Tailor-Made Technology Used in Cabin Search

The cabin where Theodore J. Kaczynski lived on and off for 25 years was so primitive it did not even have an outhouse. His aging, red, one-speed bicycle with raised handlebars was about the highest technology item on the premises.

Or so it was until federal investigators arrived last Wednesday to search his dark, tiny cabin with some of the most sophisticated technology ever developed to detect and defuse bombs.

Looking for evidence that Kaczynski was the anti-technology Unabomber, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms brought in such devices as a remote-controlled robot and portable X-ray equipment to help search for bombs and booby traps.

And they came armed with new scientific techniques specifically designed during the Unabomber investigation to detect, analyze and defuse bombs made in the unique handcrafted style of the elusive serial bomber.

“Technology was developed just for this case because of the way he made his bombs,” confided one federal source who declined to be more specific.

With the FBI’s detailed preparation, new detection methods and painstaking search, agents were able to discover and preserve what may be one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in the case: a completed bomb that was apparently ready for mailing.

Given that the hunt for the Unabomber is one of the FBI’s highest priorities, former bureau officials said the agency would be certain to use every technique at its command to carry out the search.

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“They would invest their best technology to protect their agents and at the same time use a complex of technologies to find everything in the cabin,” said Al Bayse, former chief scientist for the FBI. “They’ll have the best bomb experts in the world out there.”

In his 35,000-word manifesto published last year, the Unabomber declared: “The technophiles are taking all of us on an utterly reckless ride into the unknown.”

But for now, the technology the Unabomber railed against is providing the best chance in 18 years of catching him.

Much of the high-tech equipment used by law enforcement in such searches was developed for entering the booby-trapped lairs of suspected drug dealers.

When suspicious material was located in Kaczynski’s cabin on Friday, for example, the FBI used a robot to enter the structure and retrieve it. Agents feared that it could have been set to go off if it was picked up.

“If it’s a powerful device, the robot doesn’t have a chance,” said retired ATF director Steve Higgins. “But better it [than a person].”

Such a robot, standing about 3 feet tall, can be operated by remote control and can do “practically anything in terms of lifting, moving and picking up,” Higgins added.

Once items were retrieved from the cabin, they were moved to a work area outside the house and X-rayed on a portable machine similar to those used at airports.

And while federal officials would not divulge details about the continuing search of Kaczynski’s remote mountain cabin, former FBI and ATF officials offered insight into some of the techniques that law enforcement personnel have available.

Before entering Kaczynski’s cabin, for example, FBI agents most likely bombarded the small structure with electromagnetic energy to create a picture of its entire contents, much like an X-ray.

“The FBI has that ability to acquire a three-dimensional view of the contents of a room,” Bayse said. “It would give you the landscape of the room.”

Before entering, agents might also have inserted highly sensitive acoustic devices to sort out all the sounds in the cabin and determine if there were any electronically operated booby traps. “Devices make their own noise,” Bayse said.

But perhaps one of the most important techniques in this search would be the use of highly sophisticated chemical sensors that can detect possible bomb components.

Such “sniffers,” which can test for small amounts of a chemical in the air, would be preferable to bomb-sniffing dogs because the Unabomber often used readily available components in his devices that dogs would not be trained to detect.

Some chemical sampling devices are so sophisticated they can be programmed to sample for minute quantities of a specific chemical.

“Over the years, he used a lot of different things, from smokeless powder to aluminum powder to other chemicals that are not so common but are not hard to come by,” said Chris Ronay, a former FBI agent and lead investigator in the case. “Suffice it to say that if one of the main ingredients of an explosive is aluminum, a dog is not going to know a bomb from your car.”

When agents found the completed bomb in the cabin, it was critical that it not be detonated because of its use as potential evidence. Depending on the condition of the bomb, agents may have defused it on the site or packed it in a bomb-proof container and transported it to the FBI laboratory in Washington to be dismantled.

The use of high-tech detection methods will not end at the cabin.

Agents are searching for fingerprints to match those already found on the Unabomber’s bombs and letter. And much of the evidence removed from the house will be sent to the FBI lab for analysis.

Among other things, forensic experts will examine any tools found at the scene to see if they can be matched with minute marks on bomb fragments. Using an electron microscope, Higgins said, experts can often match individual tools to the marks they made with nearly 100% certainty.

Investigators may also attempt to match tiny amounts of DNA recovered from the Unabomber’s packages and letters with Kaczynski’s DNA.

Perhaps the Unabomber recognized the high-tech forces that would be brought to bear in his case when he wrote in his manifesto:

“Many people understand something of what technological progress is doing to us yet take a passive attitude toward it because they think it is inevitable. We don’t think it is inevitable. We think it can be stopped.”