“Unfortunately, it’s not science fiction,” said Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. “The reality is that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in particular has come up with creative means to disguise explosive devices.”
Known as AQAP, the Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaeda has been credited with building the underwear bomb used in the Christmas 2009 attempted attack on a Northwest Airlines jet near Detroit and the bombs built into toner cartridges sent last December on cargo carriers.
I tell you it won’t be long until we have to fly naked.
JE
Shortly before the underpants bomber’s failed attempt, a terrorist concealing an explosive charge in a body cavity successfully detonated himself during an interview with Saudi intelligence officials. I think we just have to accept that there is going to be a certain level of mayhem from these types and that the worst approach is to set up an artificially unrealistic standard of stopping every desperate effort.
That won’t exempt you from the pat downs.
Around the time of the underwear bomber in Detroit, an al-Qua’eda prisoner was interrogated in Saudi Arabia by a high-ranking Saudi governmental official. During the interview, the prisoner detonated, to fatal effect to himself and injurious effect to others in the room, an explosive device concealed in a body cavity. It is a very short step from that technique to surgical implantation of devices.