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Subscribe to RSSAn alleged al-Qaida plot to blow up an underwear bomb aboard a jet headed to the U.S. was stopped by the CIA before it could be launched. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
Updated at 5 p.m. ET: The CIA foiled a plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner this month, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.
Officials said the plot involved a bomb that improved on the one that had been sewn into the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in a plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. That device did not detonate.
This bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism and was "totally non-metallic," which officials told NBC News would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional screening processes.
A U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News there were “refinements on reliability” in particular that made this bomb more sophisticated and more likely to explode.
Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, talks to TODAY's Ann Curry about al-Qaida's failed plan to bomb an airliner headed to the U.S. and what the foiled plot tells us about the current state of al-Qaida.
In addition to being a threat to commercial planes, the official said this type of bomb could be used in crowded places, on other transportation systems or for assassinations.
The official noted that the bomb “was never near a plane” and “never posed a risk.” The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.
John Brennan, President Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, talks to TODAY's Ann Curry about al-Qaida's failed plan to bomb an airliner headed to the U.S. and says the would-be bomber is "no longer a threat to the American public."
The U.S. received the device last month. The FBI is currently conducting technical and forensics analyses on it.
The official would not specify which international security service provided the intelligence that led to the unraveling of the plot, as there is concern about retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets inside Yemen.
Counterterror officials deem the thwarted plot a "success story," NBC News reported. The FBI said in a statement that the successful operation was the "result of close cooperation with our security and intelligence partners overseas."
Related: More than 30 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack
NBC's National Security Analyst Michael Leiter explains the latest terror threat may lead to more stringent screening overseas, especially now that growing instability in Yemen has left the region open as a safe haven for terrorism.
According to The Associated Press, the would-be suicide bomber was instructed to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said the individual is not a threat but would not say where he is located. He did not provide information about the individual’s nationality or age.
It's unclear who built the bomb, but the device does bear similarities to other explosive devices built by master bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. However, Asiri may not have been directly involved in this plot.
Related: Reports: Al-Qaida leader wanted in USS Cole bombing killed in Yemen airstrike
According to one official, there is "evidence that Asiri has passed along his bomb-making knowledge to others." The official would not say whether Asiri or an apprentice were involved in this plot.
In an exclusive meeting, a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that Asiri posed the single most dangerous threat to the United States.
According to the official, Asiri is the most capable of carrying out al-Qaida’s threat to launch a significant terrorist attack to kill Americans inside the United States.
Asiri designed the first underwear bomb that failed over Detroit and he was also the maker of the printer ink cartridge bombs that were discovered before they were shipped to the United States.
The senior official said counter-terrorism officials were seriously troubled by the ink cartridge bombs because they were "particularly sophisticated."
Related: Al-Qaida kidnapped Iranian envoy in bid to free bin Laden kin, colleagues
Related: Bin Laden fretted about al-Qaida affiliates' missteps, letters show
Related: Bin Laden in hiding: Hatching horrific plots despite crippling attacks on al-Qaida
Asiri has also implanted a bomb inside his brother in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi deputy interior minister. The minister survived, but Asiri’s brother did not.
Asiri is not just a bomb maker but has also taken to “training the trainers,” sharing his skills with others. Officials believe he is responsible for this bomb, the one sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear and the one used during the attempted assassination attempt of Nayef. As director of Saudi counterterrorism, Nayef is one of the United States’ most trusted allies in the fight against al-Qaida.
For each bomb, officials are seeing a new level of refinement and sophistication.
The U.S. counterterrorism official said the thwarted attack and the recent drone death of Fahd al-Quso, an FBI “most-wanted terrorist,” was a “one-two body blow” to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have recently described as the most aggressive of the al-Qaida franchises.
They also believe that al-Quso, director of external communications for the franchise, would have had to approve the planned May attack.
Officials also say the plot had no apparent ties to the anniversary of the killing of bin Laden. One official told NBC News the timing was coincidental.
A White House statement said President Obama was told of the plot in April.
"The disruption of this IED (improvised explosive device) plot underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad," the statement read.
Reporting by NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski and Robert Windrem and The Associated Press is included in this report.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES and more LIES!!!
Seal team-6, DEAD in a helicopter crash, after allegedly assassinating Bin Laden, how convenient! Sounds suspiciously like the helicopter crash that happened during the Iranian hostage crisis before Reagan took office.
Hey, their saying it on television, it MUST be true!
Keep believing these LIES people!
All we have to do is take the advice of a country that has been dealing with this since it bacame a nation in 1948. Isreal. Told us on a tour with AC360 how they do their searches. what the do is they have several search rooms where men are separated woman and children are with mothers. Men are searched by other men and interviewed by them the same with women that way no one can say anything about their privacy being invaded. We rely to much on X-ray machines. If people know all you are using is a X-ray machine of course they will be making ways around it. but there is no way around a one on one search
South Asia
A
chilling inheritance of terror
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Ever since the frenzied shootout last month on September 11 in
Karachi there have been doubts over whether Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the
self-proclaimed head of al-Qaeda's military committee, died in the police raid
on his apartment.
Certainly, another senior al-Qaeda figure, Ramzi
Binalshibh, widely attributed as being the coordinator of the September 11
attacks on the United States a year earlier, was taken alive and handed over to
the US. The latest information is that he is on a US warship somewhere in the
Gulf.
Now it has emerged that Kuwaiti national Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
did indeed perish in the raid, but his wife and child were taken from the
apartment and handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in whose
hands they remain.
Sources close to Pakistani intelligence agents say
that the wife, under intense interrogation, has revealed information that is
likely to lead to a new crackdown in Pakistan, as well as in Southeast Asia.
After the Taliban and al-Qaeda were routed in Afghanistan at the end of
2001, many fled to Pakistan to regroup and set up new cells. One of these, as
described in Asia Times Online, From the al-Qaeda
puzzle, a picture emerges, was in Karachi, with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as
its head.
Despite being tracked by informers within Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has been
described as "probably the only man who knows all the [al-Qaeda] pieces of the
puzzle", always managed to remain one step ahead of any raiding parties in the
slum areas along the coastal belt of Karachi.
However, it was then
learned that Shaikh Mohammed had established connections with some local groups,
including underworld figures, to entrench his cell. Using highly sensitive
equipment, in April a call was tracked to someone by the name of Arif, living in
the densely populated southwestern part of the city. Arif spoke to a Tunisian,
passing on a message from Shaikh Mohammed. Subsequently, the Tunisian is
believed to be the man who rammed a truck laden with explosives into a Jewish
synagogue in Djerba in Tunisia in which many French and German citizens died.
After this suicide attack, the FBI were onto Shaikh Mohammed in a big
way, and, no doubt not entirely without coincidence, on September 11 they
decided on a showdown at the apartment of Shaikh Mohammed, his wife and child,
in the Defense Housing Authority near Korangi Road. A number of Arabs were also
living in the apartment at the time.
Initially, the joint ISI-FBI plan
was to take Shaikh Mohammed alive so that he could be grilled, especially as he
was believed to have knowledge of other al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan, Somalia,
Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere. However, as a plainclothed officer climbed the
stairs toward the third-floor apartment, a hand grenade was thrown, and he
retreated. Reinforcements then arrived, and for the next few hours a fierce gun
battle blazed.
The FBI, still keen to take Shaikh Mohammed alive,
teargassed the area, and a number of people were captured. However, despite
instructions to the contrary, a few Pakistan Rangers entered the flat, where
they found Shaikh Mohammed and another man, allegedly with their hands up. The
Rangers nevertheless opened fire on the pair.
Later, the Pakistani press
carried pictures of a message scrawled in blood on the wall of the flat,
proclaiming the Muslim refrain of Kalma, in Arabic: "There is no God
except Allah, Mohammed is his messenger"). An official who was present in the
flat at the time of the shooting has told Asia Times Online that the message was
written by Shaikh Mohammed with his own blood as his life drained from him.
Subsequently, to their surprise, the raiders learned that Ramzi
Binalshibh had been netted in the swoop. And nothing further was said of Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed.
But now it emerges that an Arab woman and a child were
taken to an ISI safe house, where they identified the Shaikh Mohammed's body as
their husband and father. The body was kept in a private NGO mortuary for 20
days before being buried, under the surveillance of the FBI, in a graveyard in
the central district of Karachi.
The widow subsequently underwent
exhaustive interrogation in the custody of FBI officials, during which she
revealed details of people who visited her husband, and of his other contacts
and plans. News of the death of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was intentionally
suppressed so that officials could play on the power of his name to follow up
leads and contacts.
From this it emerges that, in particular, Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed was in close contact with the Rabitatul Mujahideen, an alliance
formed by Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah to act as a central committee for leaders
of the various militant groups in Southeast Asia. He was also in touch with
dissident groups within the Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistani-based militant group
that has been active in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in Indian-administered
Kashmir, and another Pakistani militia, the Ansarul Islam.
Intelligence
officials now believe that through these links a new wave of terror will be
unleashed - and officials have already taken the precaution to warn the
intelligence agencies of friendly countries to check the lists of all people who
have undergone flight training in the past six months: They have been led to
believe that another World Trade Center/Pentagon attack is being planned,
although not on a target in the US.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Who do you think the United States has in custody in Gitmo, claiming to be Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?
Now you know why we are only getting sketches from the courtroom and not pictures or video!
HELLO, is anyone awake yet?!?!?!?!?!
bombing his way to heaven.
another fruit of the boom bomber foiled...lmao
they dont say haines, till i say, they say (boom)..lol
This is one more reason we need to knock it off with the "global trade" bullshirt. While the existence of terror cells right here in the States does not completely eliminate the danger, it does reduce is considerably. Buy only American-made goods ,or do without!
FamousAmos-3755959
This $#*! is never going to end is it! I miss the days when the world wasn't at war with one another..oh wait, that's never been the case has it. Sad. Animals can get along with one another (different species) better than we humans even can. I can only hope that one day we will get better as a species and learn to tolerate others whom are different from us, and accept them. Not blow them up.
RANCHO REPLIES:
This post is total testimony that the human species DID NOT evolve.
It is not people that hate each other, it is corrupt governments that instill this crap to keep the military industrialist one world BS government going.
nah, hate and nationalism and ignorance have been around longer than military industrialists, but I agree war does make a lot of people rich.
timmy the geek,
Right! Remember "Daddy Warbucks" from "Little Orphan Annie"?
Any idiot that says the TSA has served a useful function other than to show that Osama achieved what he wanted to which was exact a financial cost no matter how small is just that an idiot.
Sort of looks like the "elected" jackass's fell right into this. How stupid can you be? Russia went bankrupt
in Afghanistan as part of the genuis of bush 1 and then his coke head son decides to invade at first chance bankrupting the U.S. Are we sure that the bush crime family isnt working with Putin?
Iraq was the useless war. We might have been out of Afghanistan by now if we weren't distracted in Iraq.
A couple of questions:
1. What color code for terrorism alerts are we at? Orange still? I have not heard much about this since the coke head that bankrupted our country left office.
2. Knowing the habit that the CIA has in lying about things, why is this news? I think this is just more delusional fiction from the gestapo.
3. Heres one for all of you republiCON "patriots"- How much is the CIA's budget? You cant answer that because it is secret. I have not heard any of you "fiscally responsible jackass republiCONs" complaining about that. Food stamps? Lets go after those "welfare cheats" but lets not look twice at what the gestapo is stealing to "protect" us.
Sort of pokes a hole in the bullcrap that the republiCONs are slinging. "Wheres those pesky weapons of mass destruction? They arent under here. They aint over here. Maybe those pesky cia people lied us into those 2 wars. I am not smart enough to come up with this myself", George Bush. The coke head that bankrupted our country after the treasonist republiCONs elected him........TWICE.
Thanks for the entertainment.
Boy, did I make a hash of my last post. What I meant to say is, the existence of terror cells right here in America does not completely eliminate the danger of hidden bombs if we stick to American-made goods, but buying only American-made stuff does significantly reduce it.
A prime example of the danger in this whole "global trade" malarkey was given by my economics teacher six years ago. Nowadays, most computer components are made in Red China, like nearly everything in department stores these days. So here's a government agency in need of a particular component; they call the Chicom manufacturer and inquire about it and are told, "It will arrive in about thirty seconds." Think about it.
Again, I advise everyone, buy only American-made goods, or do without.
Former Navy SEAL, Benjamin Smith took an oath to defend our Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic.
That oath has no expiration date. As an author, speaker, political strategist and ardent Constitutionalist, Benjamin Smith continues to battle tyranny and defend the freedoms that enabled American exceptionalism. Benjamin is a regular contributor to multiple news outlets including Breitbart and Fox News.
Benjamin Smith will appear on Fox News Sunday night at 10 pm EST to further discuss this subject.
FORMER NAVY SEAL REBUKES OBAMA
By Benjamin Smith
President Barack Hussein Obama – STOP using the Navy SEALS as a campaign ploy. Because with all due respect, (what little I have for you), you do NOT speak for me.
You have a movie about SEALS within the past year trying to identify with me, with the navy SEALS, and with anything that might improve your polling numbers…and yet it is all a sham to hide a weak un-American man desperate to claim the victories of others for his own.
You Sir are trying to take the credit for what the American People have achieved in killing Bin Laden. Your use of the SEALs accomplishment as a campaign slogan is nothing less than despicable. I, as a former Navy SEAL do not accept your taking credit for Osama Bin Laden’s death. The American Military accomplished that feat.
Yet now that it is useful, you Mr. President, continue to refer to the event as if it were YOU and you alone which accomplished the worthy task of slaying one of America’s greatest enemies. You say “I directed”, “I Continued”, “My Intelligence Community”, “My national security team”, “I determined that I had enough….”, “My direction…”
Yet reliable sources continue to report that not only did you attempt to stop or delay Bin Laden’s demise, you did not even leave the golf course for the situation room until 20 minutes before SEAL Team 6 took out Osama Bin Laden. Even the clothes you wore in the situation room betray this fact. This is a Commander in Chief? A man who takes credit for actions largely taken while he was out golfing?
We men who have taken the oath, say ENOUGH. You do not speak for me, a former Navy SEAL, or any one of the league of men whom I have earned the right to be among. You are simply a man running for an office. Yet you behave as a glory-hoarding ruler. You campaign to be our leader, yet in reality you wish to be our Master.
The American people are the ones who got Bin Laden… You did Not! We have fought wars and slugged it with Vast Terror Organizations to get to the man you say YOU killed. The United Sates of America has won you a title sir and you have spent the last three years trying to beg, borrow and bow as you GIVE IT ALL AWAY. You just happened to be president of the USA when WE THE PEOPLE got Osama Bin Laden. We do not see you as heroic or stoic, we see you as the guy who let America Go. We got fat and weak and you gave it all away. That is your credit – you bow to foreign leaders and pander to the press. You do not represent me as a Military Man. You do not represent me as a SEAL. You do not represent me as an AMERICAN!
You do not speak for me or any American military man because though you may now be Commander in Chief, you are not the man to whom we can point our sons and say “This is the American dream, this is American exceptionalism, this is what I wish for your future”, because you Sir are NONE of these things. You Sir, are the antithesis of American Exceptionalism. Your idols are Saul Alinksi and Karl Marx and your revolutionary dreams and anti-American ideals poison your every policy. Your every action betrays the fact that in your soul you do not understand what it is to be an American, not what America truly is. Your agenda from the beginning has been to get rid of and kill everything that is and ever was American. You who so easily dismisses America’s greatness and bows to foreigners… YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME. YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE NAVY SEALS. YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE MILITARY MAN AND you SHALL NOT claim as your prize that which you have not earned. The Navy SEALS are NOT a campaign slogan to be bantered about for play. Nor are our accomplishments, including the demise of Osama Bin Laden, yours to claim.
So you DO NOT speak for me. And I will not stand for your use and abuse of my brethren the SEALS.
For Liberty,
Benjamin Smith
I doubt very highly this guy was ever a SEAL.
Mr. Smith - Bush flying onto an aircraft carrier and unfurling "Mission Accomplished" banners was both inaccurate and a worse co-opting of military success for personal glory. And with the same due respect you show your president - STFU.
Navy Seals are not touchy whiners. They are confident in their abilities and would not waste their time on nonsense. This guy does not sound like a Seal.
There speaks a 2% success rate, I wouldn't worry so much what the President does to boost your reputation, it needs it obviously, with that success rate, in Civvy St. unemployment would beckon.
If we would just stop letting these a**holes into our country we would have a lot less to worry about.
good idea, but it's not like they have "Terrorist A**hole" stamped on their foreheads.
Normally stamped on their 'A'-rse**oles don't you know, its why they walk like mincing old tarts.
Terrorists are devoted worshippers of hatred. They mask their failures in life by posing as religious devotees. Even if we offered to give them what they want, they couldn't agree amongst themselves just what that would be. They benefit by our reluctance to stoop to their level (torture, granting them legal right to trial, etc.).
We must keep up the pressure on them. Offer rewards, sponsor spies, use propaganda, isolate leaders and kill them (Bin Ladin), employ drones, etc.. Make them uncomfortable and keep them on the move.
To destroy Western Civilization is their goal. We must be tough with them. They view us as sheep waiting for the slaughter, easy targets in our planes, cities, etc.. Keep domestic politics out of it. Our fighters (Seals, CIA, Rangers, etc.) are feared by these people because these specialists are licensed and trained to kill and will not hesitate. Train more of them and weed out these criminals from their rat holes!
Well done CIA.
Just another excuse for the TSA to stick its hands down our pants. "See?! Another underwear bomber. They're everywhere! Now bend over and spread 'em. After all, It's For Your Safety!"
.... and how many dickwads out there actually believe this sheet???
And the real author of the plot was xxx, so the credit must go to xxx ....
The bombing attempt on Nayef was with a bomb in the rectum. The air attack was in the underwear. Does this mean it is Al Qaeda's doctrine to obsess over the groin and surrounding areas?
Who was going to be the fall guy if this went wrong?
Why not keep the details of the bomb itself secret?
me
It seems we get better results when we have a leader/doer ie. Obama in the white house to get things done and to protect us. Mr. Bush had said he didn't know where Bin Laden was, and he wasn't really thiking about him. Cheney promised if we elected Obama that we would be hit again. To date we have a leader and the institutions to do the job, and not the hero wannabes from the GOP who constantly tried to scare the public into believing that only they could protect us. The American people made a choice in 2008, and should stick with those who have acted to protect us - not the empty promises from the likes of Bush/Cheney/Romney. Dr. Phil said that the best predictor of future behavior was past behavior. Stick with Obama for 4 more years and see how the "just say no", filabuster, do nothing tactics of the GOP have hurt our nation in its attempt to repair the damage done by those who place their personal, greedy, wealth and power before the welfare of our naiton.
Great job on bashing Bush. Even 4 years later it never gets old to see someone post on a message board hating on Bush. What a clever, well thought out, original argument. Sorry, but 12 straight years of Bush bashing is quite a bit more lame than 4 years of Obama Bashing.
And yes, in 8 more years when right wingers are still bashing Obama they will be just as lame as you, good sir.
Its called telling it like it is ..the GOP/TP Demented, need to try doing so; perhaps once, to start; confession, they say, is good for the Soul.
I love how the article doesn't note that the bomber was a CIA informant but I'm not in the least bit surprised. When the patriot act is up for extension their needs to be an excuse for the people willing to give up freedoms for false security. Obama is doing a great job, continuing a lot of Bush's policies that are pissing off the world even more so and destroying our economy. Nobama and hell no to Mittens also, we are screwed.
Obama is only continuing the Bush "anti-terrorism" policies long enough to be re-elected. When he gets to his second term, or loses the election due to vote fraud, he will then turn those same, powers against his political enemies and the domestic enemies of our Country, like Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell and Clarence Thomas, etc.
I believe you are correct. It must have been a nightmare over the past Four...it is lucky that America appointed the only Man's man, who could have done it, and made it look so COOL as he did..He is not like the GOP/TP Demented, they are losers.
This is definitely the result of competent Intelligence work made possible by the Obama Administrations renewal of American credibility in the world that was utterly destroyed by 8 years of the draft dodging ignorant Bush administration. You cant get people on the inside of an organization like Al-Queda to WORK with you if they HATE you!
This CIA " saucisse au fromage " dribbling out more insane imaginative drivel, sausage stuffed with cheese, served with caviar and champers, all for the composition of the most implausible bulls*it I have ever had foisted upon me. Truth to tell, these idiots spent $Billions of, looking for Osama BL he was not likely to be found in the Ritz hotel in Paris..but the money spent there by the CIA, was a ransom in itself, you could have bought Bahrain on half of it.
We are being treated as fools by this useless organisation, it achieves nothing, has no credibility, and no bloody honour.
I assume what you mean is,you cant get the British spies that infiltrate Al-Queda to work with us if the British hate us. (pronoun references and all) As we all know,Al-Queda already hates us. If thats what you mean,I agree with you. We need the help of other nations.We cant be everywhere and we cant know everything and we are going to be at a disadvantage if we try to conduct intelligence gathering in some countries. The Germans are going to be able to find German terror cells in their own country far more effectivly than we can.
What this should teach us is,giant armies and 2 billion dollar stealth bombers are not really effective in fighting these terrorists.
Thats why they call it "asymetric warfare". They stay diffuse so that our state of the art weapons actually do more mass casualties than they could themselves. Why do you think in Iraq and Afganistan they quickly learned to go into a large crowd in a market with an AK47 and start shooting at American troops. They WANTED American troops to cause mass casualties of civilians. (Whats sad is,so many Americans go on about how the rules of engagement were changed so that troops could not return fire in those situations and would say we needed to "take the gloves off" when in fact,thats exactly what the terrorists were trying to accomplish) They were not trying to kill Americans with the AK47. They know it was pointless,they might get one guy and chances are his body armor would stop the bullet. They KNOW they are going to be killed,the idea is to take as many people with them as possible.
Rather than use a bomb vest though,they want to use OUR weapons to do it,becuase then the families and friends of those killed and wounded turn against us. Its a very clever strategy and it works well becuase the idea of simply withdrawing from those encounters really sits wrong with people. However,its like Sun Tzu wrote,you never do what your enemy wants you to do.
Drones ARE effective against terrorists. They let us strike places where its not possible to get troops. We should therefore make lots more of those. Cooperation with our allies is effective. They often learn information we can use,but may hesitate to share it if we act contrary to their values or interests. (for instance,the Canadians shared information that a person MIGHT be connected to terrorists. It turned out in the end though that he was NOT. We kidnapped him,and sent him to Syria to be tortured. That is abhorent to the Canadians. They told us information,and let us know there was some questions as to its reliability but felt it was better to err on the side of caution. We went way overboard. They will NEVER share such information with us again.