CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
another booster shot of fear in an attempt to subjugate the masses. that's all this is. a fake operation so that people think the TSA have a reason to exist.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious...

"The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand," Hayden said.

Not only that, but it will be used to "improve security" too:

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.

There were no immediate plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.

In other words, there are plans to change security in the future.

I could see this simply being a marketing tactic to sell more full-body scanner systems. Might be a good time to buy some stock :-)

These terrorists aren't particularly imaginative or inventive are they?

I was watching BBC News a few days back and the security correspondent was having a discussion with the presenter and he said that Al Qaeda was no longer the organisation that it was and it had been fatally weakened.

But now suddenly we have lunatics allegedly trying to blow their pants off (again).

So has this been wildly exaggerated so that the defence establishment's raison d'etre can stick around for a little longer?

I thought they were playing up the whole "Al Qaeda has been weakened" card so that the U.S could magically claim a victory in Afghanistan and then focus their attention towards China and the Pacific, hence the recent stationing of Marines in Australia.

he was a double agent apparently
weird
Would-be underwear bomber a double agent