Pipe Bomb is Latest Weapon Used in Juvenile Domestic Terrorism

The sun was out that Tuesday afternoon, shining its light on two young men, dressed in black trench coats and carrying both firearms and bags full of pipe bombs.

They made their way into the building complex from the parking lot, one stopping briefly to warn an acquaintance to leave.

Then the terror started. The two men alternately discharged their firearms and multiple pipe bombs into an unsuspecting crowd of young people assembled for lunch. Witnesses thought the two had paintball guns, until real bullets and bomb shrapnel ripped through their fellow students.

Terror reigned that Tuesday afternoon, but the scene wasn't Protestants being killed in Belfast or Albanians in Kosovo, it was a small town high school in middle class Colorado. Colorado, USA.

In the aftermath of the massacre at Columbine high school in Littleton, Co. fifteen bodies lay on the floor, surrounded by shrapnel from homemade pipe bombs assembled and detonated by two boys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

Klebold and Harris, together with about a dozen other Columbine students, had formed a group called the Black Trench Coat Mafia. They wore black trench coats, played and designed new levels for a popular computer game called Doom, and dabbled in Nazism.

Along with their Neo-Nazi political beliefs came terrorism and WWII battle simulations. Klebold and Harris received their education in domestic terrorism from a popular internet resource, the Anarchist's Cookbook.

Written by William Powell and published in 1971, the Anarchist's Cookbook has enjoyed many reprints on the internet. The original written text provides both a historical overview of Anarchy, Marxism and Terrorism, detailed step by step instructions on how to classify and use drugs, and how to terrorize using both firearms and chemical weapons.

Using the Anarchist's Cookbook's 'recipe' and supplies bought at local shops, anyone can build a crude but effective pipe bomb, and many have. Famous U.S. bombing cases in recent years include the 1996 bombing of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., the Oklahoma City bombing, the Unabomber bombings, and numerous Abortion Clinic bombings.

A pipe bomb contains several components. The pipe itself is often made from steel tubing, or an aluminum baseball bat. Two caps are screwed on either end, also available from local hardware stores. A hole is drilled in one cap and a fuse, often taken from a model rocket kit, is inserted into the bomb's interior. Propellant taken from fireworks is also placed inside the bomb chamber.

The bomb can be lit and thrown as-is, or shrapnel, such as nails, paper clips and other small objects can be placed inside the bomb or secured to the outside to add to its destructive capabilities. When the bomb explodes, the shrapnel is sent flying at a speed approaching the speed of a bullet discharged from a firearm.

The terrorist's mission is often hard to understand, especially when the terrorists in question are young, and have no real political motives. In the book The Terrorists: their Weapons, Leaders and Tactics, by Christopher Dobson and Ronald Payne, terrorists are said to live by two rules:

"1. The use of violence is obligatory to induce fear and chaos, and 2. it must be aimed at the people and the institutions of the established order."

Harris and Klebold certainly introduced fear and chaos into the school on April 20, 1999, and their terror was aimed against the 'jocks'.

Adults comprehend on a political level the IRA's anger with the Protestant government in Ireland, and we know about the oppression of Albanians by Serbians, but sometimes we fail to understand that our young people have cliques and pecking orders too, some much more rigid and viscous than our adult caste system.

In Columbine high school, as in high schools across the country, there is a struggle for inclusion and popularity. Teens, wanting to be different and accepted at the same time, struggle with their own self image and peer pressure.

Because of their high exposure and standing in the adult community, athletic teens are often also the most popular. 'Jocks' and Cheerleaders enjoy wide acceptance from their peers in the school environment.

On the other end of the scale are the outcasts. Often called 'loners,' 'geeks,' and 'weirdoes,' these kids are not popular, and often get picked on by others because they are different.

High School is four long years to a young person, and the repeated mocking of the so-called 'Black Trench Coat Mafia' drove hatred into the hearts of the taunted, hatred for those who mocked them. And, as we saw at Columbine High, the outsider's anger at being excluded from their society often takes a dangerous turn.

The internet has offered today's teens the opportunity to be heard on a global level without being judged by their appearance or social standing. And as many teens turn toward the internet, they are educated in many different subjects, Anarchy and terrorism included. The prefatory note to the Anarchist's Cookbook is written by P.M. Bergman. In it, Bergman describes the political belief of Anarchy, both in theory and practice.

The current philosophy of Anarchy was formed in the early 1800's by German Philosopher Max Stirner. Stirner's anarchy was a peaceful absence of government, described by Bergman as "ethical and nature-loving."

The modern practice of Anarchy, however, is far closer to Marxism, which preaches that man's goal "can only be the abolition of the state, of government in any form." Bergman writes that, "the Anarchist achieves 'better living through chemistry.' He is not a protest movement... their aim is, indeed, disruption, confusion, undermining, and disruption." This practice, though termed 'Anarchy,' is a far cry from the peaceful, nature-loving philosophy pioneered by Stirner.

With the 'Anarchy' of today, any one person can achieve equal status with another by using terror and destruction. By understanding the power status of the two groups in the Columbine massacre, we can understand Klebold and Harris' motivations. The weapon they used to fight the caste order at Columbine was one of destruction and hatred. They used what they had learned from the Anarchist's Cookbook and other resources to make a pipe bomb, to eliminate the people who had oppressed them in their eyes.

Though this is the first time pipe bombs have made the headlines in connection with a high profile schoolyard shooting, bombing is nothing new. States across the nation continue to place tighter and tighter restrictions on gun ownership, but pipe bombs and their components, though illegal to possess, are relatively easy to assemble and detonate.

Combine the ease of acquiring the knowledge and materials necessary for building bombs, and the age old discrimination of the popular student against the outcast, and the scene is set for a steady increase in the number and the severity of school yard attacks.

To adults, schoolyard shootings are not comprehensible. We have lived longer, and know that being picked on or spurned by another is no justification for killing. But our children do not necessarily have the same views, and unless we keep a close watch on their actions and emotions, the tragedy at Columbine high school could repeat itself in high schools across the country.

Taken fromKathleen Lisson's site on Criminal Justice. For further articles visit http://members.aol.com/katnkevin/crime.html