Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Clinton: Terrorists seek 'more perverse' ways to kill

A bomb plot timed to coincide with the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death was stopped by U.S. officials before the bomber got near an airplane. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

By NBC News

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Tuesday that terrorists keep trying to come up with “more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people,” after a plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner was foiled by the CIA.

U.S. officials said Monday that the plot involved a bomb that improved on the one that had been sewn into the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in a plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.


The latest bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism and was "totally non-metallic," which officials told NBC News would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional screening processes.

“With the respect to the plot that was discussed in Washington, as the White House said, the device did not appear to pose a threat to the public air service but the plot itself indicates that these terrorists keep trying,” Clinton, who is in New Delhi, India, said.

CIA foiled al-Qaida plot to destroy US-bound airliner

“They keep trying to devise more and more perverse and in terrible ways to kill innocent people and it's a reminder as to why we have to remain vigilant at home and abroad … protecting our nation and protecting friendly nations and peoples like India and others,” she added.

Clinton also called for India’s neighbor Pakistan “to do more” to tackle terrorists. “It needs to make sure that its territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks anywhere, including inside of Pakistan because the great unfortunate fact is that terrorists in Pakistan have killed more than 30,000 Pakistanis,” she said.

NBC's National Security Analyst Michael Leiter explains the latest terror threat may lead to more stringent screening overseas, especially now that growing instability in Yemen has left the region open as a safe haven for terrorism.

The new underwear bomb had some “refinements on reliability” that made it more likely to explode, a U.S. counterterrorism official told NBC News. In addition to being a threat to commercial planes, the official said this type of bomb could be used in crowded places, on other transportation systems or for assassinations.

More than 30 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack

The official noted that the bomb “was never near a plane” and “never posed a risk.” The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.

Reports: Al-Qaida leader wanted in USS Cole bombing killed in Yemen airstrike

The U.S. received the device last month. The FBI is currently conducting technical and forensics analyses on it.

The official would not specify which international security service provided the intelligence that led to the unraveling of the plot, as there is concern about retaliatory attacks against U.S. targets inside Yemen.

Bin Laden in hiding: Hatching horrific plots despite crippling attacks on al-Qaida

The FBI said in a statement that the successful operation was the "result of close cooperation with our security and intelligence partners overseas."

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