This April 30, 2012, photo shows a traveler passing through a security check point at Portland International Airport, in Portland, Ore. Airport security procedures, with their intrusive pat downs and body scans, don’t need to be toughened despite the discovery of a new al-Qaida airline bomb plot using more sophisticated technology than an earlier attempt, congressional and security officials said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)WASHINGTON – The CIA had al-Qaida fooled from the beginning.
Last month, U.S. intelligence learned that al-Qaida’s Yemen branch hoped to launch a spectacular attack using a new, nearly undetectable bomb aboard an airliner bound for America, officials say.
But the man the terrorists were counting on to carry out the attack was actually working for the CIA and Saudi intelligence, U.S. and Yemeni officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The dramatic sting operation thwarted the attack before it had a chance to succeed.
It was the latest misfire for al-Qaida, which has repeatedly come close to detonating a bomb aboard an airliner. For the United State, it was a victory that delivered the bomb intact to U.S. intelligence.