Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack Interdiction, Mitigation, and Response

Urban environments are prime targets for suicide bombings over the next decade. While the threat may be ever-present, measures are available that can empower law enforcement personnel to thwart attacks, or at least mitigate the effects by reducing casualties. Written by professionals with first-hand experience, Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack Interdiction, Mitigation, and Response helps first responders, law enforcement, and homeland security professionals grapple with this increasing threat, offering best practices in the field and lessons learned.

Advance preparation

The authors provide specific instructions on how to fortify possible suicide bombing targets, suggesting measures that--if implemented--will reduce casualties. They explain how suicide bombers operate and what weapons they are likely to employ. They also debunk common myths about suicide bombers that jeopardize successful interdiction.

Actual case studies

Including graphic photos depicting the aftermath of actual bombing scenes, the book projects the reader into the chaos of a bomb scene. Chapters describe what one encounters at a site immediately after a bombing and explain what each first responder should and should not do. Case studies throughout enhance the text, explaining why certain suicide bombings succeed while others fail.

Psychological effects

The book also explores how terrorists seek to exploit the media and describes government and media efforts to diffuse the bombers’ self-promotion. A full chapter is devoted to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition that commonly affects many first responders. Finally, the book closes with recommendations aimed at helping law enforcement defend against suicide bombers.

Mordecai Z. Dzikansky spent his 25-year police career (1983-2008) with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Appointed to the NYPD, in 1983 he served as a uniformed patrolman for two years in Brooklyn North. In 1985 he began his career in investigations, ultimately rising to the NYPD’s highest detective rank. Through 2002, he served in various units including the Organized Crime Control Bureau, Midtown North Detective Squad and the elite Manhattan South Homicide Squad. In addition, Dzikansky was selected to work on terror related investigations, including the murders of Israeli Knesset member Meir Kahane (1990) and Ari Halberstam (Brooklyn Bridge murder, 1994). Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly appointed Dzikansky as the first NYPD Intelligence Division Overseas Liaison to the Israel National Police (INP) to provide on-site intelligence analysis of suicide bombings in Israel and elsewhere. From 2003 to 2006, Dzikansky responded in person and analyzed 21 suicide bombing sites, in Israel and attacks globally: in Russia, Egypt, Spain and Turkey. Dzikansky also worked with senior members of the Israeli intelligence community on joint investigations related to New York City and the State of Israel. Dzikansky retired from the NYPD in 2008. He has written numerous articles and is the author of Terrorist Cop: The NYPD Jewish Cop Who Traveled the World to Stop Terrorists (2010). He is an Associate of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Herzliya, Israel and has appeared as a featured speaker at its annual international conferences on global terrorism.

Gil Kleiman spent 23 years (1983-2006) with Israel’s national police force as a bomb squad technician, attorney, security-training officer, homicide detective, and police spokesman. In 1980, he received his undergraduate degree in history from George Washington University and a law degree from Bar Ilan University in Israel in 1991. From 1983 to 1987, Kleiman was a Tel Aviv-based bomb disposal technician and an instructor in the Israel Police Bomb Squad training school. He also worked in the Security Division of the Israel Police (1997-2001), advising officials at Government installations on security preparations, including target hardening. As an Israel Police spokesman for the foreign press (2001 to 2006) he spent hundreds of hours at terror attacks sites--including 48 suicide bombings, all in Israel--quickly becoming the country’s face and voice to the rest of the world, as Israel’s suicide bomb spokesperson. Since retiring in 2006, he has provided background explanations, information and professional technical briefings to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, universities, and think tanks around the world.　

Dzikansky and Kleiman are available to conduct briefings in the United States on various terror-related topics.

Robert Slater, who worked on the research and writing of this book, is the author of 31 books and has written about such major business personalities as George Soros, Jack Welch, and Bill Gates. His books have appeared on The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. Working for United Press International and Time Magazine in Israel from 1973 until 1996, he covered numerous suicide bombings.