Saudi Double Agent Frustratedal-Qaida’s Latest Attack Against US

The Islamic terrorist group tried to blow up an airplane on the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death. It was going to use a non-metallic explosive stuck to the body with a pair of underwear.

According to U.S. intelligence sources, the suicide bomber entrusted by al-Qaida to blow up an American plane in the air exactly one year after Osama bin Laden’s death was actually a Saudi double agent who had infiltrated the insurgent group by volunteering for the mission. The explosive he was planning to use — more sophisticated than other explosives that have been intercepted in the past — is in FBI custody and currently undergoing analysis.

The Saudi agent had fled Yemen after infiltrating al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He then traveled to the United Arab Emirates, contacted the CIA and provided them with information about the terrorist group and the explosive device it had given him. The White House had proof of the plan by mid-April. The Navy SEALs, a special operations force of the Navy, annihilated bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

According to the United States government, the double agent provided the CIA with critical information that allowed them to launch an attack Sunday with an unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft, during which they killed Fahd al-Qasaa, the external operations director for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The Pentagon believes him to be implicated in the bombing of the destroyer the USS Cole, which occurred in Yemen in 2000, killing 17 U.S. soldiers.

This Monday, the Associated Press agency became the first to report on the intended attack. The United States government kept that information secret for more than two weeks but found itself obliged to confirm the attack as a result of the agency’s revelations. Various government employees have confirmed that the explosive that al-Qaida had intended to use would have been difficult to detect at an airport’s security checkpoints.

We’re talking about a non-metallic explosive hidden inside a pair of custom-made underwear in such a way as to render it imperceptible, even given the thorough searches that U.S. Transportation Security Administration usually performs. In addition, the bomb had two forms of detonation in order to avoid last-minute malfunctions.

In this way, al-Qaida was hoping to avoid a mistake like the one made by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airplane as it landed in Detroit in 2009. He succeeded only in burning his undergarments, without even detonating the explosive that he was carrying inside of them. He was arrested, sent to trial — where he pled guilty — and sentenced to life in prison.

The FBI is now studying whether it should advise modifying airport security measures given the new techniques al-Qaida is using. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, that terrorist group has tried repeatedly to attack U.S. airlines. In 2006, United Kingdom police stopped a plot to blow up at least ten planes with destinations in North America using liquid explosives.