WASHINGTON, May 8, (AFP):Saudi intelligence likely played a crucial role in foiling the latest bomb plot by al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, former US officials said Tuesday, as US media reported a spy infiltrated the group and delivered the explosive to the CIA.

A day after the United States announced that al-Qaeda’s plan to attack a US-bound airliner had been foiled with help from foreign spy agencies, FBI experts were examining the seized explosive that officials said was an updated version of the “underwear bomb” used in a failed attack on Christmas Day 2009.
With militants trying to mount a strike near the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, US authorities vowed to stay vigilant against the growing threat posed by Yemeni-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

“The plot itself indicates that the terrorists keep trying... to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in New Delhi on Monday during a tour of Asia.

The US administration said the plan was disrupted at an early stage but left key questions about the case unanswered, including where the bomb was recovered.
Counterterrorism officials, however, said the plot was clearly the work of AQAP, suggesting the same bombmaker, Ibrahim Hassan Taleh Al-Asiri, who was behind previous attacks had designed the explosive.

“The device has the hallmarks of previous AQAP bombs” that were used in a failed assassination attempt on Saudi’s top counterterrorism official in 2009 and in the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing, said a senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

ABC News reported that a spy linked to the CIA and other intelligence services infiltrated AQAP and managed to bring the bomb out of the country to Saudi Arabia, a staunch ally in Washington’s fight against al-Qaeda.

The spy is now “safely out of Yemen,” an unnamed “international intelligence official” told ABC.
US officials did not see the bomb as an immediate threat because all along the spy had “control” of the device, ABC said.

The CIA declined to comment on the television report.

But former intelligence officials noted that Saudi Arabia was credited with uncovering an AQAP plot in 2010 to blow up cargo planes headed to US airports and that the Saudis have long been known for keeping a close eye on AQAP.

“My guess is we probably had someone on the inside, my guess is someone working for the Saudis, who tipped us off that the bomb was somewhere and the bomber was somewhere and they were able to wrap the two of them up,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who has tracked AQAP.

“From previous AQAP experiences, it’s usually the Saudis who give us the critical intelligence,” said Riedel, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Despite having disrupted the attack plan, US officials were concerned about al-Qaeda’s affiliate exploiting recent turmoil in Yemen, with the group expanding its territory despite the threat of strikes from US drones overhead, he said.

The group’s “safe haven is getting bigger, not smaller,” he told AFP.
A US lawmaker said the disrupted plot was linked to the death of an AQAP leader, Fahd al-Quso, who was killed in a suspected drone strike on Sunday.

“Yes, I was told by the White House they are connected, they’re part of the same operation, and that’s why I said this operation is still ongoing,” Republican Peter King told CNN.

Quso was wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The attack in Yemen’s port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.

Quso was killed Sunday when two missiles slammed near his home in Rafadh, east of Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa province, a tribal chief said, adding that two of the suspect’s body guards were also killed in the raid.