A terrorist in Saudi Arabia tried to kill the Saudi
antiterror chief by carrying explosives inside his body; experts say
there are "tremendous implications for airport security. As the only way to detect the bomb inside the body is by Xray the only other option is to get rid of the trigerring device which are the mobile phones.
Two weeks ago about a terrorist using explosives concealed inside his body who blew himself up on receipt of a mobile phone signal (9 September 2009 HSNW). The terrorist passed through several checks undetected. The attack has security experts very worried that this method is likely to become a real threat.
The intention was to kill a Saudi prince, who happened to be the chief of antiterrorism operations in Saudi Arabia in a complex plot involving the terrorist gaining access to the target by pretending to defect. The Homeland Security signal possible countermeasures:Possible detection countermeasures
- X rays calibrated for soft materials. Not easy, but it's a readily available detection method.
- MRI scans. Expensive, but possible. MRI can detect and analyze non metallic materials.
- Thermal profiling may be able to be calibrated to receive anomalous signals. All materials have distinct thermal signatures. Probably the cheapest, and certainly the most effective if it can be done on a large scale.
Operational countermeasures
- If phone services can read anomalous signals to unspecified locations, they can locate the sender and the receiver, at least in theory. A GPS reference would be easy enough to create.
- Sensitive areas could be subjected to jamming measures.
- Airports could simply require phones to be turned off, or confiscated, to reduce local phone traffic within the security zones.