Terrorists Hoping To Foil Security With Implanted Explosives

Security experts are concerned about a next wave of jihadi suicide bombers who may take advantage of implanted explosive devices. Can you sayboob bombs?

A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

Experts said the explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) would be placed in a plastic sachet inside the bomber’s body before the wound was stitched up like a normal operation incision and allowed to heal.

A shaped charge of 8oz of PETN can penetrate five inches of armour and would easily blow a large hole in an airliner.

Security sources said the explosives would be detonated by the bomber using a hypodermic syringe to inject TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) through their skin into the explosives sachet.

PETN – the main ingredient of Semtex plastic explosive – was used by Richard Reid, the British Al Qaeda shoe-bomber, when he unsuccessfully tried to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami in December 2001.

The implanted devices would likely foil the current generation of scanning devices and pat-downs at airport security checkpoints.

It makes the kind of scanners used in Total Recall all the more relevant and necessary given that the terrorists are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts to take down airliners.