Hunting Down Terrorist Bombers
Retired FBI Agent Greg Snider has a spent the last year and half hunting for one of the most dangerous predators on earth—men who use bombs to kill others. Greg, embedded with our military units in Iraq, sifted through the debris of the latest bombing sites, searching for elusive clues. He and his teammates searched for evidence that might lead military and law enforcement to identify these bomb makers and track the manufactures that provided the parts for these deadly weapons.
In this second of three articles, Greg will tell us about his experiences searching for these killers.
MARK: What was your first assignment, Greg?
GREG: My first assignment was with the 101st Airborne north of Baghdad. This is where I worked with Captain PR. Thanks to PR’s exceptional work this unit holds the distinction of capturing over 175 targeted individuals in a 12 month period, the most of any unit ever in Iraq. I arrived at this unit about half way through their tour. Once I could get a few minutes each day with PR, he began to understand what I brought to the fight. Together we obtained the first nine U.S. Army generated Iraqi warrants. By the way, PR only slept about 4 hours every other night. He is one dedicated man.
Greg, left, with now-Major "Captain PR" Perez-Rivera
MARK: How closely did you work with the military? Where were you housed? Where did you work?
GREG: I worked directly with military command staff. The army is a 24/7 operation. At first I worked seven days a week about 14 hours a day. I was the only LEP (Law Enforcement Professional) assigned to my unit. I was assigned to the commander and served at his discretion. My job was to advise him relative to the rule of law and gain his confidence in the use of physical evidence and its importance in targeting.
All of my time in Iraq was spent in the vicinity of Baghdad. When I was assigned to a maneuver unit I worked south and north of Baghdad proper. I was housed with soldiers on a small base or a forward operating post.
My final assignment, after being outside the wire, was to the forensic laboratory where our evidence was processed. My job was to be the liaison between our LEPs in the field and the laboratory where the analysis was conducted. I worked for another extremely capable soldier, Maj. Kelby Brake. She is 'smart as a whip' and quickly learned about the labs forensic capabilities, analysis and procedures. She had no other knowledge of forensics prior to this assignment. This in-theatre evidence analysis laboratory was eventually named the Joint Expeditionary Forensic Facility (JEFF), or “CSI Baghdad” as we were fondly referred to by others. Our capabilities were fingerprint, ballistics and tool marks analysis, and DNA.
This concept of using evidence in war time is unprecedented and will continue from here on out. A lot of my job there was to triage the evidence, usually by phone before it arrived at our facility or when it came in the door. What can we do with a particular item that might give us the identity of the perpetrator? Ballistic analysis of a bullet was problematic in that if an Iraqi police officer or an Iraqi Army person was killed, Iraqi belief is that the body could not be defiled by extracting the bullet and the body was buried within 24 hours. I spent a lot of time convincing the U.S. Army soldiers, Iraqi police, and Iraqi army personnel to collect the bullet casings from the crime scene. Casings can be directly linked to one particular firearm, in many cases easier than analyzing the fragments of a bullet.
My assignment with JEFF was on Victory Base just across from Saddam’s Al Faw Palace where he spent much of his time while in power.
MARK: How were you alerted to each call? Were you on call? On patrol? Were you armed?
GREG: As mentioned above I was armed at all times. On base we had a horn or siren to alert us to incoming rockets or physical attack. On a daily basis we operated by targeting a particular individual and going out looking for that person. If there was a specific purpose I would go outside the wire with the soldiers to advise on the collection of evidence. A routine patrol with no known objective was a 'no go for me.' They would take me if I want, but I chose to limit my risk taking.
MARK: When you responded to a bombing, how did that work? Did you create a crime scene? Tag and bag evidence? How did this all work?
GREG: The military DOD units (bomb experts) would usually beat me to the blast site. They would make sure that all the explosives were made safe (they loved to blow them up). Another major concern was a secondary blast designed to takeout the first responders. My job was to make sure that all items that contained physical evidence be photographed, collected, tagged and bagged and sent to the lab for analysis. I helped train many U.S. soldiers to secure the crime scene and collect evidence. Later, while working at the lab, I conducted informative tours of the laboratory explaining and demonstrating examples of positive results when evidence was collected properly and protected from contamination.
MARK: What were you looking for?
GREG: Anything that might contain physical evidence like fingerprints or DNA. If it was a small arms attack or a sniper shooting we collected bullets and casings when possible. If we were capturing someone in a residence we would conduct a search of the entire house. We would collect documents, computers, propaganda, electronic media, cameras, film, pictures, just about anything that we would in the states. Anything that might give us a lead as to whom this individual associated with and that might lead us to the next bad guy. In many cases we found illegal weaponry or bomb-making components.
MARK: Did you encounter any resistance on these calls? What happened?
2 P.M. sandstorm causing red sky
GREG: My unit was lucky on the missions I went out on. We did not encounter any hostile acts other than small arms fire on two occasions. In both of these instances we were not able to determine who was firing at us. My guess is that they fired a few rounds at our vehicles and then ran. There is no way they could take head on the might of our soldiers.
MARK: How closely did you work with civilian personnel, Iraqi military and local law enforcement?
GREG: While at the JEFF, one of my duties was to conduct tours. One day a request came in to do a tour for an Iraqi judge. The major, another LEP, and I conducted that tour. The judge brought an interpreter. This went over so well that he came back with other judges. That led to Iraqi generals and Iraqi commanders. This led to Iraqi police. Once this got started there were six months where three out of five tours were for Iraqis. I did not work directly with Iraqi civilians other than the Iraqi interpreters hired by our army.
