U.S. officials said Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, one of America's Most Wanted terrorists, was scheming to bring down a U.S.-bound jetliner with a new, "sleeker” version of the underwear bomb when he was killed by a CIA drone Sunday in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency provided the key to thwart the plot by setting up an undercover informant to pose as a wannabe jihadi, a source said.
The double agent managed to get the Yemen Al Qaeda franchise to trust him with the latest version of the underwear bomb.
He delivered it to authorities and is being debriefed by U.S. officials and allies. The Los Angeles Times was the first to report the use of a double agent.
You know, like the bomb Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab singed his junk with. Seriously, why is AQAP still trying to build a better bulge bomb? Are they that committed to futzing with air travel? Can't get new material? Because really? The tinkering involved to get a nice big "boom" from a gadget smushed up in someone's briefs instead of just a manscaping incident gone terribly wrong? Is probably going to continue to have a very limited payoff. I'm no demolitions expert, just a person who has smuggled a small, nonmetallic device in my drawers from time to time, but I can attest to the practical issue of poor ventilation and the reality of having a whole person's body piled on top of the "package". And while I agree with the article that the people involved in this terror plot are hardened, violent veterans of international terror--there's still just a part of me that hears "underwear bomb" and thinks "What the fuck is wrong with these people?" and not in a "very impressed with their deviousness" kind of way, either. Even if a terrorist successfully mined their own shorts, they are still a person who thought mining their shorts was a good idea.
Honestly, AQAP? Villain weirder, why don't you?
On the other hand--yay CIA for excellent bad-guy getting. You guys? Way better than shorts-mining terrorists. I mean that.
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