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Terror 'Mules': Bombs in Bodies
By Erik Baard
2:00 a.m. Nov. 13, 2001 PST
Even if every airport in the United States scanned every bag loaded
onto every airplane for explosives, and every passenger went under
the metal-detector, a bomb could still get onto a passenger jet,
experts say. The Federal Aviation Authority's next generation of
holographic body imaging scanners can be trumped too. Welcome to the
world of the "terror mule."
Criminal groups running drugs and diamonds into the United States
have for years smuggled contraband by stuffing it into condoms and
having a "mule" swallow the load, or by having it implanted
surgically or rectally. The same technique can be used to smuggle
plastic explosives like Semtex past security at an airport.
See also:
Discuss this story on Plastic.com
Conflict 2001: Fresh Perspectives
America v. Terrorism: All the Facts
Making It Harder for Hijackers
Experts Blast Airport Security
Airport Scanner Sees Through Contraband - and Your Clothes
Give Yourself Some Business News
Triggering mechanisms could be made with few metal components to evade detections, or
could be assembled from common electronic gadgets such as PDAs, cell phones, laptops
or personal stereos. Terrorists could even rig up
a wireless detonator that could be triggered from the ground.
"It absolutely can be done and very easily, and there's no reason to believe that
wouldn't be possible," said Dr. Harvey Kushner, chairman of the criminal justice
department at Long Island University. Kushner is also a te
rrorism expert who testified at the criminal and civil cases that followed the
bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, the first World Trade Center attack, and the
destruction of Pan Am flight 103.
"Quite frankly, that kind of experimentation has been taking place. We know that they
have been testing strapped-on explosives on animals in the Middle East for years and
it's not a magical leap to try inserting it into t
he rectum," he said.
Dr. Kushner is the author of Terrorism in America and The Future of Terrorism:
Violence in the New Millennium and the upcoming Concise Encyclopedia of Extremism and
Terrorism.
Terrorists have already used mocked pregnancy prosthetics to slip bombs aboard planes,
but no one has tried the mule approach yet, according to Harvey "Jack" McGeorge, a
former Marine Corps bomb disposal specialist and a
former Secret Service security specialist.
McGeorge is now president of the Public Safety Group, a consultancy based in
Woodbridge, Virginia, which studies chemical and biological warfare and terrorism.
"I agree that that's doable. I see no bar to this," McGeorge said. However, unlike
Kushner, McGeorge said he hadn't heard of animal testing.
McGeorge estimated that a suicide bomber could smuggle at least a single bar of C-4, a
U.S.-made plastic explosive, measuring about 1.5 inches in diameter and 7 to 8 inches
long. That would yield something in comparison t
o a pound of dynamite, he said. "I would say, you could smuggle about three pounds
vaginally and a pound anally," McGeorge said.
Another specialist said the total load could be well over five pounds if more
explosives were smuggled in the stomach. Kushner noted that Pan Am Flight 103 was
brought down with under four pounds of Semtex.
The bomber could simplify detonation with a self-contained timer, instead of relying
on a wireless trigger or other mechanisms, McGeorge added. Removing the explosives in
the bathroom could optimize strategic placement.
"I have seen no intelligence reporting on the prospect of rectally implanted explosive
charges being carried aboard aircraft by individuals willing to be a living bomb,"
said one national intelligence researcher, who aske
d to remain anonymous. "(But) the scenario is plausible. The notion is
straightforward, and the events of 9-11 have shown us that we must give weight to
suicidal attacks ... against aircraft or other targets."
Richard Horowitz, an attorney, private investigator, and captain in the Israel
Defense Forces who consults on terrorism issues, said: "It's not appropriate for an
analyst of terrorism to consider anything absurd that is
technically very feasible, and I would say yes, this is. I have not heard this
scenario discussed, but Tom Clancy wrote up a plot that involved crashing a jet into a
building, and the federal authorities classified it as
a low probability."
By smuggling explosives inside one's body, a suicide bomber would likely foil all of
the current airport scanning technologies, as well as many future ones.
The FAA is purchasing five Secure1000 holographic imaging scanners from Rapiscan for
testing at its William J. Hughes Technical Center, said Holly Baker, a spokesperson
for the agency. The Rapiscan uses X-rays, but the co
mpany itself conceded that its weak rays can't look into tissue, only under clothing.
Other scanning technologies using magnetism, thermal imaging, and other forms of
radiation detection also have difficulty getting below the skin. Most of the
technology was developed in the pre-9-11 era when hijackers use
d guns, and there was some hope of them living through the hijacking.
One surveillance device that might overcome the terror mule is being developed in the
Netherlands: MMC International's Conpass Digital Body Scanner, which is being used at
the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
The scanner peers inside the human body by sweeping a person with a .3 millirem X-ray.
By comparison, a standard medical exam exposes patients to 40 millirems, and a typical
person receives about 300 millirems of annual b
ackground radiation.
The Department of Energy is also working on a new scanner, but it can't comment on its
capabilities in the wake of Sept. 11, said Staci A. Maloof, spokeswoman for the
department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Related Wired Links:
E-Tickets Get New Restrictions
Sep. 17, 2001
Air Travelers Face Tangled Web
Sep. 14, 2001
Making It Harder for Hijackers
Sep. 13, 2001
Experts Blast Airport Security
Sep. 12, 2001
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