Officials confirm FBI experts in Quantico, Virginia are examining an underwear bomb seized from al-Qaeda militants in Yemen last month. The bomb was intended to be detonated on a U.S.-bound plane sometime this month, but the plot was thwarted by an insider working with the United States, according to a senior official. The insider reportedly drove the bomb out of Yemen and into Saudi Arabia.
The explosive device is said to be an updated version of the bomb Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009. That bomb, which was hidden in Abdulmutallab’s underwear, failed and the Nigeria native was arrested.
An Obama administration official speaking anonymously to NBC News said the latest plot was “managed to that it was not a threat” to anyone. “The device never got near an airplane. To our knowledge, it never got near an airplane or airport,” the official.
It is unclear if the would-be suicide bomber has been arrested, but authorities say the person is longer a threat. In a New Delhi press conference Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the plot proves “terrorists keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people and it is a reminder why we have to remain vigilant at home and abroad in protecting our nation and in protecting friendly nations and peoples like India and others.”
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