Surgical Implants Filled with Explosives Are Undetectable in Suicide Bombers

Britain's MI5 intelligence service reports that al-Qaida is recruiting female suicide bombers who have had explosives surgically implanted in their breasts. Male suicide bombers are undergoing similar surgeries; but instead of the breast area, the explosives are implanted in the buttocks or appendix areas.

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MI5 agents report that Muslim doctors who were trained at leading UK teaching hospitals are returning to their native countries to perform surgeries that involve inserting plastic implants containing PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) explosives into women's breasts and men's bodies. PETN was used by British shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to blow up an American airliner in December 2001. Jonathan Evans, head of MI5, warns that the body-bombers pose a serious threat to security because they can circumvent current methods of detection. Surgeons from the UK's National Health Service agree that plastic implants are "virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines."

"Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner," NHS surgeons said.

Explosive experts calculate that five ounces of PETN in a plastic sachet inside a bomber’s body could easily blow a large enough hole in a fuselage to crash an airliner. The bomber could detonate the explosives using a hypodermic syringe to inject TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) through his or her skin into the explosives sachet. Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab nearly blew up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day when he tried to inject TATP from a syringe to detonate the explosives he had stuffed down his underpants. Fortunately for the 280 passengers onboard, the fluid had ignited his clothes instead of detonating the explosives. Security agencies fear that a body-bomber could board an airliner, subway train, or bus pretending to be a diabetic in need of an injection, and the ruse could prevent someone from intervening and stopping the suicide mission. Officials think that body-bombers are al-Qaida's response to body scanners at airports, whose purpose is to catch terrorists before they board flights.