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The Kimery Report

Anthony L. Kimery, Homeland Security Today's Online Editor and Online Media
Division manager, draws on 30 years of experience and extensive contacts as he
investigates and analyzes homeland security, counterterrorism and border
security. "The Kimery Report" was awarded a 2008 National ASBPE Award for
Original Web News Section. His report, "Savage Struggle on the Border," was the
lead report in the series of the same title that won the 2010 National ASBPE Gold
Award for best magazine series. Comments on any of Tony's "Kimery Reports" are
welcome.. Read more on Tony...

See all The Kimery Report blogs and comments

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The Threat Of Body Bombs And Surgical Implants
October 01, 2009 DHS
DoD/National Defense
By: Anthony Kimery
Global
In recent days, there’s been a flurry of reporting about the ostensibly novel new threat of jihadist suicide
Federal/State/Local
bombers detonating explosives that they’ve hidden inside their bodies. The concerns arose from the Aug.
28 detonation of between 100 grams to one pound of explosives - depending on whose version of events FEMA
you accept - that 23-year-old Al Qaeda suicide bomber Abdullah Hassan Tali' Al Asiri reputedly had US Coast Guard
hidden in his rectum.
US National Guard
That Al Asiri exploded a bomb concealed on his person and defeated layers of Saudi security isn't
disputed. He had intended to kill Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister in
charge of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism efforts. The prince sustained only a minor injury from the Focused Topics
blast. Airport & Aviation
Saudi officials have dismissed reports that Al Asiri hid the explosive device in his rectum based on what Biometrics & ID Management
they say were the findings of their post-bombing investigation. Instead, Saudi officials contend that in Border Security
order to pass through several layers of metal detectors, Al Asiri used some form of plastic or liquid
Counternarcotics, Terrorism & Intelligence
explosive that was ignited with a chemical fuse, and that the bomb was concealed in his underwear.
Kingdom officials said Al Asiri apparently believed Muslim cultural taboos would prevent a search of that Customs & Immigration
part of his body. Cybersecurity
But whether the bomb Al Asiri had secreted on him was concealed in his rectum or not, the fact is the Emergency Management/Disaster Preparedness
notion that jihadist suicide bombers can hide a bomb rectally or surgically implanted in their bodies isn't Information Technology
a new jihadist strategy. A year ago, Homeland Security Today revealed in its August 2008 investigative
Infrastructure Security
report, Making Black Magic, that determined jihadists had begun to experiment with all sorts of
innovative – bizarre even – ways to secret suicide bombs, including hiding potentially powerful Interoperable Communications
explosives inside their bodies. Port & Cargo
While the British tabloid, The Sun, quoted an official as saying of Al Asiri's alleged method of attack Public Health
that “we've never heard of anything quite like this before," US and Western counterterrorists have in fact Public Safety
been aware of Al Qaeda’s experimentation with internal and other forms of bomb concealment methods
Surveillance, Protection & Detection
for quite some time.
Transportation
Three years ago, an Iraqi national found to have electrical wires and a magnet inside his rectum sparked
a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport. The metals triggered the boarding gate metal
detector, and upon finding the wires officials on the scene initially feared they were part of a bomb Ask The Experts
that the man had hidden in his rectum. Homeland Security Today
welcomes Patrick Schambach, vice
Al Maliki was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation - his green card president and general manager of
reportedly had expired and he had prior arrests. While federal officials haven't elaborated on the CSC's Department of Homeland
circumstances of his bizarre behavior, it did cause some federal counterterrorism authorities to wonder Security division to its "Ask the
whether the incident was part of an effort to determine what sort of materials could be concealed in Expert" blog. Join Pat in the current
one's body and snuck past airport security stations. Terrorist organizations are known to test and discussion “I have a number of
observe airport security screening processes and capabilities. potential customers looking to
procure equipment through
Harvey Kushner, chairman of the criminal justice department at Long Island University and author of
FEMA/DHS grants. Can you tell me
Terrorism in America, The Future of Terrorism: Violence in the New Millennium, and the Concise
when these are typically announced
Encyclopedia of Extremism and Terrorism, said more than two years ago that “terrorists are getting
and the timeline for applications?"
exponentially smarter.”
Click here to ask Pat a question.
Indeed. According to counterterrorism experts, terrorists are coming up with more and more ways to slip Click here to participate in this
past our first lines of defense. security discussion.

And “to do so,” Homeland Security Today reported a year ago, “they’ve been experimenting with some
really off the wall methods of deception to disguise their suicidal methodologies, like hiding upwards of

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Homeland Security Today: The Threat of Body Bombs and Surgical Implants Página 2 de 4

three pounds of C-4, Semtex or some other plastic bonded explosive (PBX) rectally, vaginally and even
surgically. The explosive could be remotely detonated while the bomb is inside terrorists’ bodies.”

“It’s gruesome stuff, to be sure,” Homeland Security Today reported, “but these suicidal terrorists are, in
effect, the willing jihadist equivalents of drug ‘mules,’ the people - often indigent women and children -
drug traffickers pay to ingest condoms or other similar material that is nearly filled to bursting with
heroin or cocaine.”

"The rectum strategy is incredible, [but] not very different from what we in the US Coast Guard [USCG]
deal with in handling drug runners," explained USCG Commander and Judge Advocate Glenn Sulmasy,
author of the new book, "The National Security Court System: A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of
Terror."

In February 2008, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis even issued
an intelligence advisory warning that Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations might try to use women
jihadists hiding explosives inside “pregnancy prosthetics … that mimic the look of a pregnant woman.”

The threat assessment said “female suicide bombers have used devices that make them appear pregnant
to hide explosive devices.” Education Directory
Earlier last year, terrorists did in fact use a crude form of deception in dispatching female jihadists. In American Military University
Iraq, Al Qaeda used Muslim women wearing concealed suicide vests to carry out bombings after Ashford University
increased security and protective concrete walls made car bombings more difficult.
Canyon College

But as security authorities wised up to terrorists’ new ruses, the more astute among counterterrror George Mason University
intelligence authorities began pondering truly frightening, out-of-the-box scenarios that terrorists are George Washington University
believed to have studied to conceal a variety of explosives - like lining pregnancy prosthetics with sheet Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
plastic explosives.
Johns Hopkins University
Homeland Security Today reported that these authorities had warned that the wearer may be able to get Lincoln College Online
through airports that have no effective trace explosives sniffers or whole body imagers. University of Connecticut, Center for Continuing Studies

“This suddenly has become a very viable possibility,” a veteran counterterrorist said on background. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

More Companies »
In its 2008 annual report, the Defense Department’s Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) stated that
“for the foreseeable future,” terrorists’ “weapon of choice will continue to be the IED and they will
continue to improvise new and dangerous ways to employ IEDs to overcome our technology advantage
and achieve strategic influence.”

Al Asiri was a wanted Saudi militant from the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorist
organization who’d declared that he’d renounced terrorism and had requested to meet Prince Nayef to
repent and be accepted into the kingdom’s reformed terrorist amnesty program.

Such surrenders are not unprecedented. In February, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mohammed Al Calendar
Awfi, a terrorist who appeared with Al Asiri on Saudi Arabia’s list of most-wanted terrorists, surrendered
May 15 - 17
in Yemen and was transported to Saudi Arabia where he renounced terrorism and entered into the Clean Pacific
Long Beach, CA
kingdom’s amnesty program.
May 15 - 17
Clean Pacific Training and Exhibition
What sent shock waves through Saudi and Western counterterrorism security offices is not that Al Asiri Long Beach, CA
was a “sleeper” Al Qaeda suicide bomber, but rather that he was able to pass through the layers of Saudi May 16 - 17
security with a bomb possibly concealed in his rectum in order to physically meet with the Prince. Washington, DC
Counter Terror Expo US

Saudi officials have admitted that Al Asiri avoided metal detectors at two airports and by Saudi palace May 19 New Hampshire National Guard Annual
security, followed by spending 30 hours with the prince's secret service agents without anyone Manchester, NH Meeting
suspecting anything suspicious. May 21 - 23 3rd Annual Border Management
Tuscon, AZ Summit, SW
The Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group AQAP posted a video and animation of Al Asiri’s suicide bombing
Jun 5 - 8 10th Biodefense Vaccines &
technique through its media arm, the Al Malahem Foundation. Titled, “The Grandchildren of Muhammad
Washington, DC Therapeutics
ibn Maslamah,” the 17 minute video clearly is meant as propaganda for encouraging jihadists to use this
and other fresh methods for carrying out suicide bombings. Jun 8 - 10 Georgia State National Guard Annual
Jekyll Island, GA Conference
In claiming responsibility for the attack, AQAP stated “…Abdullah Hassan Taleh Al Asiri, who was on the
More Calendar »
list of 85 wanted persons, was able, with the help of God, to enter Nayef’s palace as he was among his
guards and detonate an explosive device. No one will be able to know the type of this device or the way
it was detonated. Al Asiri managed to pass all the security checkpoints in Najran and Jeddah airports and Poll of the Week
was transported on board Mohammed bin Nayef’s private plane.”

Al Asiri’s suicide bombing failed because, authorities say, the force of the blast from the relatively small Al Qaeda appears to still be intent on
amount of explosive was suppressed by his body. But had, say, two or three pounds been detonated …
developing successful methods to
bomb passenger aircraft. Do you
“well, that may very well have killed” the prince, one knowledgeable counterterrorism official told
believe the latest thwarted attempt
HSToday.us.
indicates it eventually will construct
“But Al Qaeda has learned from this – that I’m quite certain,” another veteran US counterterrorist told an explosive that can bypass
HSToday.us on background, noting that it’s only a matter of time before suicide bombers use more security?
powerful explosives hidden inside their bodies, including having bombs surgically implanted inside them Y es?
that can either be remotely detonated or triggered by the {mospagebreak}suicide bomber himself using No?
a wireless trigger concealed in jewelry, a watch, “or something like that,” the official said.
Vo te No w
Homeland Security Today reported on these disturbing new jihadist suicide bombing possibilities more
than a year ago. It was revealed that counterterror intelligence analysts had examined information Click Here for Poll Archives
indicating Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations had studied the discipline of magic —techniques like
classic misdirection, sleights, illusions … even gaffed tricks – to conceal weapons and explosives and to
aid in carrying out attacks. These counterterrorists were concerned that some terrorists had
experimented with using cleverly designed “close-up” parlor tricks to do things like sneak explosives on
board an aircraft.

Counterterrorists told Homeland Security Today that terrorists have studied using various types of
illusory devices to conceal thin applications of sheet explosives, for example. But these officials wouldn’t,
or couldn’t, say whether terrorists have ever successfully used anything like this in a bombing - or
whether they can effectively be detected, despite some of the very sophisticated trace explosive
detection technologies now on the market and in use at airports around the world to detect bomb
components in carry-on luggage and underneath a person’s clothing.

Counterterror experts have warned for years that future use of PBX and various sheet explosives by
terrorists depended only on the imagination of the terrorists.

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Homeland Security Today: The Threat of Body Bombs and Surgical Implants Página 3 de 4

Intelligence authorities told Homeland Security Today that they are concerned about a variety of
gimmicks that are traditionally reserved for illusionists with which terrorists may be experimenting, like
gaffed coins and “thumb tips” – hollowed-out devices that are virtually indistinguishable from real coins
and fingers inside which a thin layer of some form of PBX could be smeared.

This explosive could be detonated with a charge that could be hidden in some ordinary electronic device
and would appear as part of the original circuitry. Or, it could simply be a musical greeting card, which
contains miniature flat batteries and miniaturized circuit boards with electronic components. Such
greeting cards have been used to detonate PBX bombs, these authorities said.

It’s unclear whether such hidden explosive material could be detected by certain explosive detection
technologies that are in use at some airports.

HSToday.us reported in November 2007 that investigators for Congress’ investigative arm, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO), repeatedly were able to smuggle liquid bomb and other
explosives components through dozens of TSA airport screening checkpoints that, once on board a plane,
could have been assembled in as little as ten minutes. If successfully detonated, they could potentially
have caused a “catastrophic” explosion, two senior GAO officials told lawmakers.

Because of obvious security concerns, the GAO officials who testified before the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform could not say which airports they slipped by screeners, but John
Cooney, assistant director of GAO Forensic Audits and Special Investigations, assured the Committee
that “we got through!”

GAO’s undercover investigators actually got past TSA screeners with their liquid bomb-making
components 19 times in 2007, and in 2006, they got past screeners 21 times with incendiary devices and
bomb detonators that could have “caused not insignificant explosions.”

Counterterrorism authorities say the types of bomb-making components the GAO investigators smuggled
past security screeners can still be smuggled past TSA screeners at many of the nation’s airports. And
every week, TSA reports having found “artfully concealed prohibited items … at checkpoints.”

“The Al Asiri case has just uped the ante,” one told HSToday.us.

Peter Neuman, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence,
and former director of the Center for Defense Studies at King's College London, told BBC News that the
case undoubtedly will be studied intensively, adding there are "tremendous implications for airport
security with the potential of making it even more complicated to get on to your plane."

"If it really is true that the metal detectors couldn't detect this person's hidden explosive device, that
would mean that the metal detectors as they currently exist in airports are pretty much useless,"
Neuman said.

At American and other airports around the world, however, metal scanning machines can detect metal
inside a person, like pace makers, steel plates holding bones together, etc., depending on the machines’
sensitivity settings. Indeed. Airline passengers often walk through metal detectors without the machine
recognizing rings, belt buckles, and other small quantities of metal on a person.

{mospagebreak}It would only require a small amount of metal to make up the electronic circuitry for a
bomb concealed inside a suicide bomber.

“As macabre as it is to try and wrap your brain around,” said one counterterrorism official, this circuitry
could be placed in the chest cavity near the heart to mimic the location of a pace maker, for instance,
should a hand wand be used to isolate metal inside a person.”

“This advances a whole new way of thinking about [jihadist] suicide bombers” and how to be on alert to
them from “a security perspective,” the official stressed.

Authorities like Dr. Carl Ungerer, director of the National Security Project at the Australian Strategic
Policy Institute, believe that the Al Asiri case will heat up discussion about scanning technologies, like
whole body imagers.

Whole body imagers though aren’t likely to detect explosives that are hidden inside a person - they're
designed to detect what’s concealed underneath a person’s clothing.

Some sort of penetrating transmission X-ray scanner would most likely have to be used to detect
explosives inside a person, but safety questions about the level of radiation emitted from such devices
would have to be addressed, authorities explained, noting that up until now, “we haven’t been thinking
about designing machines to look for bombs inside people,” as one put it.

"Standard airport security is not going to detect" a bomb that's inside a person, terrorism expert expert
Steve Emerson told the New York Post. "You need a much more intrusive type of X-ray machine that can
actually see inside body cavities."

Counterterror authorities say there'd been plenty of intelligence indicating that jihadists had been
working on all sorts of bizarre methods for carrying out suicide attacks, including the method of Al Asiri's
suicide bombing. Jihadist terrorist organizations will undoubtedly improve on his technique, they said,
stressing that we're likely to see attacks using improved versions of internally concealed bombs -
including bombs surgically implanted into a jihadist suicide bomber.

"Never underestimate the true believer," one of the authorities warned.

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