US has proof of bomb-making network

The previously undisclosed operation has expanded on studies of past cases like probe of the thwarted shoe-bomb attack on a Paris to Miami flight in December 2001. In a test, detonation of a similar bomb on a grounded aircraft blew a 2 foot by 2 foot hole in the fuselage. In another example, analysts have collected fragments from hundreds of improvised devices detonated in attacks in Iraq.

But there are many questions unanswered about who is behind the bombings, including some of the major suicide attacks in Iraq. Analysts said they believe that Al Qaeda has been weakened by the campaign against terrorism and lacks a central command, as well as financial and recruiting structures. But the bomb investigations suggest that the terrorist network may still be disseminating bomb-making skills to militants who have fanned out around the world.

Many bomb makers may have learned how to make improvised explosives in the 1990s at Osama bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan, and the methods taught may now be showing up elsewhere. Analysts did not say there was evidence of a single entity behind the larger bombs used in attacks, although they suggested that there might not be many people with the technical skills to build larger bombs.

The analysis was done by new forensic intelligence unit, the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, or TEDAC. Its work has not previously been disclosed. Terrorism specialists in Congress were briefed on it last week.

The unit became operational in December after President Bush approved it.

The unit has a broad mandate to examine not only bombings against Americans, but those directed against other countries, among them Pakistan, where assassination attempts have been made against President Pervez Musharraf.

—NYT