Tagged: Al-Qaida (al Qaeda)

Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, airports have probably been the most heavily guarded sites when it comes to preventing terrorist attacks.

And yet the most recent terrorism plot in Yemen involved an attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner with a bomber wearing a difficult-to-detect explosive bomb in his underwear, according to U.S. officials.

Why do terrorist groups keep trying to defeat the multiple layers of security at airports when there are so many soft targets?

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

For more on the Yemen bomb plot and what it tells us about U.S. intelligence operations, we're joined by Philip Mudd, former deputy at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. He's now a senior research fellow with the New America Foundation here in Washington. He joins us in studio.

Thanks for coming in.

PHILIP MUDD: Thank you for having me.

MARTIN: So, this plot was disrupted using a British-Saudi national who had infiltrated the al-Qaida network. Can you give us a sense of how difficult this is? What has to come together in order to make this happen, to get that level of infiltration?

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

Terrorists are still targeting the U.S. homeland. We were reminded of that with news this past week that al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen plotted to blow up a plane headed to the United States.

What's now also clear, the U.S. is now aggressively targeting the terrorists in Yemen. Consider the recent tally: A foreign agent penetrated the group and gave its newest bomb design to the CIA. Drone strikes killed the group's chief of operations against the West and three other key leaders, all part of the West's stepped-up efforts to go after al-Qaida's top affiliate.

NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports.

The undercover agent who helped thwart the latest underwear bomb plot was a British citizen, NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has learned.

"The undercover operation was being directed by British intelligence with help from other international intelligence agencies," Dina tells us. "The British had put some pressure on the Obama administration not to reveal their role in the secret mission."

Before today's revelation, Dina says, it was assumed the agent had a connection to Saudi Arabia, because "there are so many tribal connections and various language connections and familial connections between Saudis and Yemenis by the border."

U.S. officials now say that the man picked to bring a bomb onboard an airliner bound for the United States was actually an agent working on behalf of the CIA. That's the latest twist in a complicated tale — and it raises questions about just how dangerous the group behind the plot really is.