Thursday, August 10, 2006

Interesting How Jihadists Repeat Themselves   [Andy McCarthy]

This plot, involving, according to Fox News, at least six American airliners crossing the Atlantic, already seems very reminiscent of the so-called "Bojenka" (or "Manila Air") plot from 1994 — the Ramzi Yousef / Khalid Sheik Mohammed plot to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners as they were in flight over the Pacific.

There is obviously a focus here on liquid explosives, out of the belief that they would defeat screening detectors.  The '94 plot involved explosive components that the bomber could assemble in the plane's bathroom and that could be detonated by a timer (a simple wrist-watch, if I'm remembering correctly).  Yousef put one of these together in a test-run.  He boarded a plane making one stop enroute to the U.S.  On the first leg, he put together the device and planted it under his seat.  He then did not contine on the second leg.  The bomb detonated, killing a Japanese national and nearly bringing the flight down.

There is often a long time between attacks, but the jihadists are not idling.  They refine their tactics, and they often go back, again and again, to the same targets and the same plans.

08/10 07:08 AMShare