WASHINGTON — Air security is expected to tighten, particularly for international flights into the United States, in light of recent intelligence that terrorists might be considering boarding flights with surgically implanted explosive devices, an American security official said Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Securityhas warned foreign counterparts of the potential threat, the official said, speaking on ground rules of anonymity.
Efforts to smuggle explosives onto flights in undergarments and in printer cartridges have been traced back to the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, but the official would not discuss the focus or origins of the latest intelligence.
But one senior Homeland Security Department official said that the new intelligence originally surfaced about a month ago, had been vetted since then and appeared to be linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. “The new intelligence indicated at least a fresh look at this possible tactic” by the terrorist group, this official said.
A security expert, James J. Carafano of the Heritage Foundation, said it was important to know that it would be challenging to implant a bomb large enough to do serious damage, and difficult for a passenger to position himself in a plane to cause truly catastrophic damage.
Asked about the new concern, Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said, “The idea that terrorists have been looking for other ways to circumvent security measures in order to target aircraft is not at all surprising.” He said that the latest information “did not relate to an imminent or specific threat,” and that the Unites States routinely sent reports about aviation security to other nations and the aviation industry.
Greg Soule, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Agency, said the warnings to foreign security officials and to security agencies had been made “in recent days,” but he would not discuss them in detail.
Representatives for several European airlines said that they had learned about the new security proposals only from a reporter’s inquiry.
The American security official said that passengers, particularly on flights to the United States, should expect an increased security presence at airports. Security had already been raised in May after the killing of Osama bin Laden. The official would not say whether the new intelligence had come from materials obtained at Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
The bolstered security could include increased use of existing procedures, including behavior-detection officers and airport interviews, pat-down searches and the swabbing of skin or clothing to detect traces of explosive materials.
“These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport,” Mr. Soule said.
The scanning equipment used in airports is not designed to penetrate the skin and would not be able to detect implanted devices.
But Mr. Carafano said that traditional security procedures, including explosives-sniffing dogs and machines, and agents studying passengers for nervous behavior, could go far to reduce such a threat.
“When dealing with explosives,” he said, “it’s very hard not to have some kind of residue that gets on your clothing.”
The authorities have long been concerned about the possibility of a suicide attack involving implanted explosives.
In 2009, a militant wounded a Saudi prince by detonating a bomb that was thought to have been in his large intestine. The bomber died, and officials later determined that it was more likely placed in his underwear.
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