The Return of the Butt Bombers

Holy underwear, Batman!

Looks like the ‘Butt Bombers’ are at it again…

From the most-recent thwarted attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Detroit Metro Airport in Michigan, it seems that Al-Qaeda is again resorting to the ‘butt bomber’ modus operadi in trying to carry out alleged acts of terrorism.

According to ABC News, one “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.”

The underwear with the explosive worn by alleged Northwest 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is shown in this undated photo. (Courtesy of ABC News)

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.

But this is not the first time a ‘butt bomber’ has used the nether regions of their body to try and explode a suicide bomb.

In a previous column of mine, I wrote about the would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (head of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism efforts) who apparently decided in October 2009 to hide his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation.

In the October 2009 Saudi assassination attempt, the terrorist concealed the bomb, made of [the explosive] PETN, in his underwear, according to the official Saudi investigation.

According to CNN, “PETN is a plastic explosive that is not picked up by metal detectors — through which the would-be assassin had to pass before he was allowed to meet with the Saudi prince.”

Like the October 2009 Saudi assassination attempt, similarly, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to bring down Northwest Airlines flight 253 using the same kind of ‘PETN underwear bomb’ that was not discovered by metal detectors.

Sadly, as I had written before, after this most recent Christmas Day incident with Northwest Airlines Flight 253, there are only two things that are going come out of yet another silly and tragic episode of ‘toilet terrorism’:

1) Airport screeners will probably now invest even more money to buy latex gloves and;

2) In addition to already removing half of our clothing at the airport, young brown six-foot-four Muslim males (like myself) who fit the ‘racial profile’ will probably have to spend a little more time at the airports ‘assuming the position’ and ’spreading our cheeks’ the next time that we want to board an airplane.

Thanks a alot, Butt Bombers…