From the annuls of the most creative Islamic terror techniques comes Abdullah Asieri, an al Qaeda terrorist wanted by Saudi Arabia on terror charges. Asieri recently contacted Saudi authorities and arranged to turn himself in directly to counter-terrorism head Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef. After the meeting was arranged, Asieri took colonics to new heights by packing a pound of explosives and a remote detonator into his rectum, effectively circumventing bomb detection equipment at a Saudi royal palace.
The much impacted Asieri made it into Nayef’s office, where the bomb was remotely detonated by a cell phone. Nayef sustained only minor injuries in the blast, while the would-be ass-assin Asieri suffered a fatal wedgie after the blast cleared any intestinal blockages he might have had. )It is unknown how many gerbils were ultimately saved by the death of this al Qaeda miscreant).
Joking aside, secreting contraband such as drugs into body cavities is not new, but using body cavities as placeholders for explosives presents some very real and significant security challenges. This is especially true for confined and high-value target areas, particularly airplanes and government offices.
Given the recent controversy over the sensitivity of airport screening equipment, it is unlikely that items inside body cavities would be presently detected by the equipment in place. Also, as our domestic security continues to rely more on mechanical equipment instead of the more effective profiling due to the objections by Islamic advocacy groups and civil rights organizations, expect this technique to gain popularity among the more determined.
In 2005, the Northeast Intelligence Network detailed a similar insidious terror tactic of using false wombs for female terrorists to hide explosives. The technique was outlined on Arabic language web sites and in al Qaeda terror manuals. Three years after our report, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of this possible tactic.
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