CIA Bomb Interception

According to a source familiar with United States Central Intelligence Agency, an international American spy gained access to the Al Qaeda cell.  The informant was apparently the would-be bomber in the airline plot, who had Al Qaeda fooled from the start.

The U.S. intelligence learned last month that the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda was planning to launch a huge attack using a new and nearly undetectable bomb aboard an airliner bound for the United States.

Luckily, the man the terrorists were counting on to carry out the attack was in fact a CIA agent who also worked with Saudi intelligence.

So basically, the U.S. was able to prevent the success of the attack before it even had the chance.

Al Qaeda has made repeated attempts to detonating a bomb aboard an American airliner – this was only the latest misfire.

It was a victory for the U.S. and the bomb was soon delivered to U.S. intelligence to analyze.

The FBI is currently analyzing the explosive – it was intended to be hidden in the passenger's underwear. Analysts and officials say that the bomb was certainly an upgrade from the previous bomb that misfired in Detroit on Christmas in 2009.  There was no metal contained in this bomb, which would have made it hard for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to detect at the airport, although officials believed that a body scanner would have detected this bomb.

Although there have been many complaints in the recent past about having to pass through tedious, and sometimes even embarrassing, procedures at airports in the United States, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman acknowledged that this is one of the main reasons we are kept safe from these types of attacks.  The U.S. uses these types of measures as a serious concern for the safety of American passengers, especially within the past decade (since the occurrence of 9/11).

The question here is whether or not to attempt to improve security in international airports with U.S.-bound passengers.  Many countries do agree that their security needs to be better, at least somewhere near the level of security at American airports.  If not, we face dangers from flights coming to the U.S. from overseas.

It is reassuring, however, to know that every single passenger boarding U.S.-bound flights are checked against terrorist watch-lists, as well as law-enforcement databases.

This one was a victory for America.  In the meantime, we must not let our guard down, especially concerning a terrorist group as serious as Al Qaeda.