Bojinka Redux?
By Larry Johnson on August 31, 2010 at 10:22 AM in Current Affairs
Bojinka is the term that the infant Al Qaeda coined for the plot to blow up 12 jumbo jets over the pacific in 1995. That plot failed in part because Ramsi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed managed to set their Manila apartment on fire while cooking up a batch of “gun cotton” in their kitchen sink. Their diabolical plan, which had been tested on board a Philippine Air flight in December 1994, consisted of a terrorist carrying the components for a liquid bomb on board a plane. In the case of the Philippine Air flight, Ramsi Yousef boarded the flight in the southern Philippines. During the flight Ramsi went to the bathroom and assembled a bomb that used a Casio data watch, a couple of 9 volt batteries, a bottle filled with a liquid that looked like contact lens solution (but was in fact the explosive, TATP), an tiny light bulb and a bag of “cotton” that was in fact gun cotton. He put it all together and planted the device under his seat. When the plane arrived in Manila he got off and disappeared into the crowd. An unsuspecting Japanese businessman boarded the plane and sat in what had been Ramsi’s seat. The plane took off and when the time counted down the Casio watch produced enough of an electric pulse to spark the broken light bulb which in turn ignited the gun cotton. This in turn detonated the TATP solution. The blast did not bring down the plane but caused significant damage and killed the Japanese man.
So what? ABC reported yesterday the following:
Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.
U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed “mock bombs” in their luggage. “This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,” said one senior law enforcement official. . . .
In addition, officials said, al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000 in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped together, a box cutter and three large knives. Officials said there was no indication of explosives and he and his luggage were cleared for the flight from Birmingham to Chicago O’Hare.
Once in Chicago, officials say they learned al Soofi checked his luggage on a flight to Washington’s Dulles airport for connections on flights to Dubai and then Yemen, even though he did not board the flight himself.
It the report about the travel of these two is correct then there is no way this was something innocent.
There are some key unanswered questions. Was the suspect bag examined with a CTX machine?
The CTX explosive detection device is a family of x-ray devices developed by InVision Technologies in 1990 that uses CAT scans and sophisticated image processing software to automatically screen checked baggage for explosives. CTX scanners are by far the market leader in explosive detection systems (EDSs), accounting for approximately 150 out of 161 FAA-certified bomb scanners installed in US airports as of 2002.
This system is capable of detecting the amount of explosives used to bring down Pan Am 103 in December 1988. The problem with this most recent event is that the CTX technology would not have alerted on benign items strapped together. If there had been an explosive in the luggage I fairly confident that it would have been discovered with the CTX system. What we don’t know is whether or not the bag was put thru such a system before it was allowed on board a plane.
This event highlights for me the need for passenger profiling. I’m not talking about racial or ethnic profiling. That is a waste of time and money. But it is worthwhile to profile passenger travel behavior. If you are flying from Birmingham, Alabama to Chicago and then on to Washington then to Schipol (or Dubai), you should be pulled aside and asked to account for your travel plans. Are you traveling with luggage? If not, you should have to explain why. Unfortunately, these are not required nor routinely used in this country.
I also am troubled that one of the bags was put on a plane and pushed away from the gate before it was discovered that the passenger was not on board the plane. We need some answers from TSA on this part of the incident? Were security procedures violated?
Meanwhile we still have no system in place at screening checkpoints capable of detecting explosives hidden on a passengers body or in his or her luggage. I am cheered by the fact that these guys were identified and arrested. More to come from this story.
UPDATE: FBI now is reporting the two guys did not know each other. Fine. We still don’t have a good explanation for the items discovered in the luggage. And, what was the purpose for each man’s trip?
by Ronald Scott
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