In foiled bomb plot, AQAP took bait dangled by Saudi informant

SANAA, Yemen — For al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, the volunteer seemed ideal. He was willing to die in a suicide operation, and he had travel papers that would allow him to board a U.S.-bound flight.

It was a perfect dangle, in the parlance of spycraft, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took the bait.

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The foiled underwear bomb plot in Yemen serves as a stark reminder of al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP's, primary mission - bring down an American plane, reports John Miller.

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U.S. and Yemeni officials say the would-be bomber at the heart of an al-Qaida bomb plot was actually an informant. He was working for the CIA and Saudi Arabian intelligence when he was given the bomb.

The group’s bombmaker fitted the man with a new version of a nonmetallic “underwear bomb.” What he didn’t know was that the would-be martyr was an agent run by Saudi Arabia. And the man turned the device over to his Saudi handlers inside Yemen.

The Saudis flew the bomb out of the country on a noncommercial jet and handed it over to American officials in an unidentified third country, according to Mustafa Alani, director of security and defense studies at the Gulf Research Center in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, who has close contacts with the kingdom’s intelligence and counterterrorism agencies. A U.S. official confirmed aspects of his account.

The informant was one of several operatives sent into Yemen over the past two years with Western passports and other documents designed to attract the attention of a terrorist group that is determined to attack the United States, U.S. and Western intelligence officials said Wednesday.

One official described the effort to disrupt the airline plot as part of a broader use of operatives with “clean skins” who can pass themselves off as militants capable of traveling into Europe or the United States.

As part of the effort, the Saudis have used fledgling al-Qaeda operatives who were temporarily detained, as well as individuals who have entered the country’s rehabilitation program, which seeks to turn militants against terrorist groups.

The effort has focused on flipping low-level and aspiring jihadis, according to a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the operation, which was revealed in news reports Monday.

“There are lots of wannabes who want to know how to shoot an AK-47 but have no intention of blowing themselves up,” said the former official, who like several current and former U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. “You’re looking for that guy.”

Officials said the Saudi informant used to derail the latest bomb plot had been in place for months.

“This would have been a collection mission — what you’re trying to do is get him in as deep as you can possibly make him go,” said a former CIA official familiar with operations against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP. “You don’t send him in there with the purpose of ‘Get a bomb and come back.’ ”

When AQAP leaders tapped the informant for the latest assignment, the former agency official said, CIA and Saudi counterparts assembled plans to use him to recover the device.

The breakup of the bomb plot was followed by an airstrike Sunday that killed a senior militant in Yemen, Fahd al-Quso. He was implicated in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 U.S sailors.

Concerns of security, leaks

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating whether changes need to be made at domestic airports or whether protections abroad need to be improved.