Standing Well Back - Comments

Roger Davies comments on 100 years since British suffragettes used IEDs

Roger Davies — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:32:53 +0000

Al. Glad you enjoyed the post. I have quite a bit on US anarchist attacks including the infamous Haymarket bombing in Chicago. But I don't have much on US suffragettes - I'll look. The attacks were a part of a broader range of attacks on churches and art galleries pushing the cause.

As far as "EOD" history is concerned, it's quite complicated. The EOD done around this time in civil situations was done by a "Home Office" department called the Office of the Chief Inspector of Explosives who also were involved in industrial explosives policy management. In broad terms it was manned by officers seconded from the Army. The first one was the famous Colonel Majendie of the Royal Artillery, the second Capt Thompson who tragically committed suicide. Cooper-Key (above) was about the third or fourth and he happened to be a Royal Engineer with an interest in explosives, which I think was the primary qualification. Cooper-Key was interesting because his father, a Royal navy Admiral also had a great interest in explosives which I guess he inherited. So the Royal Engineer bit was coincidental. The bun fight between Engineers and Ordnance EOD didn't start till later and I guess is still being kicked around.

Al Johnson comments on 100 years since British suffragettes used IEDs

Al Johnson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:25:35 +0000

Fascinating. Have you come across any similar devices tied with the suffragette movement in the US during the same time period? The US had a number of anarchist and labor related IED attacks during the time, but no news that suggested a suffragette motive. It would be interesting to see if there was, and that would technically make the suffragette movement an international terrorist group under today's guidelines.

And the mention of EOD. Was it listed as EOD then or RE in an EOD function? The reason I am curious is that our history here has the EOD field being born (borne) out of the Blitz and UXO units, then we improved (stole) the concepts when we integrated them into our military. But as you have mentioned before, areas like New York had a long standing bomb squad service before WWII on the civilian side. Just curious.

Finally, aside from the purse as a delivery method, I didn't see any link to the suffragette movement. Was there a corresponding threat or press campaign by the suffragettes against the targets listed above?

Keep up the great history work.

Roger Davies comments on Bombs in lavatories

Roger Davies — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:34:12 +0000

Oved, The aircraft incidents occurred some years ago before current security regimes. The first two, I think, indicate that a passenger introduced the device. The third, which destroyed the aircraft perhaps we will never know.

Oved Zucker comments on Bombs in lavatories

Oved Zucker — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:46:08 +0000

it's interesting to know if the vulnerability is by a passenger who presumably was already checked or by ground device people. Also, they have access to areas the passanger would not.

Tom Burky comments on Massive Explosion in New Jersey

Tom Burky — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:01:31 +0000

Good stuff Roger, as usual. It's particularly interesting that growing up in the US I never heard about the actual sabotage events that occurred in this era. Looks like there is gold to be mined there.
TomB

Ian Green comments on New York's IED Task Force 1905-1919

Ian Green — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:05:31 +0000

always a fascinating read, thanks!

Charles McMinn comments on Hezbollah threat - vbied?

Charles McMinn — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:44:21 +0000

Latest reports from Thailand say the arrest led to the recovery of 4,000kg of urea nitrate and 1,500l of liquid ammonium nitrate although it is believed this was in transit to another country. Clearly a major operation or operations was intended. It is approaching the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah’s operations chief Imad Mugniyeh (Feb 12) and Hezbollah have yet to have taken the revenge they promised on Israel. Previous killings of Hezbollah leaders have resulted in high profile VBIED attacks.

Roger Davies comments on The EOD operator who dealt with more IEDs than anyone else

Roger Davies — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:38:11 +0000

Eric, I've sent you some details of books that you might find useful. Roger

Eric comments on The EOD operator who dealt with more IEDs than anyone else

Eric — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:11:40 +0000

I'm gathering research for my Master's Research project. My topic is the upward trend in instance and complexity of IEDs within the USA. If you could share some of your research on New York (have you looked into other cities in the US?) I would be very grateful, thanks!

Roger Davies comments on I’m not a pessimist, but…

Roger Davies — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:46:58 +0000

Only the usual insomnia... : - ) Nothing new there...