Bomb team ready in New York

NEW YORK – A special team of federal bomb experts who’ve solved arsons and terrorist blasts around the globe will be posted in Manhattan during the Republican National Convention, working out of a new, high-tech vehicle that can help them quickly analyze evidence.

It is only the second time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Response Team has come to New York City; the last time they were here was the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Some of the members are fresh from working in Paraguay, where they determined last week the cause and origin of the Aug. 1 fire that killed hundreds of people in a locked supermarket.

The team jumps on a plane, each member hauling 70 pounds of equipment, at a moment’s notice to probe scenes across the U.S. and in foreign countries.

They worked on the bombings at Oklahoma City, the Atlanta Olympics and abortion clinics; the Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island that killed 100 last year, and last November’s grenade explosion in a Bogota nightclub.

The team is part of the ATF’s security plan for the convention at Madison Square Garden, which includes bomb-detecting dogs riding trains with agents, explosives experts patrolling with the NYPD bomb squad, and specialists in defusing devices.

“Our primary mission for the RNC is to provide support to the Secret Service,” said William McMahon, special agent in charge of ATF’s New York field office. “Our National Response Teams are worldwide experts in arson and post-blast investigation.”

With the specter of terrorists and the tools of their trade – suicide bombings, truck bombs – looming over the event, ATF is providing more resources at the convention than at any previous event.

ATF is rolling out a huge, high-tech vehicle with tools and computers and access to chemistry to investigate explosives and fire debris, compare fingerprints, and examine firearms.

Special Agent Peter Forcelli, a former NYPD homicide detective, operates the truck. He showed some of the equipment used by the team, from software to stainless steel evidence cans.

“Some members are fire experts, some are explosives experts, some are both, and some are neither but they are good interviewers,” said Special Agent Frank Malter, who will head two 12-person teams.

In 1993, he spent three weeks working around the crater in the underground garage of the Trade Center. Within days, the suspects had been arrested, after a piece of their bomb-laden truck was found, vehicle identification number still intact.

“But as far as trying to figure out what exactly happened, how it was done, the size of the explosive, that took longer,” Malter said.