THE NEW THREAT

 

 

 

Militants are showing renewed interest in using a bomb surgically implanted inside a passenger’s body to blow up a commercial flight, though there is no indication an attack is imminent, a U.S. security official said on Wednesday 07/06/2011.

 

USA authorities have warned their counterparts abroad as well as air carriers about new intelligence on this method and were taking steps to boost security. “The Department of Homeland Security has identified a potential threat from terrorists who may be considering surgically implanting explosives or explosive components in humans to conduct terrorist attacks,” the advisory to foreign counterparts said, according to the U.S. security official. Such a threat is likely to come from overseas rather than domestically, but precautions were being taken on both sides, the official said on condition of anonymity. The new intelligence did not indicate an attack was imminent, the official said.

 

U.S. authorities have been on high alert after American forces killed Al Qaeda  leader Osama Bin Laden, on 05/01/2011, in Abbottabad Raid in Pakistan, ramping up security at airports, government buildings and other facilities in case of a retaliatory strike.

 

The official declined to say whether the new intelligence came from documents collected at the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. 

 

The possibility of a suicide bomber attacking with explosives implanted in the person’s body has long been a concern for authorities — and a difficult threat to detect.

 

Attacks in the past have involved explosives packed in luggage, shoes, clothing or other items. But on o/27/2009, Abdullah Hassan Tali al-Asiri, then 23, blew himself up in the office of a Saudi prince Muhammad bin Nayef in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had hidden the explosives inside his body packed in condoms and detonate them with a cell phone signal. It was the first ever suicide attack of its kind (see – Jeddah 08.27.09).  

 

A U.S. national security official told Reuters the U.S. had recently received credible intelligence that al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – AQAP, is working on methods to plant bombs inside its operatives.

 

The official indicated the body-bomb research was part of AQAP’s broader effort to develop weapons not detectable by standard security methods. The organization also carried out the Flight-253 attempt, on 12/25/2009, and the Mailed Bombs Plot in 10/2010.

 

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  07/2011 –SOMALI AHMED WARSAME INDICTED WITH TERROR IN NY
  
  
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  06/2011 –AL QAEDA HIT LIST POSTED ON THE WEB
  
  
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  12/2010 –AL QAEDA SOUGHT OF POISON FOOD IN THE U.S
  
  
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  PROFILE –IBRHIM HASSAN AL-ASIRI  

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