US Official: Terrorist Plot Involve 'Surgically Implanted Devices'
A Senior U.S. Official has told ABC News that intercepted Al Qaeda communications indicate planned attack ‘Big,’ ‘Strategically Significant’.
The new information is providing details about the communications intercepted from the terrorists, telling ABC News that al-Qaeda operatives could be heard talking about an upcoming attack.
The official described the terrorists as saying the planned attack is “going to be big” and “strategically significant.”
“The part that is alarming is the confidence they showed while communicating and the air of certainty,” the official said, adding that the group — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — appeared to have a media plan for after the attack.
The White House said top administration officials gathered late Saturday over a terror threat that provoked the State Department to close more than 20 diplomatic posts and issue a worldwide travel alert.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice chaired a meeting with 12 administration officials including the secretaries of State, Defense and Homeland Security and the directors of the FBI, CIA and NSA, according to a White House statement.
Authorities do not know the exact target of the planned attack, the official told ABC.
“We do not know whether they mean an embassy, an airbase, an aircraft, trains,” the official said.
The official said there is concern about devices that could be implanted inside the body of a terrorist.
“We are concerned about surgically implanted devices,” said. “These are guys who have developed the techniques to defeat our detection methods.”
Although underwear bombings and bombs disguised as printer toner cartridges have been traced back to the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen (AQAP), officials have not yet specified the origins of this latest threat.
The proposed operation involves the insertion of a plastic, explosive PETN packet, detonated by an injection of TATP–a tactic that allegedly cannot be traced by current technology.
However, experts state that it would be extremely challenging for operatives to implant a bomb big enough to cause catastrophic damage.
The official also said authorities were stunned that the group broke “operational security” — meaning they talked likely knowing it would be picked up by intercepts.
The State Department took the unprecedented action of closing Embassies across the Middle East and North Africa – including those in Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait – because of “a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate.”
The next day, the State Department issued a global travel warning to all U.S. citizens around the world.
We have seen a similar plot in September 2007, when extremist Abdullah Hassan Tali al Asiri built a bomb which his brother implanted into his body in attempt to assassinate Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef.
Experts believe the explosive was detonated electronically and that the operatives’ body suppressed the force of the blast and as a result the suicide bomber was the only one to be killed. There is a considerable debate whether or not the device was truly embedded in his body cavity or carried in his clothes externally.
Planned attack ‘Big,’ ‘Strategically Significant’
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee calls it the “most serious threat I’ve seen in a number of years.”
Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia is describing “the chatter” detected by U.S. intelligence agencies that led the Obama administration to order the weekend closure of 21 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Muslim world, and issue a global travel warning to Americans.
Chambliss tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there’s an awful lot of chatter out there” and he says it’s “very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.”
He says it’s critical that “we do the right kind of planning.”
Security tight at Mideast missions as US assesses Qaeda threat
In Sanaa, special forces with armoured personnel carriers were stationed outside the US embassy and the missions of Britain, France and Germany, an AFP correspondent reported.
Police and army checkpoints were set up on all the Yemeni capital’s main throughfares.
Residents said they heard the sound of a drone flying over, which could only be American as Washington is the sole power to operate the unmanned aircraft in the region.
In Jordan, authorities beefed up security around the closed US mission.
Source: ABC News
Tags: Al Qaeda, long island, New York, News, Surgically Implanted Device, terrorist, Yemen
This entry was posted on August 4, 2013 at 9:54 am and is filed under Featured, News, Sidebar, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.