A Symposium on Improvised Explosive Devices in the United States

9:30am – 9:35am      Welcome remarks, Tom Sanderson

9:35am – 10:00am    Keynote speaker, Secretary Michael Chertoff

Introduction by David Heyman

10:00am – 11:30am  Panel discussion, moderated by David Heyman and Tom Sanderson with:
Col. Michael Mahoney, DoD
Charles Payne, DHS
Barbara Martinez, FBI
Lt. Shawn Stallworth, Michigan State Police

Until the September 11th attacks, the single most devastating terrorist attack on U.S. soil was Timothy McVeigh’s lone-wolf bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma utilizing a massive vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Today, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) account for over forty percent of American military fatalities in the Iraqi theater.  But while significant effort and resources have been employed to counter IEDs from destroying armored targets in a militarized environment, little attention has been paid to protecting softer targets from similar attacks at home.  And yet, throughout the world, terrorist groups from the IRA to the Tamil Tigers and Hezbollah have made extensive use of IEDs in targeting civilians and governments in domestic terrorist campaigns.  Do IEDs pose a risk to Americans? More specifically, what is the likelihood that IEDs could be used in the United States against American civilians, and if so, what can the U.S. government do to prevent, mitigate, and respond to such attacks?  The President’s recent directive HSPD-19 and the new National Strategy for Homeland Security raise these questions that we hope to cover.