The CIA, with help from a well-placed informant and foreign intelligence services, conducted a covert operation in Yemen in recent weeks that disrupted a nascent suicide plot and recovered a new bomb, U.S. officials said.
Officials said the bomb represents an upgrade over the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system. [AP]
What will be the ultimate reaction to this? Of course — everyone must strip down completely before boarding an aircraft. Meanwhile, two things: first, the TSA didn’t catch this, and if they had it would have really been a complete failure of USA intelligence, ‘cos that means the threat made it all the way to an airport; second, the TSA couldn’t have caught it because they don’t operate in Yemeni airports; third, why are terrorists so fixated on airplanes?
