Schumer: Fed Paralysis Undermines Ability to Stop Large Bombs from Being Built

Schumer: Fed Paralysis Undermines Ability To Stop Large Bombs From Being Built - Demonstrated Ability Of NYPD To Build 2400 Lb Ammonium Nitrate Bomb With Ease Shows Need For Action

Simple Three Point Plan Could Prevent Future Attacks: ID checks at point of sale, "taggant" identifiers placed in all ammonium nitrate, and tracking trucks that carry hazardous materials

Schumer led fight to require taggants after `95 Oklahoma attacks and ‘96 Atlanta Olympic pipe bombing - Announces new push

In light of last week's revelation that New York Police Department officers were able to purchase over one ton of ammonium nitrate and build a bomb with no restrictions, Schumer today renewed his call to restrict the purchase of ammonium nitrate. Even eleven years after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, sales of ammonium nitrate - the explosive fertilizer most commonly used in truck bombs - continue without restriction, and efforts to put inert tracers called "taggants" into the chemicals have gone nowhere.

Schumer today unveiled his plan to require these tracers in all ammonium nitrate and to mandate ID checks and sales records for anyone purchasing large amounts of the explosive compound.

"This time it was the NYPD building a bomb and driving it around New York to demonstrate how wide open we are to an attack, but we may not be so lucky next time," Schumer said. "The fact that two NYPD detectives with no knowledge of bomb-making were able to create an enormous and lethal bomb from directions found on the Internet should serve as yet another wake-up call. The least we could do is take some commonsense, simple steps to know who is buying this explosive and where it is going."

Ammonium nitrate is one of the most common farm fertilizers in the world, and instructions for turning it into a bomb are widely available on the Internet. The truck bomb that destroyed the Alfred R. Murrah Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168, used a combination of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. According to news reports, during the NYPD's recent Operation Kaboom, technicians mixed a small amount of fuel oil with the fertilizer to render it combustible and detonated it on the NYPD firing range.

In the wake of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, then-Congressman Schumer proposed requiring "taggants " - identifying chemical markers - to be used in all explosives manufactured or sold in the United States. Taggants aid in tracing explosives used in bombings because they allow law enforcement officials to determine based on debris exactly where and when the materials were manufactured and purchased. With technological advances over the last decade, taggants can now be made out of inert, microscopic beads containing laser-engraved identifying codes.

In 1996, Schumer succeeded in getting a federal study of the potential of taggants to fight terror. That federal report was released in 1998 by then-US Treasury Undersecretary Raymond Kelly, who is now the Commissioner of the New York Police Department. That report, prepared by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, found ''great promise'' in combating terrorism by putting taggants in explosives and, after examining the use of taggants in Switzerland over 17 years 'found "no safety concerns at all." Also in 1998, a National Academy of Sciences panel of scientists and security experts recommended that Congress require that buyers of ammonium nitrate provide identification and that stores keep records of the purchases.

Because of the growing threat from vehicular bombs in New York, since 2004 Schumer has led efforts to require taggants to be added to ammonium nitrate, the combustible fertilizer used in truck bombs. After the NYPD announced the results of their bomb making experiment, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was quoted as saying, ''The operation demonstrated that safeguards are needed to make it harder to acquire bomb-building materials and easier to regulate and track their sales."

Schumer today announced his plan to restrict sales of ammonium nitrate and prevent its use in terror plots:

First, Schumer today sent a letter to Congressional conferees on the DHS appropriations bill, urging them to include a provision to mandate taggants in ammonium nitrate and spend federal funds to avoid cost increases for farmers. Almost all ammonium nitrate in this country is sold to farmers who use it for fertilizer, and they should not have to bear any increased cost for the safe and legal use of a product that is central to their livelihood. Even though requiring taggants would have a minimal marginal cost to ammonium nitrate producers, Schumer is calling for giving federal funds to ammonium nitrate producers to prevent any cost increase to farmers. Because the DHS appropriations bill is already in conference committee, adding a taggant requirement now would allow the measure to be quickly passed into law.

Second, Schumer also called for requiring identification for sales of ammonium nitrate, and requiring sellers to keep sales records and to be registered with the Department of Homeland Security. Currently, any individual can purchase unlimited amounts of ammonium nitrate throughout most of the United States. New restrictions on ammonium nitrate sales are a part of the bipartisan Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, which Schumer cosponsored and is currently working to get passed on the Senate floor.

Third, Senator Schumer has been a leader in creating security regulations for trucks that carry hazardous materials (hazmat) like ammonium nitrate. Schumer was an original co-sponsor of legislation in the Senate (S. 1052) to encourage the use of wireless communications in hazmat trucks, to require that TSA review and approve security plans from any hazmat carrier, and to require hazmat trucks to have specific written route plans. These measures were added by unanimous consent to last week's port security bill, which passed the Senate without objection on Thursday.

"There's an old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Ammonium nitrate is available, it's easy to get, and it's relatively easy to make into a bomb. We shouldn't be stopping people from selling it, but it shouldn't be so easy to get either," Schumer said.

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/record.cfm?id=263230&&year=2006&