Terrorist bid to build bombs in mid-flight

guardian ^ | 2/8/04

[knak]

Intelligence reveals dry runs of new threat to blow up airliners

Jason Burke, chief reporter
Sunday February 8, 2004
The Observer

Islamic militants have conducteddry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe. The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say.

Concerns that militants might assemble a bomb or another weapon on board were a key factor in the series of recent cancellations of transatlantic flights. Last weekend British Airways stopped flights from London to Washington and Miami for fear of an attack and Air France also cancelled scheduled flights.

Security agencies are now hunting scores of militants who have been trained in the new tactics. The warning, passed to Western agencies by Middle Eastern intelligence services, is based on interrogations of Islamic militants captured in the Arabian Gulf and is corroborated by intercepted communications between terrorist cells and interviews with prisoners held by the US government at Guantanamo Bay.

Officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are believed to have warned that at least 12dry runs may have been completed and to have said that the terrorists are aiming to try out their plans on flights around the Mediterranean and the Middle East before attempting to bomb a transatlantic route, where security precautions are now very tight. Militants know that individual components are far easier to smuggle through airport security than an assembled bomb.

In May 2002 nearly 100 grammes of pentrite, a plastic explosive used by the alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid, was found hidden in the armrest of a Moroccan jet when it landed in Metz, France. At the time, investigators said they thought it had been put there as a warning. Now French officials suspect the explosives were placed on the jet as a trial of the new tactics. Though some investigators fear they may be the victim of deliberate 'disinformation', officials say that they cannot riskignoring the warnings.

Ali Abd Rahman al-Ghamdi, alleged to be one of the masterminds of a suicide attack that killed 35 in Riyadh last May, is thought to have revealed the new tactics after giving himself up to Saudi authorities weeks after the blast. Shortly after the cap ture of al-Ghamdi, who is believed to be close to senior al-Qaeda figures, the US government's Transportation Security Administration issued an urgent memo detailing new threats to aviation and warning that terrorists in teams of five might be planning suicide missions to hijack commercial airliners, possibly using common items carried by travellers, such as cameras, modified as weapons. The CIA said that a high level of threat was based on information from several incarcerated high-ranking militants.

An FBI bulletin last November was more specific. It warned that 'terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) assembled on board to hijack an aircraft or, alternatively, destroy it over heavily populated areas in the event of passenger or crew resistance.

'Components of IEDs can be smuggled on to an aircraft, concealed in either clothing or personal carry-on items such as shampoo and medicine bottles, and assembled on board.

'In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft's forward lavatory.'

Analysts say that although the threat of a 'spectacular' attack on the West still exists, most strikes by Islamic militants will be onsoft targets in areas where security is lax. Last weekend suicide bombers killed 109 people and wounded hundreds more in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A radical Islamic group has published claims of responsibility for a string of attacks in Iraq on a website run from the UK.

The Islamic Observation Centre, run from London by the Egyptian dissident Yasser al-Sirri, posted a statement, from 'the Ansar al-Sunnah Army' on its site last week, saying that the group was behind the Mosul attack.

The Ansar al-Sunnah Army is linked to the Ansar ul-Islam organisation which is believed to have launched a series of bomb attacks in Iraq in recent months, killing scores of Iraqis, aid workers and coalition personnel. Yesterday senior American officers said they were tracking the group.

'We are certainly going to follow up on the claims of responsibility,' said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the US command in Iraq's deputy chief of operations. Many of the strikes have targeted local Iraqis who have co-operated with the US-led coalition authorities.

Two versions of the claim have been posted by the IOC. One threatens further attacks on 'collaborators'.

'While claiming responsibility for this heroic operation, we tell every agent who has put himself at the service of the occupier that the fate waiting for you will be much worse if you do not repent,' the statement said. The group say that the claims of hundreds of civilian casualties in the strikes are 'lies'.

A second statement, signed by the 'emir' of the group, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmud, calls the attacks a 'heroic deed against ... the people of Kurdistan who opened their arms for the Americans and their army'.

[WestCoastGal]

"Officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are believed to have warned that at least 12dry runs may have been completed and to have said that the terrorists are aiming to try out their plans on flights around the Mediterranean and the Middle East before attempting to bomb a transatlantic route, where security precautions are now very tight. Militants know that individual components are far easier to smuggle through airport security than an assembled bomb."

I wonder if that Egypt charter jet crash might have been a dry run that went bad or good depending on what the bomber had planned.

[FairOpinion]

"Officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are believed to have warned that at least 12dry runs may have been completed "


===

This is scary. Now it make more sense, why flight cancelations actually prevented attacks.

[Lazamataz]

The Islamic Observation Centre, run from London by the Egyptian dissident Yasser al-Sirri

Egypt keeps cropping up.

If we don't bloody Egypt's nose soon, I will be awfully annoyed.

[FairOpinion]

"I wonder if that Egypt charter jet crash might have been a dry run "

===

Excellent point. It could well have been.

[WoofDog123]

If a plane is taken down by this tactic, I would expect carry-on luggage will be pretty much banned. Regardless, this is the sort of tactic that, if extrapolated, is very difficult to defeat by the engagement rules the west is towards muslim passengers in general.

[Ronin]

They should do that now.

Let's face it, why does anyone really need to carry on luggage? Books, newspapers, writing materials, sure...

But I can't think of anything else a person actually needs while he is in an airplane. And if he does, tough. Stay home.

[Oorang]

Good question. Sure haven't heard much about what info was found on the black box. The first one was supposed to be damaged beyond gleaning anything from it but the second box was supposed to be in good condition.

In the last six weeks or so weren't there a small handful of flights where "odd" things were found in the airplane? Memory is fuzzy here.

[Cicero]

Egypt was the intellectual melting pot where Islamic terrorism interbred with Communist terrorism and Nazism to produce many of the problems we see today.

It completely mystifies me why we are continuing to pay $2 billion to subsidize Egypt, while the Egyptian government teachings little kids to hate Jews and Americans and the Egyptian military participates in the persecution and killing of Coptic Christians.

[JennysCool]

I recall that as well. Then there was the woman who was the subject of a search that kept a plane grounded for hours.

[WestCoastGal]

There were reports that it was possible that people were trying to hide some of these items in body cavities. There has been a lot of odd behavior on flights and notes left that were false alarms. Quite posssible a lot of testing of our security going on. I don't remember anything specifically being left behind, although somewhere in the vast information area in my brain from reading all these threads there is a faint glimmer of something like that...but what? I will try to research that.

[WestCoastGal]

Yes, I think that was the muslim woman whom they were questioning as to where her husband was. I think his name was on their watch list if I'm not mistaken.

[oceanview]

how do you stop contact lens kits? how do you stop body cavity bombers?

[WoofDog123]

I think political reality is that these measures will only be enacted after there is a demonstrated** threat, i.e. attempted or successful bombing. It seems to be the nature of the political beast, including whatever pre-9/11/01 intelligence regarding airline attacks they had.

I am amazed there have been no (Unless the NY/queens crash was one) successful attacks on commercial aviation in the last 2 years. The target (i.e. a plane with flyers like myself on it, which I DO take seriously, since CO17 GLA-EWR is a route I fly periodically) is pretty much impossible to really defend if the enemy is willing to settle for simply destroying the plane.

Perhaps the leaderships of various terrorist entities have realized, after seeing the US invade and topple two muslim countries (a quasi-theocracy and a secular dictatorship) in the last 2 years, that one more high-profile attack would result in even more invasions of muslim countries. Presumably their host countries realize this as well, and have exercised some pressure on them.

I think the media has completely misread, or at least mis-depicted, the public's probable reaction to another terrorist attack in the US or on a US airliner. If the 'public' were to be mad at bush, it would be for letting muslims on planes in the first place, not for 'failing to do enough' in PC security terms against an enemy with many options for improvision.

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttt

[WoofDog123]

"how do you stop contact lens kits? how do you stop body cavity bombers?"

If we work from the administration's premise that people of all nationalities, religions, races, ages, other profilable items, etc., have an equal right to fly without discrimination, it is absolutely impossible.

I would like to see a scientific poll on the % of the public that supports profiling, altering access for travellers of certain ethnic backgrounds (islamic). I bet it is over 50%.

[mtbopfuyn]

The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say.

What took them so long? I had that figured out years ago.

[itsnevertoolate]

We carry on items like camera gear to protect them from destruction by the checked baggage handlers, not so that we can use them during the flight. I have seen far too many bags drop from the conveyors to the tarmac to trust lenses and cameras worth thousands of dollars to checked baggage.

[eno_]

Tony Blair stood a good chance of seeing that flight crash. He was vacationing in Egypt at the time, at a beach resort just north of the crash site.

Kind of line AA587, which almost crashed on the house of the firefighter famous for telling Osama to kiss his ass. Oh, and the UNGA was in session. And Bush was in NYC that day or the day before.

[eno_]

Our Founders gave us freedom of association.

That SHOULD mean that if I want to start "No Raghead Airlines" and offer service only to non-Moslems, I should be free to do so. I daresay I could charge $50-$200 more per ticket and make money hand over fist.