The new bomb supposedly contained no metal. Does this mean it would have passed through airport detectors unnoticed?
Yes, that would be the case with a magnetometer, if the bomb did not have any metal wiring, which tends to be picked up. Airport security screeners also swab people, luggage and handbags, looking for a variety of substances, including drugs and explosive chemicals. Although they likely wouldn't swab someone's underwear, the chemical might have gotten on that person's luggage and clothes without them realizing it. Chemical analysis may have been a way to detect this type of explosive but airport screeners don't swab every bag.
Would backscatter x-ray machines or millimeter wave scanners deployed at many airports have been effective in spotting the new underwear bomb?
Those scanners are looking for anomalies on a person's body, in particular something that is hard or dense. It depends on the density of the bomb materials, what the ingredients are and the form they took.
[Backscatter picks up the radiation bounced back from the passenger's body and any objects the person may be concealing. Elements such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen—common ingredients of explosives—create a strong scattering effect visible in images that operators monitor on a screen yet are discernible from the organic molecules in the human body. Millimeter waves, which are shorter than microwaves but longer than infrared, create a revealing picture that can highlight items and determine the precise chemical makeup of an object. Although backscatter and millimeter wave scanners might have given screeners cause to be suspicious of an underwear bomb, neither are used in all airports, and passengers concerned about exposure to radiation can often opt to instead be frisked by security personnel.]
In addition to the original underwear bomb and the 2010 attempts to pack explosives as cargo on aircraft, what other tactics has al Qaeda tried in their search for effective methods of attack?
[Ibrahim Hassan] al Asiri had his own brother place PETN inside his colon and then told him to surrender to the counter-terrorism chief in person and request entry into Saudi Arabia's terrorist rehabilitation program. In August 2009 Abdullah Hassan al Asiri tried to assassinate Saudi Arabia Interior Minister Prince Muhammed Nayef bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, although the PETN explosion ended up killing him and only slightly injuring al Saud. Ironically, al Saud was protected from the full brunt of the blast by al Asiri's body. Less than half a year later, Abdulmutallab tried the first underpants bomb.
In each case, the bomb-makers take into account cultural norms. For example, the Taliban developed a turban bomb, which was employed to assassinate Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and head of the High Peace Council. The tactic was used because Afghans are reluctant to request the removal of a turban.
What has been the most effective means of disrupting terrorism attacks?
As with bombs that were being sent from Yemen to Chicago as cargo, this latest plot was discovered using human intelligence rather than screening procedures and technologies. These plans were disrupted because of proactive mechanisms put in place to stop terrorism rather than defensive approaches such as screening.
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Add CommentLast week the TSA agents grabbed a 4 year old girl because she made contact with her Grandma after she had already cleared security. A year ago, the TSA made an older women remove her <a href="http://www.theincontinencestore.com">adult diapers</a> so she could be checked more thoroughly. Al Qaeda is going to have to get whatever sneaky bomb they design past these same TSA agents. I'm kinda liking our chances.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnderwear bombs could lead to full attire bombs, where terrorism experts working clandestinely in foreign labs imitate designer clothing (made of undetectible plastic explosives). A passenger's entire wardrobe they're wearing, and possibly all the clothing it their suitcase in the under-carriage of the aircraft, could be designed to detonate simultaneously.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe number of Americans killed by terrorists pales besides the 40,000 who die every year in traffic accidents. Instead of pumping up support of Bush/Obama Homeland Security & TSA outrages, why not focus on something important?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe they'll require people to travel naked, soon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't trust any mass media but Reuters, the Guardian and McClatchey, and get the most reliable news from Truthout, Daily KOS, RSN, NationOfChange and other emailed/online "underground newspapers". This is not arbitrary, but the result of experience. Here's why: (1) it's real news, not nonsense about who's on reality TV, (2) the best sources are funded by contributions, not by advertisers who censor and propagandize, (3) these news outlets employ the talented investigative reporters and thoughtful public philosophers--many of them former conservatives--fired or laid off by the 1%-owned newspapers and TV networks, not the "Judiths" and Sean Hannitys, but most of all (4) in the wake of the propaganda deluge after 9/11 I have found that actual events prove alternate news to have been FAR more trustworthy than the mass media, even than PBS/NPR, which the Koch Brothers fund. Usually I consider SciAm a good source, too, but in reverse. I trust the printed page--the magazine--but many of the blogger-written online reports are unreliable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe current report, above, seemsis shrilly propagandistic, and is out of date. For the past couple of days I've read reports online that tell us about the background of the 2009 wannabe underpants terrorist--that he's a double agent in the employ of Saudi and CIA handlers. Sounds as if he's a fall guy. Who really originated the 2009 plot? At age 76 I would be able to toss a grand piano out the window quicker than I'd trust the CIA to protect Americans if the CIA wanted to use the death of citizens as an "example" to increase their funding or extend their already massive power. Or maybe it was a benign plot. Since a CIA official has stated that this purported bomb was not dangerous, was it never rigged, just a test of airport security (which failed)? I didn't see a word about any of that in this article. The author biased it toward the further demolition of U.S. civil liberties for a mess of "security" pottage against the--brrrrr!--"Evil Islamists". (Yeah, right. Like my cultured Muslim friends, next door neighbors for over ten years.)
It also failed to mention the well dressed Indian that guided the patsy and claimed that "we do this all the time" when the Airport Boarding agents refused to let the guy board. That was mentioned by Kurt Haskell a passenger on the plane.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKurt also said that a white man stood up and began filming the incident on board the plane.
He was interviewed and seemed believable.
The Al Cia Da is now wearing Dolce Gabbana, Prada and Armani?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow