Post by redjamescash on Jan 20, 2014 11:08:10 GMT -5
‘Underwear bomber’ was working for the CIA
truther
January 10, 2014
Bomber involved in plot to attack US-bound jet was working as an informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged
A would-be “underwear bomber” involved in a plot to attack a US-based
jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi
intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.
The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story
about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a
high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the
clothing of an attacker.
The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the
seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime
in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.
It has also been linked to a suspected US drone strike in Yemen
where two Yemeni members of al-Qaida were killed by a missile attack on
their car on Sunday, one of them a senior militant, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed
al-Quso.
But the news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in
fact an informer for US intelligence is likely to raise just as many
questions as it answers.
Citing US and Yemeni officials, Associated Press reported that the
unnamed informant was working under cover for the Saudis and the CIA
when he was given the bomb, which was of a new non-metallic type aimed
at getting past airport security.
The informant then turned the device over to his handlers and has
left Yemen, the officials told the news agency. The LA Times, which
first broke the news that the plot had been a “sting operation”, said
that the bomb plan had also provided the intelligence leads that allowed
the strike on Quso.
Earlier John Brennan, Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser
and a former CIA official, told ABC’s Good Morning America that
authorities are “confident that neither the device nor the intended user
of this device pose a threat to us”.
US officials have said the plot was detected in its early stages and that no American airliner was ever at risk.
The FBI
is conducting forensic tests on the bomb as a first step towards
discovering whether it would have cleared existing airport scanning
systems. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic senator for California who
heads the Senate intelligence committee, gave an early hint when she
said that she had been briefed about the device which she called
“undetectable”.
But AP quoted an unnamed US official as saying current detection
methods probably would have spotted the shape of the explosive in the
latest device.
Just how major an escalation in threat is posed by the bomb remains
unclear. Security sources have told news agencies that it was a step up
in levels of sophistication from the original underwear bomb that was
used in a failed attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit on
Christmas Day in 2009.
The device used a more refined detonation system, and Brennan said “it was a threat from a standpoint of the design”.
When it comes to who made the device the focus is on an al-Qaida’s
offshoot, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Matthew Levitt, a
counter-terrorism expert at the Washington Institute, said that the
interception of the plot amounted to a significant achievement for US
security agencies.
He said: “The FBI is holding the device, which suggests that this was
done by having boots on the ground. This was a sophisticated operation
that shows we are making in-roads in serious places.”
Levitt, who was involved as a senior analyst in the FBI’s
investigation into 9/11, said that it was natural to be sceptical in a presidential election
year about security announcements. “But this was not political, it
didn’t come from the White House and my sense was that it was a really
unique success,” he said.
Levitt said that the spotlight would now be even more intense on
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, AQAP’s assumed bomb-making chief, who is
thought to be hiding out in Yemen.
Asiri is believed to have been the creator of the Detroit underwear
bomb as well as explosives that were packed into printer cartridges
bound for Chicago in 2010.
www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/09/underwear-bomber-working-for-cia
truther
January 10, 2014
Bomber involved in plot to attack US-bound jet was working as an informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged
A would-be “underwear bomber” involved in a plot to attack a US-based
jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi
intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.
The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story
about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a
high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the
clothing of an attacker.
The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the
seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime
in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.
It has also been linked to a suspected US drone strike in Yemen
where two Yemeni members of al-Qaida were killed by a missile attack on
their car on Sunday, one of them a senior militant, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed
al-Quso.
But the news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in
fact an informer for US intelligence is likely to raise just as many
questions as it answers.
Citing US and Yemeni officials, Associated Press reported that the
unnamed informant was working under cover for the Saudis and the CIA
when he was given the bomb, which was of a new non-metallic type aimed
at getting past airport security.
The informant then turned the device over to his handlers and has
left Yemen, the officials told the news agency. The LA Times, which
first broke the news that the plot had been a “sting operation”, said
that the bomb plan had also provided the intelligence leads that allowed
the strike on Quso.
Earlier John Brennan, Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser
and a former CIA official, told ABC’s Good Morning America that
authorities are “confident that neither the device nor the intended user
of this device pose a threat to us”.
US officials have said the plot was detected in its early stages and that no American airliner was ever at risk.
The FBI
is conducting forensic tests on the bomb as a first step towards
discovering whether it would have cleared existing airport scanning
systems. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic senator for California who
heads the Senate intelligence committee, gave an early hint when she
said that she had been briefed about the device which she called
“undetectable”.
But AP quoted an unnamed US official as saying current detection
methods probably would have spotted the shape of the explosive in the
latest device.
Just how major an escalation in threat is posed by the bomb remains
unclear. Security sources have told news agencies that it was a step up
in levels of sophistication from the original underwear bomb that was
used in a failed attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit on
Christmas Day in 2009.
The device used a more refined detonation system, and Brennan said “it was a threat from a standpoint of the design”.
When it comes to who made the device the focus is on an al-Qaida’s
offshoot, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Matthew Levitt, a
counter-terrorism expert at the Washington Institute, said that the
interception of the plot amounted to a significant achievement for US
security agencies.
He said: “The FBI is holding the device, which suggests that this was
done by having boots on the ground. This was a sophisticated operation
that shows we are making in-roads in serious places.”
Levitt, who was involved as a senior analyst in the FBI’s
investigation into 9/11, said that it was natural to be sceptical in a presidential election
year about security announcements. “But this was not political, it
didn’t come from the White House and my sense was that it was a really
unique success,” he said.
Levitt said that the spotlight would now be even more intense on
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, AQAP’s assumed bomb-making chief, who is
thought to be hiding out in Yemen.
Asiri is believed to have been the creator of the Detroit underwear
bomb as well as explosives that were packed into printer cartridges
bound for Chicago in 2010.
www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/09/underwear-bomber-working-for-cia