kurbegovic admitted to knowing where the additional (and more dangerous) chemicals were in his apartment. Maybe to demonstrate how clever he was or to mock the Los Angeles Police Department or even possibly convince the court he was not competent to stand trial, but whatever the case, when officers returned to search the apartment a second time, they found a hidden room behind the medicine cabinet in the bathroom (Simon, 2019, p. 113). In that room contained red ferric oxide, picric acid, potassium permanganate, sodium chlorate, sodium peroxide, acetone, and a twenty-five-pound drum labeled “sodium cyanide,” in addition to many other chemicals (Simon, 2019, p. 114). Simon states that “…the LAPD’s bomb expert would years later tell a reporter that all but one ingredient needed to build a rudimentary nerve gas bomb had discovered in the first search…” and “Kurbegovic may have been planning future threats and actions involving the nerve agent tabun, of which sodium cyanide is a chemical precursor…” (Simon, 2019, pp. 114–115). The devastating impact these weapons would have on the citizens of Los Angeles is hard to imagine.
— Read more in Keith Ludwick, “Book Review: The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Ahead of His Time,” CBRNE Central (16 April 2019)
