US claims to foil new Al Qaeda underwear-bomb plot

Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo at the Associated Press were first to report today that the CIA claims to have "thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen" to bomb a plane headed for the US, using a bomb with "a sophisticated new design" that would not contain metal. The attack was to have taken place near the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. The design is said to have been an improvement over the plot that failed on a plane over Detroit around Christmas, 2009. Because it did not contain metal, the new design may have thwarted current airport screening protocols, but it's possible that the newer forms of full-body scanners could detect such a device… or not.

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