The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives ? including a double-agent ? working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
The Saudi service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda?s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb?s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.
Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual ? described by officials as a Saudi informant ? who penetrated al-Qaeda posing as a willing suicide bomber then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.
But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the bomb plot unfold.
?We?re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,? Brennan said in an interview on ABC?s Good Morning America program. ?We had the device in our control and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.?
The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what U.S. officials have come to regard as the most critical counter-terrorism front.
The plot shows that al-Qaeda?s franchise in Yemen remains committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.
The disruption of the threat also indicates that the CIA and other agencies have gained significant traction on their target two years after President Obama began deploying more spies, eavesdropping equipment and armed drones to the Arabian Peninsula.
CIA officials declined to comment on the mission. Other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of intelligence operations.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said spy agencies were able to keep tabs on the location of the bomb, as well as those involved in plotting how it would be used, before it was intercepted in another country in the Middle East, thought to be Saudi Arabia.
?We know the route this thing took in terms of its movement,? the official said.
The device was described as an updated version of a design that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has used in a series of plots, including the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.
The U.S. intelligence official declined to discuss what he described as ?the disposition of the individual involved? in transporting the bomb before it was seized. Other officials indicated that the bomb handler was cooperating with the CIA and Saudi intelligence services, and is in protective custody.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=0d6ce0288956ea97036771784ef543f9
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