'Underwear bomber' was working for the CIA

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/09/underwear-bomber-working-for-cia

Bomber involved in plot to attack US-bound jet was working as an informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged

Paul Harris and Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 May 2012

A would-be "underwear bomber" involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.

The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an attacker.

The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.

[burnodo]

1. Thread turns into a Snowden-Greenwald kerfuffle in 3... 2... 1...

Nt

[leveymg]

2. That story is a year old, and is not about the 2009 Xmas Day bomb plot.

The story is date-lined: The Guardian, Tuesday 8 May 2012

It is about the most recent of several double-agent operations involving the Yemen-based AQ front operation being run by Saudi intelligence and the CIA around Anwar al-Awlaki, who was himself a double-agent.

[FarCenter]

9. And I thought that the guy was working for MI6, not the CIA?

[leveymg]

11. AAA, or the latest double featured in the AP story?

AAA was our guy. I've read several accounts about the double who was extracted and a day later they droned al Quso. They all say he was a Saudi national and that Saudi intelligence was involved in the operation. The split seems to be that the US press is saying that MI6 was the western agency, while this British article says it was the CIA.

Can we safely assume that MID, MI6 and CIA all work together, against each other, and against others, depending upon the circumstances?

[NYC_SKP]

3. Is he the reason I have to take of my underwear at airport security checkpoints now???

Wait, come to think of it... do I even have to do that or am I just wasting my time?

[hootinholler]

5. I hear they got a machine that can read the skid marks

So I guess it's all good.

[NYC_SKP]

7. I'm not worried. I'm a man of few words.

In this case, mostly punctuation marks.

[HubertHeaver]

6. Check your clothing at the airport door.

[hootinholler]

4. The Fruit of the Boom guy?

Go figure!

Hmmm, what else was happening then? Was Abu Ghraib heating up then? I wonder what it knocked out of the news cycle.

[Blue Owl]

8. An undercover debriefing

n/t

[Hydra]

10. Thanks for the reminder

These super terror plots are bogus AND obvious, but we're having the same discussions still about how Clapper is "keeping us safe" by reading our mail.

Once upon a time, they were not so sloppy about lying to us.