Counterterrorism Blog: Al-Qaida's Use of "Liquid Bombs" Targeting Airliners

Al-Qaida's Use of "Liquid Bombs" Targeting Airliners

By Evan Kohlmann

Though for some, news of a reported Al-Qaida plot to down multiple commercial airliners with liquid explosives may sound exotic and unusual, in fact, U.S. authorities have been aware of such a threat from Al-Qaida affiliates for over a decade.

In 1995, when U.S. and Philippine security services uncovered a plot by 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and his uncle 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to bomb over a dozen U.S. airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean [Operation Bojinka], they quickly moved in and arrested their co-conspirators. One of the detained men, trained commercial pilot Abdel Hakim Murad, described Ramzi Yousef's plans in detail -- including his intention to travel to "France, Egypt, and Algeria after the activities here in the Philippines. The purpose was to train those Muslim brothers thereat, on using a Casio watch as a timing device, chemical mixtures to compound bombs, and to share his expertise in eluding detection on an airport's x-ray machine, and eventually smuggling [onboard] this liquid chemical bombs. Furthermore, France has a lot of Algerians staying and that these Egyptians and Algerians ha[ve] no experience on making these bombs and [do] not know the basics of smuggling liquid bombs through the airport."

Eleven years later, we once again return to the same threat to commercial aviation posed by liquid explosives. Only now, it would appear that the fabrication of such high-tech terrorist weapons by Al-Qaida operatives inside Western Europe is no longer an insurmountable challenge.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/3047

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Al-Qaida's Use of "Liquid Bombs" Targeting Airliners:

» Airport Security from Strategic Outlook Institute - Weblog
In a long line of executive airport security failures resulting in knee-jerk policies that do their utmost to inconvenience the public - the latest, direct from the Department of Homeland Security’s baby, the Transportation Security Administrati... [Read More]

» Terrorist Plot Suggestive of Al Qaeda from Wizbang
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says that this plot is suggestive of al Qaeda. Read Secretary Chertoff's statement here. The Corner reports that the British at thier news conference wouldn't "comment on that possibility." Evan Kohlman at C... [Read More]

» Red Alert, terror plot foiled in Britain, possible Libya connection? from Right Truth
British police have foiled a terrorist plot to 'commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale' by destroying up to ten passenger aircraft in mid-air, using a 'liquid explosive' and every day 'electronics' as detonators. More than 20 suspects, all believed [Read More]

» Alternative Theories from War Horse, Pale Horse
The anchors and security analysts on the news this morning have been speculating a lot about the planned attacks on numerous US-bound aricraft. I am hearing a lot of talk about combining agents to... [Read More]

» Al-Qaeda from PAXALLES
Evan Kohlmann at the Counterterrorism Blog reminds visitors that using liquid explosives is nothing new for al-Qaeda and fellow terror thugs - that they have been into this modus operandi since the mid 1990s when such terror luminaries as Ramzi [Read More]

» UK terror plot disrupted; airport security heightened from Homeland Stupidity
British authorities said Thursday that they had disrupted a terror plot by British citizens of Pakistani origin with ties to al-Qaeda to blow up several airplanes while in flight from the United Kingdom to the U.S., arresting the “main players... [Read More]

» Terror Plot Attempt By Astonishingly Average Individuals Foiled from Radioactive Liberty
Heathrow Airport has been closed following a foiled plan to blow up as many as 10 Airliners scheduled for travel to the U.S. The BBC reports: A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit “mass murder on an unimaginable scal... [Read More]

» Terror Level Red from Occidentality
Late last night, I saw the first wire reports of the arrests in Great Britain. I assumed that like the arrests earlier this summer, these were preemptive in nature and wouldn't really affect our daily life. Now I wake up and see just how close the te... [Read More]

» A View of the Future - 1996 and Today from Stormwarning's Counterterrorism
In light of the airline bombing terror plot that was intercepted in Great Britain, I found this discussion of the liquid explosives to be quite interesting and a reminder that as time passes, capabilities advance and improve (ours and the [Read More]

Al-Qaida's Use of "Liquid Bombs" Targeting Airliners

By Evan Kohlmann

TrackBack

Search Newslinks