An FBI counterterrorism official told The Daily Beast that the reason the PETN did not explode is that the glycol-based liquid meant to detonate it, instead melted the plastic hypodermic syringe Abdulmutallab was carrying. Fortunately for the crew and passengers, the liquid didn’t make enough contact with PETN to create an explosion. (The failure to detonate the bomb is evidence to counterterrorism officials that Abdulmutallab most likely was not the bomb maker, not intimately familiar with it, and was only instructed on how to set it off.)…
Hence, the worries about precisely what happened on Christmas Day. “PETN can easily be stitched into clothing and hidden around the body,” an FBI agent familiar with the explosive tells me. “And what if it’s hidden in a body cavity? No one is going to find it then.” Drug mules typically carry heroin on international flights, hidden in sealed condoms they’ve swallowed. In the case of an explosive like PETN, security experts are worried about the terrorist who might hide the small amount of powder in a condom inserted in his anus. “Without a strip search, you are never going to find it,” says the FBI agent. He then went on to give very scary details about how this powder could be deployed for maximum damage…
As technology changes, so do the threats facing counterterrorism experts and airport security teams. What happens now when a passenger with a heart condition shows up with a prescription for Lentonitrat, which is nearly pure PETN? And what if they are also a diabetic and are traveling with a syringe of what they say is insulin. “Even with the all the bells and whistles,” an FBI counterterrorism official tells The Daily Beast, “it is still very difficult. We have to be right 100 percent of the time. They only have to get lucky once.”
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