Buttocks implants are one place terrorists could hide a suicide bomb to attack an airline. (Source: Dr. Elie Gharios)
Even "enhanced" pat downs may not detect bombs concealed in buttocks or breast implants, or directly inserted into the rectum. (Source: Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)
Trained dogs could detect explosives inserted into the rectum, if they got a good whiff of passengers anal regions. (Source: AP Photo)
Let the cavity searches commence
These days the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration resorts to extreme lengths to ferret out possible terrorists. They frisk the genital region of children during "enhanced searches" (though they use the back of their hands to avoid impropriety) and they've even required some elderly individuals to remove their adult diapers -- even a 95-year-old woman with leukemia. And of course there's the ever present body scanners, which supposedly can't store pictures of you in the nude even though court documents say otherwise.
I. Anal, Breast, and Buttock Bombs Could Prove Deadly
But for all of those invasions of privacy, U.S. security officials say that it may not be enough. According to U.S. security officials speaking anonymously to CNN, a top Al Qaeda leader may look to use body cavity and implanted bombs to attack U.S. aircraft in the near future.
Ibrahim Hasan al-Asiri, the top bomb maker for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), already has carried out some audacious attack schemes. One failed attack on December 25, 2009 saw a terrorist try to use an underwear bomb.
Now Mr. al-Asiri is reportedly plotting to equip militants with bombs either surgically implanted or inserted into body cavities.
Intelligence operatives recently learned of the plot and have briefed airlines, U.S. security agencies, and the U.S. Armed Forces.
The possibility of such devious devices is alarming, but not particularly surprising. A skillful surgery could disguise a relatively large implanted bomb inside the gut of a man or woman or inside the breasts or buttocks of a woman. Such bombs would be impossible to detect with body scanners, unless the bomb produced a noticeable contour under the skin.
Similarly, bombers could resort to a technique long used by drug smugglers -- inserting goods into their rectum. Experts say that over a pound of explosives could be inserted into the rectum, without it being visible to body scanners or pat downs.
The TSA says the only hope against these kind of attacks is "overlapping layers of security", such as patrols by bomb sniffing dogs, intelligence that could detect plots in advance, or interactions with passengers. The latter could prove particularly affective, as a bomber with a large quantity of explosive in his/her rectum might appear uncomfortable. However, against implants or terrorists with experience inserting large objects into their rectum, these telltale signs could not be present.
TSA Administrator John Pistole says the agency is taking anal and implant bombs very seriously. He states, "The information is that terrorists are aware of this type of technique and interested in using it, but there is no specific threat as to a date and time and a specific flight. All of those [extra] layers of security gives us the strongest defense and the best opportunity to detect and deter this from happening."
II. Terrorists Could Use Drugs to Dull the Pain
Security consultant Ron Rafi told CNN, though, that the TSA is now one step behind terrorists. He states, "I think we have come to the point where our technology capabilities have been exhausted to the limit, and right now there's no further technology that can be applied to mitigate this kind of risk."
He notes that the TSA is not authorized to subject passengers to X-ray imaging, which would expose them to a higher level of radiation.
Washington Hospital Center specialist Dr. Jack Sava confirms that bombs in buttocks or breasts could be a real possibility, but that terrorists would have a narrow window to use them before they became terminally ill with side effects.
He remarks, "In many types of infections after surgery, there can be a kind of honeymoon period of a few days. But once you get several days after the operation, I think that's when you'd start to see signs that would begin with pain and fever. That would get worse and worse, and ultimately be fatal if nothing were done"
Mr. Rafi warns the TSA to watch for nervous behavior or symptoms indicative of drugs that could be used to disguise the discomfort of inserted anal cavity or implant bombs. He comments, "One thing obviously is an elevated level of stress, and in (the case of a human bomb) it would probably be extreme. You may also see some influence of drugs to ease pain."
"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates
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