Qaeda 's 'Butt Bomb' tactic spooks American security experts India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A new al Qaeda terror technique called the "Butt Bomb" has spooked American security experts. A suicide bomber recently put himself next to a member of the Saudi royal family, having outwitted bomb-detection machines in the palace, to set off an explosion using a charge that had been hidden in his rectum, reports the New York Post. The assassin, Abdullah Asieri, stashed a pound of explosives and a detonator inside his body in the attack on Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the head of the counter-terrorism for the kingdom, the Arab TV network Al Arabiya reported. Bin Nayef was only slightly wounded in the attempt. The explosion, possibly detonated by a cell phone, killed the bomber. The technique has astonished security experts, who warn that the United States isn't equipped to prevent the gross new form of terrorism -- and worry such bombers could make it aboard aircraft and blow themselves up in mid-flight. "Standard airport security is not going to detect that. You need a much more intrusive type of X-ray machine that can actually see inside body cavities," the paper quoted terror expert Steve Emerson, as saying. In fact, many machines were calibrated to have less penetrating effects after protests that they allowed airport screeners to see images of people naked. "They may have to calibrate it differently now to look at certain densities," said Emerson. The Transportation Security Administration had no comment to make.