UnderwearBomb 2.0 foiled, explosive laden adult diaper recovered

Fitting of a spy plot by Ian Fleming, this latest attempt to blow a plane out of the sky had been tracked for weeks using a double agent deep inside Al-Qaeda, and it was this mole who agreed to wear the butt bomb.  That is, wear it until outside of the control of Al-Qaeda, at which point he presented the dastardly diaper to his handlers, who then killed the plotters with a drone strike.  The only disturbing aspect about this jihad attempt is that the norm for Al-Qaeda (to date) is to change the tactic/weapon so as to confuse the enemy.  There should not have been a 2.0 version but here it is.  We need to know why the change in habit, and we must now modify our viewpoint to include the possibility of further refinements in previously tried weapons.

Terrorism is a bitch, doncha know...

From The Washington Post May 8 by Greg Miller

CIA unraveled bomb plot from within

The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including an agent who posed as a willing suicide bomber — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.

The Saudi intelligence service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials, who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.

Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated the terrorist group posing as a bomber and then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.

But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the plot unfold.

“We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We had the device in our control, and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”

The bomb arrived at an FBI laboratory in Quantico about a week ago and is being examined by explosives technicians, law enforcement officials said. One said the explosive was made from a chemical compound that was “built to get around U.S. security and had the potential to do that.”

The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what U.S. officials have come to regard as the most critical counterterrorism front.

The plot shows that al-Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen remains ­committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.

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