Top Counter-Terrorism Official: No Further Threat from Bomb
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — The inside source who helped foil a U.S. bomb threat meant to coincide with the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death has been taken out of Yemen and is safely in Saudi Arabia, ABC News reported Tuesday morning.
When asked on ABC’s Good Morning America if the source was the would-be bomber, President Obama’s top counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan, wouldn’t give a direct answer, but said, “We’ve been working very closely with our international partners to make sure that this device did not pose a threat to the American public. We continue to work with them, there are some very sensitive operational aspects of this that we’re continuing to pursue. So the means we were able to get this device we are trying to make sure that we protect, again, the equities that are involved with it.”
The FBI are examining the device, Brennan said, and although he can’t confirm that there aren’t other bombers at large he said that “neither the device nor the intended user of this device pose a threat” to the United States.
“Again we are working with our partners overseas to ensure that all measures are taken related to the device as well as to any individuals that might have been designed to use it,” he said.
The device is reported to be more sophisticated than that of the 2009 so called “Underwear Bomber,” with a better detonator and no metal. But Brennan would not definitively say if the device could have gotten past airport security, had it gotten to that point.
“There are a number of measures in place at airports overseas. We work with our partners. They continually change those measures to stay abreast of the latest developments that we have been able to uncover in terms of the types of techniques and tactics used by terrorists groups,” Brennan said.
People flying should not be concerned, he said. Instead, in light of the foiled attack, Americans should be confident that our intelligence is working.
“We don’t want to be complacent, feeling as though our security measures are as strong as they could be. We continue to adapt and evolve them. Again this IED was a threat from the stand point of the design…so now we are trying to make sure we are taking the measures that we need to prevent any other type of IED similarly constructed from getting thru security procedures,” Brennan said.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio