Worries re internal bombs inside terrorists' bodies

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Internal Bomb

Security and intelligence experts are deeply worried by a new development in suicide bombing, the BBC has learned.

It has emerged that an al-Qaeda bomber who died last month while trying to blow up a Saudi prince in Jeddah had hidden the explosives inside his body.

Only the attacker died, but it is feared that the new development could be copied by others.

Experts say it could have implications for airport security, rendering traditional metal detectors "useless".

Last month's bombing left people wondering how one of the most wanted al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia could get so close to the prince in charge of counter-terrorism that he was able to blow himself up in the same room.

Western forensic investigators think they have the answer, and it is worrying them profoundly.

The explosives, they believe, were detonated by mobile phone.

Peter Neuman of Kings College London says the case will be studied intensively, and that 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," he said.

The bomber was a Saudi al-Qaeda fugitive who said he wanted to give himself up to the prince in person.

The prince took him at his word and gave him safe passage to his palace.

But there, once he got next to his target, the bomb inside him was detonated.

Miraculously the prince survived with minor injuries, but footage emerging this week shows a sizeable crater in the concrete floor and the bomber's body blown in half.

It is believed the force of the blast went downwards which is why only the bomber died.[/textarea]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/ ... 276016.stm

May be the need to x-ray every passenger before boarding - nightmare re logistics not to mention potential damage to the health of staff and frequent travellers, and anyway many people have metal screws etc in their bodies following surgery.

 

[Aviador]

It just goes to show that whatever new screening methodology is introduced the terrorist will always look for ways of beating it.

 

[Aviador]

[textarea]MEP slams Manchester Airport ‘peep show’ scanners

The decision by Manchester Airport to trial full-body scanners that create a near naked picture of passengers has been slammed by a West Midlands MEP. Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn said he was ‘outraged’, and viewed the body-scanners as ‘wholly disproportionate to the threat’ posed by terrorism.

The European Commission had previously made the decision to withdraw plans to implement the body-scanners in airports by April 2010. The decision of Manchester Airport to run the trial was described as ‘baffling’ by Mr Bradbourn, ‘given the precedent set by the European Commission’.

The X-ray machine produces ‘naked’ images of passengers that show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' private parts. The airport says it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives and avoid the need for passengers to take coats, belts and shoes off.

The scanners, which cost £80,000 each, work by beaming electromagnetic waves on to passengers while they stand in a booth. A virtual three-dimensional image is then created from the reflected energy. The scanners, made by RapiScan Systems, have already been tried in New York, Los Angeles and Heathrow.

Source[/textarea]

Perhaps this is the only way forward to beat this menace?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

From what I have read the supposed procedure is that the operator will be some distance removed from where the passengers are electronically stripped naked and will have no idea who they are, but will be in contact with colleagues near the 'stripping point' so they can intervene if anything suspicious is shown. The viewers (nearly typed voyeurs) will also be of the same sex as the subject of the 'search'.

Given that police, security and local authority videos regularly feature on television channels as so-called entertainment how long before some of these images find their way into the public domain?

Of course the airport says they will be immediately destroyed but can we believe that some won't escape the cull?