Dutch Officials Now Using Body Scanners At Airports

Dutch To Use Full Body Scanners For U.S. Flights



The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will begin using more full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a "professional" al-Qaida terror attack.

A top Dutch official said a scanner of that type might have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Friday carrying undetected explosives. Law enforcement officials say the 23-year-old Nigerian tried but failed to detonate the explosives on a plane carrying over 300 people.

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst told a news conference, referring to it as "another al-Qaida attack."

The Dutch minister said U.S. had not wanted these scanners to be used previously because of privacy concerns but said there was now agreement with Washington authorities that "all possible measures will be used on flights to the U.S."

A key European legislator urged the European Union to begin rapidly installing the new equipment across the 27-nation bloc, but no other European nations immediately followed the Dutch move.

Body scanners that peer underneath clothing have been available for years, but privacy advocates say they are a "virtual strip search" because they display an image of the body onto a computer screen.

Child Pornography concerns

Ian Dowty, a lawyer with Action on Rights of the Child, said allowing minors to pass through the scanners violates child pornography laws. "It shows genitalia," he said. "As far as English law is concerned ... it's unlawful if it's indecent."

For that reason, British authorities have exempted under-18s from body scan trials at places including Paddington Station in London as well as Heathrow and Manchester airports.

New software, however, eliminates that problem by projecting a stylized image rather than an actual picture onto a computer screen, highlighting the area of the body where objects are concealed in pockets or under the clothing.

Ter Horst, the Dutch minister, the scanners likely would have alerted security guards to the materials concealed in Abdulmutallab's underwear and prevented him from boarding the Northwest flight.

"Our view now is that the use of millimeter wave scanners would certainly have helped detect that he had something on his body, but you can never give 100 percent guarantees," Ter Horst said.

40 Full Scanners used in U.S.

Amsterdam's Schiphol has 15 body scanners, each costing more than $200,000. But until now neither the European Union nor the U.S. have approved the routine use of the scanners at European airports.

At least two scanners in Amsterdam have been experimentally using the less-invasive software since late November and the Dutch said those will be put into use immediately. All other scanners will be upgraded within three weeks.

But since Schiphol has twice as many gates for U.S. departures as scanners, not all flights will be covered by the new machines. Passengers on flights not subject to the new scanners will instead receive thorough pat-downs.

In the U.S., 40 of the machines are being operated in at least 19 U.S. airports.

Six machines are being used for primary screenings at six U.S. airports: Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas; Miami; San Francisco; Salt Lake City; and Tulsa, Okla. Passengers go through the scans instead of a metal detector, although they can elect to receive a pat-down search from a security officer instead.

The remainder of the machines are being used at 13 U.S. airports for secondary screening of passengers who set off a metal detector. But those travelers can also opt for a pat-down instead.

Nigeria on Wednesday said it would be adding full body scanners at its international airports in 2010 but it did not elaborate on how many.

Last year the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted against using the scanners and called for further study, allowing Schiphol to conduct a pilot test of the scanners on European flights.

But opposition faded Wednesday when a key assembly member said the newest types "pose no privacy risk." Peter van Dalen, vice-chairman of the assembly's transport committee said, a recent demonstration at Schiphol lifted any doubts that the equipment violates the privacy of air passengers.

A Dutch digital rights group, Bits of Freedom, said the decision to introduce the scanners on short notice was a fear-driven overreaction.

"The chance of someone being a victim of a terrorist attack in the air is a lot smaller than the chance of being struck by lightning," the group wrote in an open letter to the Dutch Justice Ministry.

Amateurish' Execution of Plot

In a preliminary report issued Wednesday, the Dutch government said the plan to blow up the Detroit-bound aircraft was professional but called its execution "amateurish."

Ter Horst said Abdulmutallab apparently assembled the explosive device, including 80 grams of PETN, in the aircraft toilet, then planned to detonate it with a syringe of chemicals. She said the explosives appeared to have been professionally prepared and had been given to Abdulmutallab, but did not elaborate.

"If you want to detonate it, you have to do that another way than he did. That is why we talk about amateurism," she said.

Abdulmutallab arrived in Amsterdam on Friday from Lagos, Nigeria. After a layover of less than three hours, he passed through a security check at the gate in Amsterdam, including a hand baggage scan and a metal detector.

Abdulmutallab was carrying a valid Nigerian passport and had a valid U.S. visa, the Dutch said.

"No suspicious matters which would give reason to classify the person involved as a high-risk passenger were identified during the security check," Ter Horst said.

Erik Ackerboom, head of the Dutch counterterrorism bureau, dismissed suggestions that Abdulmutallab should have aroused suspicion when he paid for a round-trip ticket from Lagos to Detroit in cash and had no check-in luggage.

Paying cash in Africa is not unusual, he said, and the lack of suitcases "wasn't a reason for alarm."

Red Flags

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama demanded a preliminary report by Thursday from U.S. security authorities on what went wrong. Obama said the intelligence community should have been able to piece together information that would have raised "red flags" and possibly prevented Abdulmutallab from boarding the airliner.

"There was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security," Obama told reporters in Hawaii, calling the intelligence shortcomings "totally unacceptable."

"There were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have — and should have — been pieced together," he said.

"Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence, and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged," Obama said. "The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America."

Abdulmutallab had been placed in one expansive database, but he never made it onto more restrictive lists that would have caught the attention of U.S. counterterrorist screeners, despite his father's warnings to U.S. Embassy officials in Nigeria last month. Those warnings also did not result in Abdulmutallab's U.S. visa being revoked.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive. It set off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to destroy an aircraft, is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Mich.



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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Somalian Man Arrested In Nov. For Same Al-Qaida Activity

Somali Arrested In November At Airport With Chemicals, Syringe



A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chillingly similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.

"We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Barise.

A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident in Somalia is similar to the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid — tools similar to those used in the Detroit attack. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he isn't authorized to release the information.

Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the chemicals from the Somali suspect could have caused an explosion that would have caused air decompression inside the plane. However, Bahoku said he doesn't believe an explosion would have brought the plane down.

A second international official familiar with the incident, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that the substances carried by the Somali passenger could have been used as an explosive device.

In the Detroit case, alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit. Like the captured Somali, Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. The substances seized from the Somali passenger are being tested.

The November incident garnered little attention before the Dec. 25 attack aboard a flight on final approach to Detroit. U.S. officials have now learned of the Somali case and are hastening to investigate any possible links between it and the Detroit attack, though no officials would speak on the record about the probe.

U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen — which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Similarly, large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an insurgent group, al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaida.

Western officials say many of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters in Somalia come in small boats across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. The officials also say that examination of equipment used in some Somali suicide attacks leads them to believe it was originally assembled in Yemen.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect in the Detroit incident tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft.

A Somali security official involved in the capture of the suspect in Mogadishu said he had a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. The security official said the suspect was the last passenger to try to board.

Once security officials detected the powder chemicals and syringe, the suspect tried to bribe the security team that detained him, the Somali security official said. The security official said the suspect had a white shampoo bottle with a black acid-like substance in it. He also had a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance and a syringe containing a green liquid. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

The powdered material had the strong scent of ammonia, Bahoku said, and samples have been sent to London for testing.

The Somali security officials said the Daallo Airlines flight was scheduled to go from Mogadishu to Hargeisa, to Djibouti and then to Dubai.

A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials weren't aware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France.



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Sources: AP, Air America.com, ABC News, Google Maps

Nigerian Officials Allowed Umar Mutallab To Board Plane To U.S.

Missed Warning Signs



As investigators say Al Qaeda planned a Nigerian man's Christmas Day attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, sources tell Gerald Posner that signs point to a security slip-up at the Lagos embassy.

The first goal of government investigators this Christmas weekend? “Trying to figure out if the guy is a nut or an operator,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, referring to 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national who unsuccessfully tried to ignite an explosive device on an incoming Northwest airlines flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Al Qaeda or angry loner?

The second goal is almost as urgent. How did someone whose father, the recently retired chairman of Nigeria’s First Bank, had apparently warned American embassy officials several weeks ago that his son’s religious views had become increasingly extreme and militant, gain access to a plane heading to the United States?

Although his father’s warning got Abdulmutallab on a broad list, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment repository, along with 550,000 other people, The Daily Beast has learned that no one evidently tagged the information from the Lagos embassy as a priority and then highlighted it so he would be placed into a more-active suspect database (the Terrorist Screening Database).

If they had, according to one Counter Terrorism official who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, security procedures could have promptly moved Abdulmutallab to a no-fly list.

(The information passed from Lagos was so generic that, according to what an unnamed U.S. administration official told Reuters on Saturday, it was not negative enough to include him on any banned flying list.)

This incident isn’t viewed by Counter Terrorism officials to whom I spoke as a general flaw in the aviation security system, but rather as the isolated failure of local embassy intelligence officers to make the warning they received more specific and word it in a way that would set off the system’s warning bells. A senior administration official told The New York Times that “The information was passed into the system, but the expression of radical extremist views were very nonspecific. We were evaluating him, but the information we had was not a lot to go on.”

Ultimately then, the attempted terror attack failed not because of good intel, but because two of the 278 passengers jumped Abdulmatallab immediately after he tried activating a powdery mix he had strapped to his thigh, with a chemical solution he mixed in from a hypodermic needle that he managed to slip past security both in Lagos, Nigeria, and at Amsterdam’s packed Schiopol Airport. Lagos is notoriously lax for security, but Amsterdam is considered one of the better European capitals at screening.





On Saturday, in a federal criminal complaint filed against Abdulmutallab, the government revealed that a preliminary FBI analysis of the device revealed it contained PETN—pentaerythritol—a high explosive.

Abdulmatallab suffered severe second-degree burns but is expected to survive. He’s being treated at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Not surprisingly, the eyewitness accounts of the panicked scene varied. But at least one person on the plane reportedly claimed they heard Abdulmutallab express anger over Western intervention in Afghanistan.

The suspect later told investigators that he obtained the explosive chemicals from a Yemeni bomb expert who is closely associated with al Qaeda. The al Qaeda wing that operates in Yemen is run by an extremist Yemeni cleric, who Abdulmutallab says he was in touch with via by the Internet.

He also reportedly told FBI interrogators that he was directed by al Qaeda to set off the device on a U.S. plane over American soil.

One Counter Terrorism official, who spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, said it was not clear if that boast “was simply aspirational.” But Jane Harman, the House representative who is chief of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence told reporters, that “The facts are still emerging, but there are strong suggestions of a Yemen-Al Qaeda connection….”

Now, instead of arresting Abdulmutallab, who flew under his real name when he presented his ticket in Lagos, all international fliers to the U.S. will instead be inconvenienced by this communications snafu. Airline rules announced Saturday instituted extra baggage screening, additional personal inspections, and a stricter enforcement of an existing rule that permits passengers to only bring one carry-on bag.

In addition, all passengers on U.S.-bound international flights will not be able to move about the cabin during the last hour of the flight. That’s intended to thwart the continuing fascination that terrorists have with wrecking havoc in U.S. aviation, especially when there’s a chance to do so over American soil.

Of course, that doesn’t take into account the first hour of any flight that originates in the U.S. American authorities are still confident they can prevent an active bomber from boarding a plane at a domestic airport.

The lack of confidence is in foreign security. But given the apparent failure to recognize the importance of the warning received at the Lagos embassy, the problem can also be the failure to assess and pick out the key info that floods the complex Counter Terrorism matrix.



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Sources: The Daily Beast, AP, BBC, Sky News, NY Daily News, Youtube, Google Maps

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's Explosive Underwear Photos

Photos Of The Northwest Airlines Flight 253 Bomb



A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda's attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.

As seen in these photos, the alleged bomb consisted of a packet of powder sewn into the briefs of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian. Al Qaeda took credit Monday for the attempted bombing, boasted of its ability to overcome U.S. intelligence and airport security, and promised new attacks.

The first photo, to the left, shows the slightly charred underpants with the bomb packet still in place. All photos include a ruler to provide scale.

The bomb packet is a six-inch long container of the high-explosive chemical PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.


UNDERWEAR AND EXPLOSIVE PACKET

In the second photo (right), the packet of explosive powder has been removed from the underpants and displayed separately.

A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That

was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.

The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful.

Acid in Syringe Was Detonator

PETN PACKAGE

Tragedy was averted only because the detonator, acid in a syringe, did not work.

"It's very clear it came very, very close," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R.-Mich., ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee. "The explosive device went off, but it became an incendiary device instead of an explosive device, which is probably what saved that airplane."

The acid in the melted plastic syringe, pictured below, caused a fire but did not make proper contact with the PETN.

Abdulmutallab told FBI agents he received the bomb from and was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen over the last few months. In a web posting today, the al Qaeda group displayed a picture of Abdulmutallab, calling him a hero who "overcame legendary American intelligence which showed its fragility, putting its nose in the ground, using all of what they spent in new security techniques against them."

The al Qaeda group in Yemen has been calling for attacks against the U.S. for months.

Two of its four top leaders were U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo until November, 2007 when they were turned over to Saudi Arabia and then set free after supposedly being rehabilitated.

Now U.S. officials say these men have shown they pose a much greater operational threat than al Qaeda in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Richard Clarke: Yemen is the new Afghanistan. It is the new sanctuary, the new al Qaeda base where people from around the world, who want to be trained are sent. No longer to Afghanistan, but to Yemen.a

In its statement today, the al Qaeda group said the attempt to bring down the jet was retaliation for U.S. air strikes in Yemen.

But those air strikes took place on December 17, and Abdulmutallab's mission was already underway then as he bought his ticket to Detroit on Dec. 16.


Sources: AP, ABC News, Youtube