ABSTRACT
The suicide bombers of 9/11 brought no explosives on their planes, relying instead upon box cutters and knives. In contrast, the suicide bombers and the bomb makers who are the focus of this manual-those on the groundface a variety of considerations in putting together the bombs to be used in their missions. In this chapter we discuss those considerations: How do the sponsors prepare the bomb? What explosives are the easiest and the hardest to manufacture; the most and least accessible; the most potent; the most stable and least? The answers to these questions determine in large part what kind of bomb the suicide bomber will use for the mission. We start with this important question: What makes a suicide bomber a human bomb?
