Explosive contents

‘The Wrong Hands’ looks at weapons manuals and their impact on society

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If someone had told Ann Larabee that while working on her book, “The Wrong Hands: Popular Weapons Manuals and Their Historic Challenges to a Democratic Society,” a horrific bombing such as the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing would occur, she would not have been surprised.

The author, a Michigan State University English professor, is quick to point out that using bombs for terror, political statements and even deranged revenge motives is intertwined with the history of the United States, dating back to colonial times when manuals on how to manufacture gunpowder were created.

The new book, however, is not about the technical aspect of making bombs, but more about bomb-making manuals and their impact on society. Initially, Larabee said, a major focus of the book was to be on the so-called Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, who used crudely made bombs sent by mail to rail against technology.

“I soon discovered the real story was freedom of speech and how (instruction manuals) were appearing in court documents and how much information there was online,” Larabee said.

One bomb making manual that Larabee writes about is “The Anarchist Cookbook,” William Powell’s infamous 1971 manual that described methods for manufacturing explosives, illicit drugs and other subversive materials.

In working on the book, Larabee spoke briefly to Powell, who she said “is now asking that it be removed from print.” Unfortunately, the book has become one of the most common bomb-making manuals on the web, and the phrase “anarchist cookbook” has become a generic phrase to describe bomb-making manuals.

But back to the free speech issue. Bombmaking manuals such as the “The Anarchistic Cookbook” and the more recent “Inspire” web-based manual — which was used to create the pressure-cooker bombs detonated in the Boston Marathon bombing — are absolutely banned in Britain, while in the U.S. they are generally protected by free speech. However, they can come under federal over sight through a post-9/11 statute which “bans the teaching or demonstration of making or use of an explosive weapon.”

There is also a provision in the Patriot Act that prohibits providing material support to terrorists that has been used in dozens of cases to show potential for terrorism. That’s where the issue gets thorny, Larabee said.

“It’s a disturbing law and subject to abuse,” she said.

Targeting specific publications is very difficult, as Larabee points out in her book. She writes about how many of the populist manuals are often derived from corporate instruction manuals or military manuals. The Weather Underground, for example, drew extensively from the DuPont chemical company’s “Blasters’ Handbook,” a manual detailing the use of explosives for construction and other commercial activities, for its bomb making.

Publishing outfits such as Paladin Press, which specialized in militarystyle manuals, and East Lansing’s own Loompanics Unlimited, an anarchist press that promoted an antigovernment, off-the-grid mentality, are also covered in depth in Larabee’s book.

Both have been cited in several high profile court cases, including a famous lawsuit against Paladin involving its book “Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors.”

Legislating against manuals can be a slippery slope and a threat to freedom of speech, said Larabee, who has also written a book, “The Dynamite Fiend,” about a notorious 19th-century bomber.

“Instructions for bomb-making appear in all sorts of popular fiction,” she said.

She cites Edward Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang” as one of the most notorious fictional accounts of politically motivated terrorists, especially since it is often cited for inspiring radical environmental groups.

“If we start banning those, should we ban the movie ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ because it provides a formula to rob a bank?” she asked.

In reading “In the Wrong Hands” it’s impossible not to notice that Michigan has been a nexus for radical groups and individuals, beginning with the Bath School bombing, where Larabee said there is an “indication” that the perpetrator may have drawn from agricultural manuals, to the Weather Underground which has roots in Flint. The list gets longer when you add the 1971 Ku Klux Klan bombing of 10 school buses in Pontiac and the 2010 crackdown on the Huatree militia.

“A lot of frightening people have come from Michigan,” Larabee said.

To date, “The Wrong Hands” is not only the most comprehensive book on the history of bomb making in the U.S. as tied to instructional manuals, but it also digs into corners and places the average person could not go, providing a thoughtful narrative about balancing the nation’s constitutional rights and protections.

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