DHS tries to coordinate anti-bomb efforts

Sometimes when he hears the telephone, Charlie Payne has a scary thought. "Every time my phone rings at an odd time, I wonder if it's started," he says. Payne, chief of the Office for Bombing Prevention at the Homeland Security Department, is referring to terrorist bombings in the United States. For all the attention on potential dirty bombs, biological agents and chemical weapons, the tactic government leaders most expect terrorists to use in this country is the conventional explosive. "The attack weapon of choice still is the IED," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a Sept. 10 hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
(Government Executive story)