Fear the underwear

In the latest very, very dangerous CIA-invented/exposed terrorist plot, we learn, in the very, very breathless words of the LA Times, that the underwear bomb at the heart of the matter “bears the forensic signature of feared Al Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan Asiri,” also connected to the dreaded underwear bomb that resulted in second-degree burns to the crotch of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for which crime he was thrown in jail for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.

The Times describes this comic-opera affair, which resulted in the murder of Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Quso, suspected of being involved in the bombing of the USS Cole back in 2000, as “the successful blocking of an ambitious Al Qaeda plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner,” even though it was the CIA itself, working with Saudi intelligence, who put the whole thing into motion. The FBI is now feverishly studying the malign device manufactured by the feared Ibrahim Hassan Asiri, hoping against hope that it will actually be capable of, you know, blowing something up, which I strongly, strongly doubt.

While the FBI is studying, the New York Times has already found a loud-mouthed though camera-shy “senior American official” who is happy to tell that the infernal underwear “undoubtedly would have brought down an aircraft,” a statement that I strongly, strongly doubt.

Meanwhile, the far from camera-shy, and seriously IRA-lovin’ Rep. Peter “it’s not terrorism if the victims are British” King is mad because word about the caper has been released. “We are talking about compromising methods and sources and causing our partners to be leery about working with us,” King said. Or is he upset because the “plot” is such a piece of crap?*

O the Timeses! So eager to play cops and robbers, so incapable of asking questions!

Afterwords
Glenn Greenwald wonders why no one wonders whether endless U.S. murders of persons known and unknown in Yemen might not be prompting, you know, irritation with the U.S. in that little country.