Al Qaeda Bombers Learn from Drug Smugglers

(CBS)  Al Qaeda has developed a new tactic that allows suicide bombers to breach even the tightest security, as CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

Inside a Saudi palace, the scene was the bloody aftermath of an al Qaeda attack in August aimed at killing Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counter terrorism operations.

To get his bomb into this room, Abdullah Asieri, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, avoided detection by two sets of airport security including metal detectors and palace security. He spent 30 hours in the close company of the prince's own secret service agents - all without anyone suspecting a thing.

How did he do it?

Taking a trick from the narcotics trade - which has long smuggled drugs in body cavities - Asieri had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum.

This was a meticulously planned operation with al Qaeda once again producing something new: this time, the Trojan bomber.

The blast left the prince lightly wounded - a failure as an assassination, but as an exercise in defeating security, it was perfect.

The bomber persuaded the prince he wanted to leave al Qaeda, setting a trap.

Al Qaeda has an animated movie showing the meeting between the bomber and the prince. Asieri says more senior al Qaeda figures want to surrender and convinces the prince to talk to them on a cell phone.

In the conversation recorded by al Qaeda, you hear a beep in the middle of two identical phrases that are repeated by the bomber and his handler.

Explosives experts tell CBS News that beep was likely a text message activating the bomb concealed inside Asieri.

The Trojan bomber hands the phone to Prince Mohammed. He's standing next to him, and 14 seconds later, he detonates.

"This is the nightmare scenario," said Chris Yates, an aviation security consultant.

On a plane at altitude, the effects of such a bomb could be catastrophic. And there is no current security system that could stop it.

"Absolutely nothing other than to require people to strip naked at the airport," said Yates.

And al Qaeda says it will share its new technique via the Internet very soon. There is nothing that can stop that either.

[TheSantaClaus]

Why would terrorists utilize surgery to implant a bomb, when they already have used existing orifices to hide explosives in body cavities? For decades, narcotics smugglers have used body cavities to hide drugs. Almost two years ago, a Saudi prince was wounded by an Al Qaeda bomber when explosives concealed in the bomber's rectum detonated. Two years is a long time for TSA to ponder addressing this threat, especially since it ordered and approved, in the interim, many millions of dollars of new screening equipment incapable of addressing a known threat. It will be interesting to discover exactly what 'new tools' TSA dreams up to detect implanted explosives.

[dj5hall]

Since the Government always get in backwards, if there is an attack such as this, they'll ban all electronic devices. Their reasoning will be "no electronics, no way to detonate the device." Yes, they are that stupid.

[Elliander]

This is proof that the security scanners do not work. Also, it gives you something to be afraid of. Because, if you look at the history of the TSA every time the terrorists prove them to be incompetent they take away another freedom. Now the only thing left to do is a cavity search. Try explaining to a little girl why some strange man is probing her vagina.

Meanwhile, these scanners that don't work cost so much money they have to lay off FBI agents to pay for it... and this is supposed to make me feel safer? The FBI, who actually catch terrorists, loosing jobs because the TSA - who don't do anything - want to validate it's own existence.

[Roose Hurro]

"On a plane at altitude, the effects of such a bomb could be catastrophic. And there is no current security system that could stop it.

"Absolutely nothing other than to require people to strip naked at the airport," said Yates.

And al Qaeda says it will share its new technique via the Internet very soon. There is nothing that can stop that either."

Apparently, whoever wrote this hasn't heard of bomb-sniffer dogs.

[dave.macgeek]

So can drug sniffing dogs smell the drugs in a "mules" stomach or intestinal track?

[Carruthers1]

The extent of misinformation exhibited by a large number of correspondents is breathtaking.

The accusations of cowardice seem misplaced; it takes a considerable amount of determination to blow yourself up.

The history of secreting things inside body cavities goes back a long way. Chaucer wrote, in medieval times, about hiding rolls of coins in one's rectum, and commented that if two were inserted, they often came out in the wrong order. Clearly the weight of a roll of coins is greatly in excess of that of a condom of C4 or Semtex.

In relation to air travel and the 'muffling' of the explosion by the pelvis, there is nothing to stop a would-be terrorist going to the toilet, removing the the charge and detonating it in private. I'm no explosive expert, but even a small condom of 'plastique', especially if made into a shaped charge, would be enough to blow a out the side of the plane.

A successful air-plane detonation could effectively halt air travel. Searching a person, "in the Spanish fashion" referred, in the times of the Inquisition, to probing the rectum with long pointy instruments to see if anything was hidden there; is this the future of airport security?

I'm open to correction, but I think the record for a drug mule (apprehended) was about 20 or 30 condoms of cocaine or heroin or in this case C4. They could be detonated by a car key fob over New York. What then for airport security? Full body x-ray? An indemnity for frequent flyers against x-ray induced cancers?

With this background, is it surprising that much of the travelling public scoff at current security measures? The ban on liquids?, taking off your shoes and belt? Does that camera really work? Could that wire hair band be used as an edged weapon? and what about those nail clippers?

The only question that hasn't been answered is, "why hasn't it been done already?"

Well the answer is that it probably has; wasn't there a couple of Russian planes go down, with the speculation that Chechnian women terrorists secreted explosives within their bodies? All we need is a few more suicide bombers.

Now if one could get a parachute on the plane; place an ex-rectum shaped charge to blow a big hole in the plane, then jump out of it before it hit the ground............

[bmedork]

There was a young man from Arabia,
who stuck a bomb up his posteria.
The fuseness was lit, it smelled strongly of
and the prince cleaned him off of the cupola.

[Virgil-1]

There is no end to what man will lower himself to get what he wants!

[MichaelMooreFan]

Washington (AP) -- Just moments after delivering a fiery address to the government watchdog group Public Citizen in Washington yesterday, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, director of three of the five highest-grossing documentaries of all time, clutched at his abdomen, groaned loudly, and steadied himself on a nearby railing.
All of what followed is still unclear, although witnesses say...http://wp.me/pENnF-d

[johnindy15]

Feel sorry for the bomb squad if they ever have to retrieve one of these things. Ah heck, bring out the robot! I can hear it now. It is lodged in there pretty tight. Guess we will just have to detonate it. Uses the shotgun on the robots arm!

[covalentblue]

Send the media idiots some love anonymously from hatecards.net! They are so full of Sh*t!