Report: CIA foiled al-Qaida plot

Without metal, the explosive force of any bomb has to be pretty great to rip open the structure of a plane and do enough damage to take the plane down.

the bomb sniffers also have a sophisticated way to sniff out Nitrogen compounds ( almost all non nuclear explosives are nitrogen based , even gunpowder). SO certain lab equipment and dogs (which are fpr the most part, more sensitive than lab equipment) can snigg nitrogen compounds.
NOW, the only thing I can think of that would ruin the lab e quipment detecting exploosives would be if the would be bomber would piss in his pants and let it dry before getting on a plane,,

The plot involved an upgrade of 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, U.S. officials said.

The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The successful disruption of an effort to place a suicide bomber on a US-bound plane is an intelligence coup any way you slice it. An agent went to Yemen, won the trust of members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), convinced them he was interested in attacking a US plane, and arranged delivery of their latest concealable bomb.

Then he scooted over the border back to Saudi Arabia and handed the bomb over. Now the underwear bomb is being pored over by experts seeking to determine how easy it would have been to get past current security procedures and what needs to be done to plug any holes in airport security.

The agent also provided information on the whereabouts of Fahd Mohammed al-Quso, a militant on the FBI's most wanted list for his involvement in the attack on the USS Cole off the port of Aden in 2000. Quso was killed in a US drone attack in Yemen's Shabwa mountains last week. Quso, who had also assisted some of the 9/11 hijackers, had escaped from Yemeni prison in 2003. He was recaptured the next year, but was released in 2007 by the government, which refused a US extradition request.

That's all pretty good work. But while a major win for international security efforts, the leak of the successful penetration to the press will now make it easier for AQAP to plug holes in its own security procedures, making it harder to put agents in place in the future. While the group would have worried when the promised bomb attack never happened, there would have been plenty of ambiguity: Perhaps the attacker had been arrested, or simply lost his nerve. Now AQAP knows to a dead certainty what happened.

CNN news wrote:

The CIA foiled a plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner around the one-year anniversary of the killing of its former leader Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press reported.

According to the report, American officials say the plot involved a bomb with an improved design that upgraded the underwear bomb taken aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. That explosive device failed to detonate.

The AP reports the improved bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism, but was still intended to be hidden in a passenger's underwear.

An official told NBC News no airlines were ever at risk. The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.

Counter-terror officials deem the thwarted plot a "success story," NBC News reported. They said they are analyzing the device.

According to the AP, the would-be suicide bomber was instructed to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack.

The U.S. officials interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive case, according to the AP.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/07/11583173-report-cia-foiled-al-qaida-plot-to-destroy-us-bound-airliner?lite