Sadly, the plan got nixed by the CIA’s lawyers.

The insurgents who kill our young soldiers are ruthless, but we have sometimes been cautious in our response. Take the question of targeting bomb makers: There may be an unlimited supply of explosives in Iraq, but there is not an unlimited supply of people who know how to wire the detonators. In 2004, CIA operatives in Iraq believed that they had identified the signatures of 11 bomb makers. They proposed a diabolical—but potentially effective—sabotage program that would have flooded Iraq with booby-trapped detonators designed to explode in the bomb makers’ hands. But the CIA general counsel’s office said no. The lawyers claimed that the agency lacked authority for such an operation, one source recalled.

Not only would this have killed more terrorists (always a good thing) but it would have also saved countless lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.  A win-win situation.

But, sadly, it didn’t happen.  Just another victory for bureaucracy and liberal nuance, I guess.