Disposing Of Bombs
Do particular terrorist groups have certain destruction patterns?
They do, yes, we call it signatures. Certain terror groups have certain types of devices they use. Others use a specific type of explosive. Others choose specific types of targets. In the West, for example, the Al Qaeda affiliated groups use what is called organic peroxide explosive, which is commercially available -- they download the information off the internet. That's what they used in the London bombings. The recent arrests in Europe, they've used that type of explosive. Certainly it originated from Palestine, and that's what the Palestinians used. People who don't have conventional ordinances and explosives, tend to use that sort of explosive. So you can actually narrow it down to a terror group by the equipment and the hardware they use as well.
Are disposal experts involved in the tracking of bombs?
You get heavily involved in the tracking because you write reports on everything that happens and you start seeing patterns as you go out on the ground. So you get involved at a lower level of the tracking of the network and you start seeing the similarities with the devices. But it was not until the second half of my tour, where I got heavily involved in the tracking and the locating of the terror groups themselves. When we went into the real nitty gritty of it and had a lot more assets as well. Where as an operator your primary focus is just who tries on the bomb itself.
How long does it take to dispose of a bomb?
It can take as little as a minute to go in there if you absolutely have to and do it by hand through to hours and even days in some cases if it's a complex device and you're in a sort of dangerous, hostile environment but you've got time on your hands where you can sort of physically dominate the ground and take your time. I mean ideally you take as much time as you physically can to neutralize a device but if there are other threats and time isn't on your hands, on your side, then you've got to do it as quickly as possible.
How do you stay calm whilst under the pressure of disposing a bomb?
You have a physiological reaction even if you are incredibly experienced and you feel very confident about the device. I still find that the adrenaline is coursing through my veins and the heart rate is going ten to the dozen and you sort of think, this is really, really full on. Your body is reacting one way, but your brain actually cuts out all the other nonsense and all you do is focus on the device, the approach and any other secondary and tertiary threats: snipers, bombs that are going to being placed on the roots. But all you're thinking about is neutralizing that bomb and wondering … working out how it's designed to function. Even before you go down there, ideally you've sent a robot down there and shot it first, but that's not always possible. But certainly before you go down there you've tended to sort of do almost a threat assessment, a detailed threat assessment in your mind and worked out whether it's time initiated, radio control or booby-trapped and then from there what kind of switching mechanism it might be within those three groups of device. And so when you physically get up to it you've got a pretty good idea what it is anyway and you've taken the right kinds of tools for the job, usually. And then you carry out whatever render safe procedure you've got to carry out once you're physically over the top of it. But it always makes the old heart flutter a bit when you're physically over the top of it. But it's a very, very sort of tunnel vision focus type of job when you're then at the business end certainly. But then as soon as you finish it all of the other nonsense comes flooding back again and you start thinking about all the normal stuff again.
How do you wind down after such an intense exercise such as disposing a bomb?
Somebody said to me, "Do you to breathing exercises and that sort of stuff?" The only inhalation exercise we did to stay calm was inhaling quantities of cigarettes. I have to confess, I smoked like a chimney when I was out there, which was one exercise. You know, sitting down with a coffee, bit of banter with my mates and having a fag as I was sort of watching the sun set over the shattered arappia was quite a nice way to calm down. The other extreme of that was exercise. We used to go into the gym or go running around the perimeter. That was always a great way to calm down as well. Just to sort of expend that energy and some frustration. And I guess the other way is just sitting there and having a bit of banter with the boys, and just the piss-taking and that sort of thing. Always a good way to calm down.
New bombs are being developed by terrorists all the time, how do the specialists ensure that they keep up to date with developments?
There's obviously a huge intelligence apparatus at work and they look at the whole terrorist network: the recruiters, the trainers, the fund raisers, the facilitators, the bomb-makers themselves, the people who go and join the jihad. So there's a big sort of intelligence apparatus at work. Then you consider drilling down into the detail and looking at those components and elements as well. Of course, if you want to stay on top of what the future threats are as well, then you just look at emerging technologies, and you just sort of say, "is it possible to turn that into a bomb?" I the answer's yes, then you look at it in a bit more detail. You look at how you could mitigate and defend against that if it were turned into a bomb.
In reality, how different is bomb disposal to that in the films?
It's quite different because the tempo isn't the same and you don't really have curly-whirly wires in real bombs and you don't normally have a big sort of flashing LED timer with red digits on it with just sort of, you know, five seconds left on the clock, usually. Normally it's mechanical timers with five seconds left on the clock. But other than that, you know, the principle's the same. You certainly don't sort of take these risks of, is it the red wire or the blue wire and toss a coin and say, "Yeah, it's actually the blue wire," and then change your mind at the last second, cut the red and it happens to be the right one. You actually follow the whole circuit before you cut any wires, and you know exactly why you're cutting something rather than just cuffing it and tossing a coin. That's the main difference.
Would you ever be in a situation where you would have to make an instant decision as to how to diffuse the bomb?
If you've got a device on a timer, then yes you've got to make that decision. You wouldn't normally do that by hand. You'd still normally do that remotely. There are exceptions to that. But usually when you are faced with a bomb, your on top of it. You actually find that you've entertained as quickly as you physically can. If your doing it by hand, it's instinctive really. Otherwise, it's quite calculated in the way you go about it.
If I came down to it, which would you cut, the red or the blue wire?
It's got to be the blue hasn't it really? I'm a boy, yeah.
