Underwear bomber plot failed because he ‘wore same pants for two weeks’
US official says terror plot failed because bomber did not change his undergarments for two weeks and soiled the explosives
The 2009 “underpants bomb” plot failed because the terrorist had been
wearing his explosive-laden undergarments for more than two weeks and
soiled the explosives, a senior US official said.
Umar Abdulmutallab sent shockwaves through US intelligence when he
successfully smuggled a bomb onto a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas
day three years ago.
The British-educated Nigerian was able to light the bomb but it
failed to explode, causing minor burns to the would-be bomber but
sparing his fellow passengers.
John Pistole, the head of the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA), said on Thursday that the bomb did not detonate because
Abdulmutallab had been wearing the same underwear for more than two
weeks.
“He had it with him for over two weeks,” Mr Pistole said at the Aspen Security Forum.
Asked by his interviewer whether the bomb’s fuse had become “damp”
from two weeks of wear, Mr Pistole said: “Let’s say it was degraded.
We’re getting kind of personal now.”
Mr Pistole, who oversees the agency tasked with protecting America’s
civilian air traffic from terrorism, agreed with the interviewer when
she remarked: “Thank goodness for bad hygiene, right?”
Abdulmutallab, now 27, was sentenced to life in prison for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.
His bomb was made by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror group’s deadly Yemeni offshoot.
Western intelligence remains concerned that AQAP will try to find a
European or American jihadist trained in Syria and supply them with a
sophisticated bomb that can slip undetected onto a plane.
Monday, October 26, 2015
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