Now on a related note.
Mid-air suicide bomb kit warning
From The Sunday Times and AFP
December 08, 2003
Suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack aircraft by smuggling "ready-to-build" explosives kits past airport security and assembling their bombs on board, a leaked FBI intelligence report reveals.
The document, circulated to Western security agencies last week, warns terrorists linked to al-Qa'ida may be planning to hijack passenger airliners after building their bombs, possibly using the first-class passenger toilet just behind the cockpit.
It warns that terrorists want to repeat the September 11 attacks on the US by taking control of passenger jets and turning them into flying bombs. If they encounter passenger or crew resistance they could destroy the plane over a heavily populated area, it adds.
The new hijacking threat emerged as British anti-terrorist police reportedly seized a pair of socks containing traces of explosives during a raid on suspected terrorists.
London's Sunday Telegraph said intelligence officials believed the socks were part of a al-Qa'ida plot to launch a suicide attack.
Tests revealed traces of at least three substances, including TNT, plastic explosive PETN and RDX, which was first used in bombs in World War II, the newspaper said.
It added that detectives believed the socks were intended to be filled with explosives and worn around a potential bomber's neck to avoid detection by airport security staff. Once on board, a bomber could assemble an explosive device.
One unnamed officer told the paper: "Any one of these three explosive compounds on their own is potentially lethal on a plane. Combined, they would be devastating."
The FBI warning, entitled Possible Hijacking Tactic for Using Aircraft as Weapons, highlights the growing threat that security services believe Islamist terror groups pose in the run-up to Christmas.
"Recent intelligence indicates that terrorists continue to develop plans to hijack aircraft and use them as weapons," the FBI bulletin says.
"Intelligence indicates 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.
"It is conceivable terrorists may plan to use this private area to construct IEDs in order to facilitate access to the cockpit, or position themselves in front of the passengers."
It would not be the first time that this method has been used to set off bombs on planes. Ramzi Yousef, an al-Qa'ida terrorist who was convicted of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing that killed six people, successfully placed and detonated a bomb on board a Philippine Airlines flight in December 1994.
It was part of a larger but thwarted plan to use terrorists to set off synchronised explosions to bring down American airliners over the Pacific.
Yousef built the bomb in an aircraft lavatory from components smuggled in his clothing and personal carry-on luggage. Ahmed Ressam, a second terrorist, tried to conceal parts of his bomb inside shampoo and medicine bottles. He was arrested in connection with a plot to bomb Los Angeles airport during the millennium celebrations.
The substance of the FBI bulletin was confirmed at the weekend by the US Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI report concludes: "Terrorist operatives are more confident that they can successfully smuggle (bomb) components, rather than fully assembled bombs past airport security."
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