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Source: ABCNews
By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , JASON RYAN and ANNA SCHECTER
July 6, 2011
Reports of al Qaeda preparing so-called "belly
bombs" designed to be surgically implanted in
potential terrorists before they board airplanes have
already led to increased scrutiny for anyone traveling
to the U.S. who appears to have had recent surgery, U.
S. officials said.
The Department of Homeland Security recently issued
a bulletin warning of renewed interested in the tactic
-- suspected to be the latest innovation from
infamous alleged bomb maker Ibrahim Asiri. A
ccording to U.S. officials, a would-be attacker would
slip through airport security, board a plane and
detonate the bomb using a chemical-filled syringe.
"Al Qaeda has been working for over a year on the
idea of implanting bombs surgically in human beings
and they may now have actually done that," said
Richard Clarke, former White House counter-terror
advisor and ABC News consultant.
Though extreme, the possibility of hiding a
significant explosive in the human body is possible,
according to Dr. Mark Melrose, an emergency
physician at Urgent Care Manhattan.
"With proper skill, a surgeon could indeed package a
bomb or explosive device [and] it could be implanted
inside the abdominal cavity," he told ABC News.
Melrose said that if placed properly, a bomb the size
of a grapefruit may not even cause the patient
discomfort.
The Transportation Security Administration is
preparing a "strong defense" against that possibility,
TSA Administrator John Pistole said.
"We are treating the information seriously and sharing
the information as a precautionary matter with our
foreign counterparts and also, of course, with U.S.
carriers," he said.
U.S. officials told ABC News Asiri, a young Saudi
native, is behind the "belly bomb." Asiri is known for
innovative, ruthless bomb plots including one
instance in which he packed explosives into the rectal
cavity of his 23-year-old brother Abdullah for a
suicide missions targeting the head of Saudi
intelligence, Prince bin Nayef. That bomb exploded
prematurely, the officials said, and the only casualty
was Asiri's brother.
Asiri is also credited with two other failed plots
involving the bomb hidden in the underwear of a
passenger on a Detroit-bound flight, and the bombs
hidden in printers being shipped from Yemen to
Chicago.
Ibrahim Asiri is the son of a former Saudi soldier. The
father told a Saudi newspaper his son was radicalized
years ago, and fled the county for Yemen. In Yemen,
Asiri trained in secret camps, working to perfect his
bomb making, and managing to elude capture.
In November last year U.S. intelligence made
capturing Asiri a top priority after the failed printer
bomb plot. Those bombs were cleverly disguised
inside Hewlett-Packard printers which were being
shipped along with clothes and books. Asiri packed
the toner cartridge with explosives and added the
circuit board of a cell phone--something that did not
stand out in state of the art cargo screening.
"We need to find him," John Brennan, President
Obama's top anti-terrorism advisor, said at the time.
Before that, U.S. officials say Asiri was believed to be
behind the notorious "underwear bomb" worn by then
23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that failed to
detonate on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on
Christmas Day in 2009. That bomb contained the
same type of explosives as U.S. officials said "belly
bombs" would, according to a report by Britain's The
Mirror.
ABC News' Martha Raddatz and Nasser Atta
contributed to this report.
By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , JASON RYAN and ANNA SCHECTER
July 6, 2011
Reports of al Qaeda preparing so-called "belly
bombs" designed to be surgically implanted in
potential terrorists before they board airplanes have
already led to increased scrutiny for anyone traveling
to the U.S. who appears to have had recent surgery, U.
S. officials said.
The Department of Homeland Security recently issued
a bulletin warning of renewed interested in the tactic
-- suspected to be the latest innovation from
infamous alleged bomb maker Ibrahim Asiri. A
ccording to U.S. officials, a would-be attacker would
slip through airport security, board a plane and
detonate the bomb using a chemical-filled syringe.
"Al Qaeda has been working for over a year on the
idea of implanting bombs surgically in human beings
and they may now have actually done that," said
Richard Clarke, former White House counter-terror
advisor and ABC News consultant.
Though extreme, the possibility of hiding a
significant explosive in the human body is possible,
according to Dr. Mark Melrose, an emergency
physician at Urgent Care Manhattan.
"With proper skill, a surgeon could indeed package a
bomb or explosive device [and] it could be implanted
inside the abdominal cavity," he told ABC News.
Melrose said that if placed properly, a bomb the size
of a grapefruit may not even cause the patient
discomfort.
The Transportation Security Administration is
preparing a "strong defense" against that possibility,
TSA Administrator John Pistole said.
"We are treating the information seriously and sharing
the information as a precautionary matter with our
foreign counterparts and also, of course, with U.S.
carriers," he said.
U.S. officials told ABC News Asiri, a young Saudi
native, is behind the "belly bomb." Asiri is known for
innovative, ruthless bomb plots including one
instance in which he packed explosives into the rectal
cavity of his 23-year-old brother Abdullah for a
suicide missions targeting the head of Saudi
intelligence, Prince bin Nayef. That bomb exploded
prematurely, the officials said, and the only casualty
was Asiri's brother.
Asiri is also credited with two other failed plots
involving the bomb hidden in the underwear of a
passenger on a Detroit-bound flight, and the bombs
hidden in printers being shipped from Yemen to
Chicago.
Ibrahim Asiri is the son of a former Saudi soldier. The
father told a Saudi newspaper his son was radicalized
years ago, and fled the county for Yemen. In Yemen,
Asiri trained in secret camps, working to perfect his
bomb making, and managing to elude capture.
In November last year U.S. intelligence made
capturing Asiri a top priority after the failed printer
bomb plot. Those bombs were cleverly disguised
inside Hewlett-Packard printers which were being
shipped along with clothes and books. Asiri packed
the toner cartridge with explosives and added the
circuit board of a cell phone--something that did not
stand out in state of the art cargo screening.
"We need to find him," John Brennan, President
Obama's top anti-terrorism advisor, said at the time.
Before that, U.S. officials say Asiri was believed to be
behind the notorious "underwear bomb" worn by then
23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that failed to
detonate on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on
Christmas Day in 2009. That bomb contained the
same type of explosives as U.S. officials said "belly
bombs" would, according to a report by Britain's The
Mirror.
ABC News' Martha Raddatz and Nasser Atta
contributed to this report.
