DHS Fear-Mongers Off Apparent Diminishment in Ibrahim al-Asiri’s Skills

The Department of Homeland Security wants you to be afraid of the latest handiwork of AQAP’s bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri. They’ve issued a warning (and leaked that warning) about new-and-improved shoe bombs.

Senior U.S. officials say that Wednesday’s terror warning about international air travel, first reported by NBC News, is the result of recent chatter about Ibrahim al-Asiri, the al Qaeda bombmaker from Yemen responsible for several high-profile bombing attempts against U.S. targets.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security warned airlines of new information related to the possibility of bombs or bomb material hidden in shoes, like the device that shoe bomber Richard Reid used to try to take down a plane over the Atlantic in December 2001.

Now, perhaps this is a grave new worry.

But the first thing I thought of when I heard about this warning was the warning DHS issued two years ago, 10 days after they had flown the Saudi-British infiltrator into AQAP out of Yemen with the undiebomb he was allegedly given to use against a US-bound flight.

DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Good evening. As we come on the air, ABC News has learned that US authorities are studying a new terror threat tonight, members of al Qaeda using body bombs, explosives that have been surgically implanted in their bodies to evade security. Tomorrow, it will be the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, making this week a time of heightened concern on the ground and in the sky. And ABC’s chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross is here with these new details. Brian?

BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Diane, well, tonight American and European authorities tell ABC News, they fear al Qaeda will use these so-called body bombs to target Americans overseas and US flights coming in from overseas.

GRAPHICS: SECURITY WATCH

BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) As a result, security at several airports in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe and the middle ease has been substantially stepped up, with a focus on US carriers. And additional federal air marshals have been shifted overseas in advance of this week’s anniversary of the bin Laden raid. The plot is not so far fetched. Medical experts say there is plenty of room in the stomach area for surgically implanted explosives.

After that bit of propaganda, I fully expect the White House will roll out a thwarted plot in approximately 8 days. And then, after the initial excitement, we’ll learn the plot (if it was indeed a plot and not a sting) was actually thwarted (if it was indeed a plot and not a sting) back on February 14.

Bonus points: this plot will have been foiled using the phone dragnet.

And aside from the skepticism I have given DHS’ past manipulation of Asiri warnings, there’s one more problem with DHS crying wolf like this.

Two years ago, anonymous leakers from the very same vicinity as this week’s leakers assured us that Asiri had mastered the process of surgically placing operational bombs inside a person’s stomach cavity Virtually undetectable, even with Michael Chertoff’s best boondoggle machines!

And now, with two more years to perfect his craft, DHS claims that Asiri is making … shoe bombs?

Really? Shoe bombs?

We’re supposed to be panicked that Asiri’s skill has apparently regressed from where — these same anonymous leakers claimed — it was two years ago, that Asiri can no longer make undetectable cavity bombs but has instead returned to a ploy Al Qaeda used 12 years ago?

Again, maybe this threat is real. If it is, it’s too damn bad DHS has already squandered its credibility with past inflammatory warnings about Asiri’s skill.

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8 replies
  1. What Constitution? says:

    $52 Billion a year, and the best we can do is periodically dredge up fearful references to the guy whose crowning achievement has been to kill his own brother? Please tell me how, for $52 Billion a year and a “death protocol” that allows anyone to be executed on John Brennan’s [morally recti-tish] whim, there is any explanation for this guy still being alive beyond “he is considered useful”?

  2. orionATL says:

    if you are a bomb-maker with the fearsome skills needed to blow your brother’s ass off, but not kill the saudi official and target standing close to him,

    you are just the kind of boogeyman dhs fears.

    this new boot-bomb by the way uses the most up-to-date technology; it is a digital bomb – fits right in between the little toe and its neighbor.

  3. Jim White says:

    And since we are talking Asiri, I just can’t shake the feeling that Bandar may be somewhere around this move. Note that his standing has taken a serious hit lately, as it is widely believed that he is blamed inside Saudi Arabia for “failing” in his Syria operations aimed at overthrowing Assad. PressTV today has another hit piece on him, stating that the Syria folder has been handed off to someone else. They also say he is now in Morocco, recovering from medical treatment he got in the US. Getting Asiri into the headlines again seems like a route for making Bandar relevant again inside Saudi Arabia.

  4. Frank33 says:

    It seems almost ancient history, now.

    Conspiracy Theory Theatre, Undie Bomber #2 Sequel, “The Ruse”

    The anonymous Undie #2 did not even get a medal, or maybe he got a secret medal from a corrupt General, such as corrupt General Hayden. Probably corrupt General Hayden helped Bandar Bush cook up this terror plot. They seem to be partners in terror. Recall this was a CIA ruse.

    This was a CIA ruse, not a terrorist-initiated plot

    At least that is what corrupt national security reporter Walter Pincus, was reporting. We must suppose that corrupt Pincus was speaking for corrupt Hayden. Again, recall Hayden protected the 9-11 terrorists.

    And we further must believe that Undie #2 was going to return to Al Qaeda Central and repeat more attacks with Underwear time and time again. We should assume these terror attacks are just Operation Gladio 2.0 and that Hayden and the other corrupt Generals are merely terror profiteers. Their only success has been to create a military dictatorship in the United States. All this has happened because the Iran-Contra conspirators now rule the United States.

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