By EILEEN SULLIVAN and KIMBERLY DOZIER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – 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.
Current U.S. detection methods would likely have spotted the shape of the explosive in the upgraded underwear bomb intercepted by the CIA, said a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security precautions. No new security measures are being put in place, the official said.
The CIA, with help from a well-placed informant and foreign intelligence services, conducted a covert operation in Yemen in recent weeks that disrupted a nascent suicide plot and recovered the new bomb, U.S. officials said.