'Underwear bomber' was working for
the CIA
Over the past three years, al-Qaida
bomb makers in Yemen have developed three fiendishly clever devices
in hopes of attacking airplanes in the skies above the United States.
First, there was the underwear bomb
that fizzled over Detroit on Christmas 2009. Next, terrorists hid
bombs inside printer cartridges and got them on board cargo planes in
2010, only to watch authorities find and defuse them in the nick of
time.
Then last month, officials say,
al-Qaida completed a sophisticated new, nonmetallic underwear bomb –
and unwittingly handed it over to the CIA.
The would-be suicide bomber, the man
al-Qaida entrusted with its latest device, actually was a double
agent working with the CIA and Saudi intelligence agencies, officials
said Tuesday. Instead of sneaking it onto a plane in his underwear,
he delivered it to the U.S. government and handed al-Qaida its latest
setback.
The extraordinary intelligence
operation was confirmed by U.S. and Yemeni officials who were briefed
on the plot but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss it.
The FBI is still analyzing the
explosive but officials described it as an upgrade over the Christmas
Day bomb. This new device contained lead azide, a chemical known as a
reliable detonator. After the Christmas attack failed, al-Qaida used
lead azide as the detonator in the 2010 plot against cargo planes.
Security procedures at U.S. airports
Tuesday remained unchanged despite the plot, a reflection of both the
U.S. confidence in its security systems and a recognition that the
government can’t realistically expect travelers to endure much
more. Increased costs and delays to airlines and shipping companies
from new security measures could have a global economic impact too.
Security officials said they believe
airport security systems put in place in the United States in recent
years could have detected the new device or one like it. But the
attempt served as a stark reminder that security overseas is quite
different.
“I would not expect any real
changes for the traveling public,” House Intelligence Committee
Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said. “There is a concern that
overseas security doesn’t match ours. That’s an ongoing
challenge.”
While airline checks in the United
States mean passing through an onerous, sometimes embarrassing series
of pat-downs and body scans, procedures overseas can be a mixed bag.
The U.S. cannot force other countries to permanently adopt the
expensive and intrusive measures that have become common in American
airports over the past decade.
The Transportation Security
Administration sent advice Tuesday to some international air carriers
and airports about security measures that might stave off an attack
from a hidden explosive. It’s the same advice the U.S. has issued
before, but there was a thought that it might get new attention in
light of the foiled plot.
The U.S. has worked for years to try
to improve security for U.S.-bound flights originating at
international airports. And many countries agree that security needs
to be better. But while plots such as the Christmas attack have
spurred changes, some security gaps that have been closed in the U.S.
remain open overseas.
Officials believe body scanners, for
instance, probably would have detected this latest attempt by
al-Qaida to bring down a jetliner. Such scanners allow screeners to
see objects hidden beneath a passenger’s clothes.
But while scanners are in place in
airports nationwide, their use is scattershot overseas. Even in
security-conscious Europe, the European Union has not required
full-body imaging machines for all airports, though a number of major
airports in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Germany and elsewhere use them.
All passengers on U.S.-bound flights
are checked against terrorist watch lists and law enforcement
databases.
In some countries, U.S. officials
are stationed in airports to offer advice on security matters. In
some cases, though, the U.S. can do little more than hope that other
countries follow the security advice from the Transportation Security
Administration.
“Even if our technology is good
enough to spot it, the technology is still in human hands and we are
inherently fallible,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of
the House Intelligence Committee. “And overseas, we have varying
degrees of security depending on where the flight originates.”
Authorities believe that, like the
Christmas bomb and the printer bombs, this latest device is the
handiwork of either al-Qaida’s master bomb maker in Yemen, Ibrahim
Hassan al-Asiri, or one of his students.
In the meantime, Americans traveled
Tuesday with little apparent concern.
“We were nervous – for a
minute,” said Nan Gartner, a retiree on her way to Italy from New
York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. “But then we thought, we aren’t
going anywhere near Yemen, so we’re OK.”
P.S. A Transportation Security adviser representing Michael Chertoff's "Full-Body Scanners R Us" said he hopes this latest scare will convince more European airports to use full-body scanners.
No comments:
Post a Comment