DHS Says "Belly Bombs" Next Terrorist Threat
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. According 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, says an ABC News report.
"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.
Ahough 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, says the ABC News report.
"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 in the report.
"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.
The report says that Asiri, a young Saudi native, is behind the "belly bomb." He is known for innovative 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 report 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, said the report.
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