Hebrew University scientists organizers of world's first international symposium on improvised explosives

Session with FBI, Israeli National Security Council reps open to media

Jerusalem, May 15, 2008 – Hebrew University scientists Prof. Joseph Almog and Prof. Ronnie Kosloff are among a team of experts coordinating the world's first international symposium on improvised explosives that is taking place in Israel next week from Sunday May 18 to Thursday May 22 in Rosh Hanikra.

Over a hundred experts from twelve countries have been invited to the week-long event to discuss professional issues related to the war on terror. Specifically, the delegates will discuss and exchange scientific and technological information about improvised explosives, their properties, their detonation mechanism, new methods to detect them, ways to prevent terrorist organizations from using them and methods to neutralize them once discovered. Delegates will study cases of improvised explosives in Israel, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Among the delegates are representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Department of Defense, the FBI, the British DSTL, Israel's security agencies and many other international security organizations, universities and research institutes from Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

The peroxide-based explosives and triacetone-triperoxide (TATP) in particular, which is known among terrorists as "Mother of Satan", were first used by terrorists in Hebron in 1980. Since then, TATP has become the explosive of choice among terrorists in the Middle East and around the world, particularly for suicide bombings.

TATP was used in many known attacks, including the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv and the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001, the Ariel gas station in 2002, the shoe bomber in 2001, and on the London underground in 2005. According to Prof. Almog, over two-thirds of terrorist attacks in Israel are based on home-made explosives rather than military explosives, which is why this is such a pressing problem that must be addressed.

The increased use of TATP is due to a combination of several parameters that include the ready availability and low cost of the raw materials needed for its preparation, its easy synthesis, high sensitivity and the fact that these compounds are very difficult to detect.

In addition to the peroxides, there are other dangerous home made explosives such as urea nitrate, which is also cheap and easy to prepare. Urea nitrate was first used by terrorists in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in 1993.

"As the first country to experience terror attacks with 'modern' improvised explosives, Israel has accumulated much experience and expertise on this subject over the past three decades, and so it is only natural that this event be held here," says Almog of the Hebrew University's Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, adding that he hopes the conference will be an important milestone in the global war against terror.

Prof. Almog, former Police Brigadier General and Director of the Identification and Forensic Science Division of the Israeli Police, has led groundbreaking anti-terror research in past years. This includes the development of the chemical FerroTrace which turns purple when the user has recently held a weapon, and a chemical spray detector that detects the home-made explosive urea nitrate. When sprayed on the hands of a suspect who has had recent contact with urea nitrate, the chemical will turn a blood red hue – enabling security officials to literally catch terrorists red-handed.

Professor Ronnie Kosloff of the Hebrew University's Department of Physical Chemistry Department conducts theoretical studies on improvised explosives. In particular, he is involved in calculating chemical and physical properties of existing and hypothetical improvised explosives of various structures.

The last session of the symposium on Thursday May 22 (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) will be open to the media. Speakers include Israeli Brig. Gen. Dani Arditi – Director of the Israeli National Security Council, Russel Rosenthal, the FBI representative in Israel, and Maurice Marshall, OBE of DSTL, UK.

Other organizers of the symposium include experts from the Technion, Ben Gurion University, Soreq Nuclear Research Center and the Israeli Police. The main sponsor of the event is the Israeli National Security Council.