Counter Terror Gazette

The Latest al-Qaeda Threat: the body bomb

26 Aug 2011

With recent media reports of terrorists potentially surgically implanting improvised explosive devices into their bodies as a way of infiltrating bombs onto aircraft, Bruce Koffler details some of the research undertaken to establish whether this is a viable method of by-passing security

On 27 August  2009, at about 23:30 hours (Saudi local time), a suicide bomber belonging to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) tried to assassinate the Assistant Interior Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef al-Saud, in  Jeddah. The Prince, who is also the son of the Interior Minister and is responsible for counter-terrorism, received mild injuries to several of his fingers.

The suicide bomber, who was killed in the attack, was identified as Abdullah Hassan Talea’ Asiri – a wanted Saudi militant who had been in hiding in Yemen. He had contacted Saudi authorities, and told them he wanted to hand himself in to Prince Muhammad bin Nayef al-Saud. He said he no longer believed in terrorism and wished to go through the Saudi re-integration programme set up for terrorists and militants who wanted to re-join society, and work for change through peaceful means. At the time, the Prince was receiving guests for a Ramadan event. After arriving back in Saudi Arabia, Asiri phoned the Prince, who agreed to see him at his home in Jeddah during the Ramadan reception.

A complete report of the incident was published on 18 September 2009, by the SC5 Counter Terrorism unit of EUROPOL; aspects of the subsequent forensic investigation were covered.  The report has been posted on the internet. It includes a review of the recovered evidence and graphic colour photos of the effects of the blast on Asiri.

That report and other open source information, state that the Saudi security services prior to the attack had interviewed Asiri for more than 30 hours. He and his air and ground transport were also subject to security checks along the way from Yemen to Saudi Arabia, and at additional checkpoints set up to search all persons coming to see the Prince.

The report comes to several possible conclusions about how Asiri managed to meet with the Prince without the improvised explosive device (IED) being detected. From the damage to the bomber and to the concrete floor of the room in which the detonation occurred, this first forensic investigation determined an estimated 500g of high explosive was contained inside his body, and that it had either to have been ingested (eaten) or hidden inside his large intestine – probably inserted through the anus into his rectum – or beyond.

A third option is that the device was not concealed internally at all and that Asiri had concealed the device in his underpants – as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was to do four months later in the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Detroit. The argument against this option is that the degree of scrutiny Asiri would have been subjected to, given that he was a known terrorist wishing to visit a Prince, would have far exceeded the screening that the everyday passenger undergoes at airports.

The EUROPOL report concluded that ingesting that quantity of explosives and an associated initiating device (switch, detonator and power source) would be difficult, as it would obstruct breathing while passing through the throat. The most probable scenario was that Asiri had effected a rectal concealment of the IED.

Smugglers of illicit drugs and incarcerated prisoners often resort to both methods, concealing the drugs in several layers of latex or vinyl condoms or other types of flexible but relatively impermeable barrier materials. These materials can usually survive the average 15-30 hour passage through (or storage inside) the human digestive system, including the corrosive action of stomach acids. Among correctional services workers and prisoners, anal/rectal concealment is known as “keistering” of contraband items.

The EUROPOL report offered several possible options, but reached what investigators figured was the most probable conclusion on how the IED was triggered. The apparent sequence of events was that Asiri was beside the Prince and engaged in discussion with him, telling him that he was in contact with others in AQAP who also wanted to turn themselves in and be re-integrated into Saudi civil society. He offered to phone one of the people from his own mobile phone and he gave his phone to the Prince to speak with that person.

The EUROPOL report and other websites commenting on the suicide bombing have described the fact that the Prince was communicating by Asiri’s mobile phone with another AQAP senior member. When that person was assured that Asiri was positioned right beside the Prince, the person he was speaking to on the phone then remotely dialled the number of the mobile phone in the IED hidden in Asiri’s colon.

The Prince told authorities that about 14 seconds after he greeted Asiri, there was a blinding blast.  Asiri’s torso and legs were blown away from the upper part of his body. His upper body was largely intact, with chest, ribs, arms and head still attached and recognisable.

One conclusion from the type of damage caused is that Asiri’s body acted as a shield, absorbing much of the blast, and the detonation direction was primarily downward, blowing off his lower body and legs.  It said “there is a clear lack of shrapnel projections in the walls; the suicide bomber is seen missing the lower half of his body which discounts the use of a common suicide vest”.

The Saudi authorities released the recorded conversation to Saudi TV channels for broadcast. That conversation also appeared on several Middle East websites in the original Arabic, and was translated by a US terrorism monitoring organisation called the NEFA Foundation.

A series of AQAP statements extracted from those websites (including video footage) on 28 August, 15 September and 29 September 2009, indicated they took responsibility for the attempted assassination of the Prince, using a new, unique technique of concealment and detonation, that allowed the “martyr” to pass through airports and ground checkpoints undetected; they stated this new technique would be further refined and used with increasing frequency in the future. Terrorist websites have recently been suggesting that more women will be used in terrorist suicide bombing attacks, because they are seldom closely checked. Among several of the methods now being discussed, is surgical insertion of explosives-laden ‘silicone’ breast implants; the operation to be carried out by skilled plastic surgeon jihadists. Alternative internal devices considered include swallowed or inserted explosive charges that might be triggered by the injection of a chemical.

Michael Cardash, former head of the Israel National Police bomb unit, has provided several translated jihadist threads in his Terrogence reports, relating to conversations between bombers working on the implantation problem and a surgeon. The surgeon describes details of the structure of the human torso and abdomen, with illustrations, and discusses methods of implantation, sterilisation, possible infection, use of drain tubes filled with potassium chlorate mixture for initiating detonation, and other questions as they arise.

In recent tests conducted by my company to evaluate the viability of internally concealed devices, we grouped possible components and plastic explosive simulants that could be either rectally or vaginally inserted, or swallowed, or surgically inserted into the body. We disassembled working mobile phones typical of the smaller styles available in 2009, to determine the minimum components needed to allow an insertable IED to function on the remote incoming signal; it had to be small enough to pass through the anus without damaging it and up into the rectum – and beyond.

The anus is the gateway to the large intestine.  Research showed that the anus of a person of normal body build can be slowly coaxed to stretch to a circumference of 15 inches (38cm), or 4.77 inches (12.11cm) in diameter, or more. One website says this is achieved using different diameter “butt plugs” and lots of lubricant.  It takes about six hours for the stretched skin and muscle to return to normal size. Normal stretching during defecation (bowel movement) is generally between about 1 to 1½ inches (2.54 – 3.81cm).

A November 1982 article in Annals of Emergency Medicine, “Removal of 100-watt Electric Bulb from Rectum”, describes the case of a man who had fully inserted into his rectum a 100-watt glass light bulb and its metal socket base, which a hospital had to remove through the same opening without breaking the glass.

Above the anus, the rectum is the next section of the large intestine (colon). It is a hollow chamber, 1 – 2 inches (2.54 – 5.08cm) long, and about 2 – 3½ inches (5.08 – 8.89cm) in diameter. Its lower half is valves and its upper half is comprised of folds of tissue. The canal bends into an “S” shape, called the “sigmoid colon”, then becomes the “descending colon” which runs vertically up the left side of the abdomen. It is connected to the “transverse colon” which runs crosswise in the body. The transverse colon connects to the “ascending colon”, the vertical section on the right side of a person’s body.

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