FBI Training Program Promotes Improvised Explosive Familiarization Initiative

On Thursday, March 26, 2009, the San Diego FBI will present an improvised explosives demonstration at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Bomb & Arson Range, located at 1190 ½ Singer Lane, Spring Valley, California. This demonstration is part of the three-day National Improvised Explosives Familiarization (NIEF) training course being held in San Diego.

The NIEF initiative supports the FBI’s top priority to protect the United States from terrorist attacks by training our investigators and law enforcement partners in regard to the emerging improvised explosive threat. The NIEF initiative is a partnership between the FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, FBI Laboratory and FBI Critical Incident Response Group, along with the 56 FBI field offices and the more than 100 Joint Terrorism Task Forces based out of those FBI field offices.

Participants in the three-day NIEF training receive in-depth instruction and course materials in accordance with their respective roles, responsibilities and technical certifications. The goal of this training is to enhance awareness and outreach programs to first responders, and to inform private sector wholesalers, distributors and retailers of precursor chemicals that can be used by terrorists or experimenters to make improvised explosives.

Attendees to the explosives demonstration will witness over a dozen examples of improvised explosive and incendiary mixtures that have been used by terrorists around the world. There will also be subject matter experts on hand to discuss the threat posed by the readily available chemical precursors for these mixtures. The demonstration will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. and will last approximately one hour.