Terrorism Close Calls (2018) s01e03 Episode Script
Cargo Bomb Plot
1 [narrator.]
Terrorists have hidden bombs in cargo planes, timed to explode in midair over the United States.
[Barbara Harner.]
Each bomb contained approximately one pound of PETN, which is enough high explosive material to explode a modern vehicle.
[booming.]
The result of a large cargo plane going down and exploding over a large population area would be devastating.
[narrator.]
The devices are concealed in two identical packages that had been cleared by security.
When you find out these scientists and experts looked at it, examined it, and said there wasn't⦠There was nothing there.
[John Harley.]
They did miss the explosives, and that's due to the fact that these bombs were incredibly sophisticated.
[narrator.]
Al-Qaeda forces in Yemen are ramping up attacks on the West, and this is their call to action.
[automatic gunfire.]
[chatter in Arabic.]
They were the most feared and dangerous terrorist organization in the world.
[Harner.]
When someone says, "We want to attack, we want to kill you," it is our responsibility to believe them and try to take counter measures to make sure that they are not successful.
[narrator.]
True stories of the world's deadliest terror plots with exclusive access to leading counterterrorism experts and the elite agents who stopped the attacks.
- Homegown terrorists.
- Jihadi propaganda.
Neo-Nazis.
[King.]
This is cuts across ideological lines, and it cuts across nationalism lines.
The depravity of the enemy we face knows no bounds, and so does our determination to keep them from hurting people.
People's lives depend on their success.
[narrator.]
On this episode of Terrorism Close Calls, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula plot a large-scale attack targeting cargo planes with explosives.
The FBI, along with their counterparts in England and the United Arab Emirates, work together to locate, identify and eliminate the threat.
The cargo delivery business is a booming multi-billion-dollar industry, and none comes close to the complex, far-reaching and highly developed delivery operations of FedEx and UPS.
With close to 40 million packages delivering daily via 900-plus cargo planes to 375 airports and 220 countries combined, it's not only a logistical challenge, it's an extreme security challenge, as terror networks attempt to zone in on the vulnerabilities within the system.
Aviation itself still remains the number one target for terrorists.
[electronic whirring.]
Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian man, successfully smuggles a bomb sewn in his underwear onto Northwest Airlines flight 253, flying from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 passengers on board.
[indistinct announcements.]
[narrator.]
As he attempts to detonate the bomb, it malfunctions and fails to explode.
If successful, it would have blown a massive hole through the side of the aircraft and rained burning debris and bodies onto the city below.
[siren blaring.]
While in custody, Abdulmutallab, soon known as the "Underwear Bomber," tells authorities he is being directed by an organization calling itself AQAP.
AQAP is Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Sunni-based terrorism organization made up of Yemini and Saudi Al-Qaeda members.
AQAP is able to take advantage of Yemen's fragile internal government, allowing them to establish safe havens in the surrounding areas in order to conduct weapons training and prepare for attacks not only in Yemen, but also towards the U.
S.
and Europe.
Just weeks before the underwear bombing, the U.
S.
designates the group a terrorist organization, describing AQAP as Al-Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate.
Bryan Czekala, an FBI special agent in the Washington field office, is assigned to the extraterritorial counterterrorism squad.
AQAP was formed in approximately 2006, after 23 high-ranking Al-Qaeda members in Yemen escaped a prison, and basically reconstituted the group.
Among the 23 were very senior Al-Qaeda officials, including several who had ties with Osama bin Laden and other senior Al-Qaeda members.
These individuals, again, rebranded.
Their goal was to basically establish a caliphate, or Islamic state within Yemen.
The leaders of AQAP at the time were Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anwar al-Awlaki, who was in Yemen at the time.
[camera shutter clicks.]
[narrator.]
Anwar al-Awlaki is a Yemini-American born cleric and spokesman for Al-Qaeda.
He is also one of their most successful recruiters.
[Czekala.]
He spent several⦠several years in the United States before traveling to the United Kingdom and then back to Yemen in 2004.
He became a very prominent Islamic scholar, especially in the English-speaking communities.
He encouraged young, impressionable individuals to conduct violent jihad overseas.
He basically said it was their duty to engage in violent jihad.
[narrator.]
Even after the failed underwear bomb, AQAP praises the attempt, promising more attacks to come.
AQAP is looking for a success.
[indistinct chatter.]
Congressman Pete King, a key member of the Homeland Security Committee, is summoned to an emergency briefing.
On a Friday, learned about a plane that started in Yemen and was gonna go in through London too, and onto the U.
S.
, and we had been told by a source that there was an explosive device on it.
You Very seldom, you gonna get such a specific tip as this.
[narrator.]
The tip comes from Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the Deputy Interior Minister in charge of counterterrorism in Saudi Arabia, who had himself escaped four assassination attempts, one by AQAP the year prior.
Prince Mohammed shares details with the U.
S.
Department of Homeland Security, warning of a terrorist plot to hide two bombs in packages destined for Chicago.
We had received very specific, credible information, and we were able to get specific information on two separate packages, which enabled the U.
S.
Intelligence Committee to pinpoint their location and act accordingly.
[narrator.]
FBI Special Agent Barbara Harner specializes in terror threats coming out of Yemen and AQAP.
We knew that there was one on FedEx and one on UPS.
[narrator.]
Both explosive packages depart from Sana'a, Yemen, one placed on a Qatar Airways commercial passenger plane, the other on a FedEx cargo plane, both flights en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
[Harner.]
They were stopped at hubs in Dubai, and the various carriers went through with its own security protocols, and the UPS package proceeded on its route.
[narrator.]
Both packages clear FedEx and UPS x-ray, and physical inspections in Dubai.
One package is placed on a UPS cargo plane to Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany, and then loaded onto UPS flight 232, a Boeing 767 cargo plane bound for East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, England.
Its final destination is O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, via Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
By the time that the UPS package had arrived in the U.
K.
, there was strong belief within the intelligence communities that this was, in fact, a bomb.
[narrator.]
Just hours after the U.
S.
Department of Homeland Security issued a worldwide alert, flight 232 arrives at East Midlands Airport and is met by British military, police explosive experts, and Scotland Yard's counterterrorism agents.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
U.
S.
authorities provide the exact tracking number for the package, allowing British authorities, to locate and open it.
Inside, they find a printer.
The printer is carefully examined, scanned with explosive detection equipment, x-rayed, swabbed with chemicals, and sniffed by bomb-detection dogs.
Everything was analyzed, and they found no trace of explosives, no explosive device whatsoever.
[narrator.]
Meanwhile, four other UPS planes are quarantined and searched in the U.
S.
, and other suspicious packages are being checked out on cargo planes in the U.
K, France and Dubai.
[Harner.]
Concurrently with when we were getting the information that these two particular packages were of concern, the FBI reached out to our legat office in Abu Dhabi, particularly our Assistant Legat John Harley, who began the process of working with his local partners there.
[narrator.]
Legats, also known as legal attachés, are offices operated by the Federal Bureau of investigation: FBI.
There are legats in 46 countries around the world.
Special agents assigned to these offices work with their counterparts in foreign countries to obtain information on crimes and criminals that could harm U.
S.
citizens or interests.
John Harley is the assistant legal attaché in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
[Harley.]
I got a call from my acquaintance.
He was a senior security officer at FedEx in Dubai, which is one of their major hubs.
He called me to let me know that a shipment that had originated in Yemen had been taken off and was being looked at by two Dubai bomb techs along with their dogs and actually took the printer apart to take a look inside of it.
That shipment that came from Yemen was intended to go on a FedEx airplane and was destined for the United States.
I immediately got in my vehicle and started the two-hour drive to Dubai.
[narrator.]
Over 4500 miles away in East Midlands, British security personnel are still inspecting the suspicious UPS package.
[clicking.]
[Harley.]
They examined it there, and didn't find anything initially.
Uh What they decided to do in the UK then was to actually then cordon it off and not have it go further on, and not be loaded back on the airplane.
They wanted to take it back to their lab for more intense examination.
[siren blaring.]
[siren blaring.]
[narrator.]
Although no explosive material is found in the printer, the package is removed and the plane is allowed to fly on to Philadelphia.
Back in the United Arab Emirates, Agent Harley is still en route to the FedEx facility in Dubai.
[Harley.]
So, I'm on the way there, when my FedEx contact calls me and lets me know that, "Hey, John, I'm just letting you know they wrapped up the scene.
They looked through everything.
" [whirring.]
[narrator.]
Like their British counterparts, the Dubai police bomb techs find no evidence of explosives.
Authorities on site consider the scene secure.
After being cleared, the printer was being loaded back onto the FedEx plane for an imminent departure, headed to the United States.
[narrator.]
The package is now on the FedEx express plane at the Dubai airport, scheduled to fly to Newark before arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
In England, bomb experts at East Midlands Airport disassemble, examine, and test every piece of the printer.
Nothing appears out of the ordinary until they pull out the ink cartridge and discover protruding wires and a circuit board partly covered in a white powder.
Britain's bomb experts have discovered the bomb the Saudi's had warned about.
[camera shutter clicks.]
London's legal attaché immediately get on the line to Dubai.
[Harley.]
The legal attaché in London tells me that they have an incident there in which a shipment that originated through Yemen and Dubai uh, was now in the U.
K.
and the British authorities had discovered a bomb.
They asked me what Dubai was looking at in the shipment that they had, and I said that it was a printer.
And they said that's exactly what they had in the U.
K.
[clicking.]
I told him that the Dubai police had searched the printer, and had removed several devices and had determined there was nothing there and put it back, at which point the legat said, "The U.
K.
examined it and didn't find anything initially either, and that it was likely that it was in the ink cartridge.
" [narrator.]
In Dubai, the package with a possible bomb is currently on a FedEx plane sitting on the tarmac, scheduled to depart for Chicago.
[Harley.]
At this point, I'm realizing that there's probably a bomb now being loaded back on the aircraft, and I'm two hours from Dubai, and I need somebody to act on this and get this thing back off the airplane, and get it looked at again.
They've already cleared this device, so there's gonna be some reluctance unless they get some new information that says, "Hey, we're gonna pull this thing back off and look at it.
" [narrator.]
Agent Harley calls CIA in Dubai to explain that the situation is critical.
[Harley.]
At this point, I have I am concentrating on the emergency I have at hand.
I have no other information that tells me that there are any other explosives going anywhere.
There might be, I don't know at this point.
[narrator.]
Agent Hurley's contact works swiftly to stop the FedEx plane from departing, and John soon receives a call from his contact at the airstrip.
[sirens blaring.]
[Harley.]
"John, don't know what's going on, but, " he said, " we've now got about 100 Dubai police officers out here, and they said they've cordoned off the entire area, and they're pulling the shipment off the plane.
" [narrator.]
The Dubai bomb experts missed the bomb on the initial search, but with new information coming in from London, the removal of the ink cartridge reveals the explosive device hidden inside.
The two bombs, the one in the U.
K.
and the one now discovered in Dubai, uh, were virtually identical.
It looked like a printer.
Uh The device looked just like a printer.
Now taken apart completely, you could see the obvious explosives material that were there.
[rustling.]
[Harley.]
In a good many of these cases, when you're looking at an improvised explosive device, you could sometimes see where they put duct tape or You know something's been tampered with.
The bomb maker in this case did an incredibly, um clean job.
[Harner.]
They were built sophisticated enough that you could remove the cartridge and insert it without detonating the bomb or any sort of indication that it was, in fact, a non-standard printer.
[narrator.]
The devices in both Dubai and England have accidentally been made safe by bomb experts who stop it from exploding by simply removing the printer cartridge from the printer.
The explosive device was comprised of a printer, and has a large commercial ink cartridge.
The main charge of the device, all the explosive powder, was in the ink cartridge.
Once it's inserted, the bomb is activated and is able to detonate.
However, if you remove it, it's not gonna detonate because the current won't reach the main charge.
Last night and earlier today, our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, working with our friends and allies, identified two suspicious packages bound for the United States.
An initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material.
[narrator.]
Agent Harley returns to his office in Abu Dhabi to speak with Washington to debrief and get a plan together for next steps.
[music continues.]
[indistinct chatter.]
[Harley.]
As an immediate action by the United Arab Emirates and by FedEx, FedEx shut down its shipments coming out of Yemen and United Arab Emirates shut down all air travel coming from Yemen into the United Arab Emirates.
[Czekala.]
There was definitely a fear that there were more bombs on the way.
And as a result, we went back and started looking at suspicious packages coming from Yemen going back several months, if not longer, to see, "Did we miss anything?" "What dots do we need to connect?" [narrator.]
They turn their attention back to a suspicious package sent to a local business in Chicago a month earlier.
And it was nothing that they had asked for or solicited, and they provided it to the FBI and we examined it, and it was just somewhat unusual.
[narrator.]
The FBI investigate the shipping numbers, and discover two other packages from Yemen shipped to addresses in Chicago around the same time.
The three packages that came to Chicago, they had shipper numbers from FedEx and UPS locations in Yemen, so we knew they had been shipped from Sana'a, which is the capital of Yemen.
The FBI was able to obtain those and research the material that was in them.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
Although the mystery packages from Yemen are filled with benign items like clothes and books, The FBI believe they are test runs for the printer bombs discovered in the cargo planes in Dubai and England.
Those were likely test run packages to allow the shipper to determine how long it took for a package from being delivered to the Fedex or UPS counter to be in flight, over what countries it would be in flight, and then when it would be delivered to its destination.
[narrator.]
The FBI begin to determine the likelihood of more threats.
I had regular interactions with John Harley, who was our FBI representative in the UAE.
We coordinated, kind of, updates.
We're trying to determine what kind of information he was getting from the UAE authorities What kind of information we could start running to ground, back in Washington.
[keyboard clacking.]
[Harley.]
We didn't have any other intelligence that indicated there are more bombs.
[narrator.]
With no reports or intelligence regarding other suspicious packages, the FBI begins to formulate a plan to work with the Emirates and investigate the explosive devices.
The immediate reaction from the FBI is that we want to get experts into the country to take a look at this device, and in an effort to try to determine who the bomb maker is, what fingerprints are on it, and who it is we need to go after.
What the FBI was asking me to do with the Emiratis and the level of cooperation we were asking for with respect to flying teams of FBI agents in to examine this device had never been done before.
The Emiratis, realizing that they had a serious situation on hand, and wanting to do what was right in their interest for national security purposes and for everybody's, agreed that that was the way to go, and allowed us to bring in teams of FBI agents to look at the device and take samples.
The FBI sent explosive ordinance experts to both locations, both Dubai, where the FedEx package had been quarantined, and in the U.
K.
, where the UPS package was quarantined, and their analysis was that they were viable bombs that would have likely caused extensive damage.
[Czekala.]
I helped coordinate a team from my office over to the United Arab Emirates and, um start beginning to analyze the explosive device they had on the ground there.
My job was to comb through intelligence reporting, look for actionable leads and then send requests over to host nations.
For example, if we found information about a suspect, I would send information to our representative in Yemen, who would, in turn, pass it to the host security service, and they would act on it.
[narrator.]
U.
K.
forensic, along with FBI, confirm that the packages had been hand delivered to the same source in Yemen, with fictitious names on the address line.
One, I believe, was a Christian Crusader, and one was a figure from the Spanish Inquisition.
[Harner.]
When we investigated what those addresses correlated to, one had been a Jewish synagogue that had closed approximately ten years earlier, and the other was currently a Unitarian church that had, about five to ten years earlier, leased space to a gay and lesbian Jewish community organization.
[narrator.]
It's believed that the names on the packages are more of a symbolic gesture than the targets for the bombs.
The explosives are actually timed to explode in mid-flight.
The detonator, you could see, it was a partial cellphone that was used to go off based on an alarm.
[narrator.]
One of the two bombs is linked to a mobile phone, the other is attached to a timer.
Both bombs contain at least 300 grams of the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.
The timing of the explosives had been tested on the previous dry runs.
[Harley.]
Based on those dry runs, they set timers on the phones to go off over U.
S.
air space, at around a time where they would have crossed over the Eastern Seaboard, presumably over a large population.
They contained enough PETN to blow up a car.
[King.]
Well, you have to assume that if a explosive device is on a passenger plane and it goes off, you have to assume the worst.
You have to assume the plane is gonna go down.
You hope it doesn't, but the reality is, if it If you're over the Atlantic and a sophisticated explosive device goes off, there's a very good chance⦠Odds are, that plane's going down.
Everybody on the plane would be killed.
What are you talking 300, 400 people being killed.
This is, uh And again, the impact it would have psychologically, economically, apart from the human tragedy, would be, uh extreme.
[narrator.]
The Dubai police issue a statement confirming the package contains a PETN bomb, an odorless, military-grade plastic explosive.
PETN is an explosive that conventional single beam x-ray machines can't detect.
The discovery of the bombs sparks fears that a new vulnerability in aviation security has been discovered by the Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula: the AQAP.
[indistinct chatter.]
The FBI worked very closely with both UPS, FedEx as well as additional major shipping and cargo companies after this incident, to help them identify any vulnerabilities in their shipping processes.
[Harley.]
The result of this incident with Dubai police and with FedEx and with UPS, was, they had to take a look at all their procedures and figure out, you know, "How could we do a better job in catching these things before they even get to Dubai?" An incredible amount of money was spent both by United Arab Emirates and by FedEx and UPS in new technologies to screen all the incoming crates.
The fact that these bombs originated out of Yemen was a strong indication that it was most likely AQAP.
We had had the underwear bomber, Abdulmutallab, and it was a similar type of explosive material that was used in the underwear bomb as was found inside the ink cartridges.
The devices that came from Yemen appeared to have all the hallmarks of coming from a previous bomb maker that was known to the FBI.
[camera shutter clicks.]
[Czekala.]
Ibrahim al-Asiri, I would say, he's AQAP's most experienced, most skilled explosive expert.
He's primarily been involved in the group's external operations beginning back in August 2009.
[Harner.]
Um He's known for making somewhat unique improvised explosive devices.
[narrator.]
Saudi Arabian citizen, Ibrahim Al-Asiri, is considered one of the world's most dangerous, with both technical skills and determination to attack the West.
He is believed to be the mastermind behind the underwear bomb, and another similar device he engineered for his brother, Abdullah Al-Asiri, in 2009.
He plotted to kill the Saudi prince named Muhammad Bin Nayef.
And Ibrahim al-Asiri decided it would be good idea to have improvised explosive devices hidden in his brother's clothing.
[narrator.]
Saudi officials describe how the assassination attempt took place.
[speaking foreign language.]
He had a one-on-one meeting with the Saudi prince.
When Ibrahim al-Asiri's brother went close to the Saudi prince, the device was detonated, killing Ibrahim al-Asiri's brother.
[narrator.]
Not only did Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef survive the attempted assassination, he was also the main source in helping locate the explosives on the cargo planes.
But the U.
S.
still needs to find the group and people responsible.
[Harley.]
The thought from the FBI was, the most likely bomb maker for this, and given a level of expertise, was al-Asiri.
we are doing is looking at all individuals that we think might be involved in this.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been, uh, rather, uh open in its venom towards the United States, toward Western interests.
There are a number of individuals there that we're very concerned about, so we're looking at all possibilities.
[narrator.]
Another individual of concern is Samir Khan, an American citizen of Pakistani descent who grew up in Queens, New York and joined AQAP in 2009.
He became the editor and publisher of an English language online jihadist magazine called Inspire.
A month after the printer bomb discovery, AQAP details accounts of the plot in that magazine.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for it, and published an article saying that it only cost them $4200 to produce these bombs and carry out this plot.
They additionally described it as a success despite the bombs not detonating, because it would cause Western societies to lose so much money in fortifying their cargo screening procedures.
They actually think it's a win for them, to even just, you know, bypass American security.
They thought that was a win.
I'm sure they would like to have killed some Americans, but I think the fact that they were able to get a bomb as far as they did, that was a win for them.
[narrator.]
AQAP names the cargo plot "Operation Hemorrhage," and promise smaller, but more frequent attacks aimed "to bleed the enemy to death.
" Their strategy for terrorism: to cause maximum fear and economic disruption with a minimal amount of effort.
Inspire Magazine, it included a section about Open Source Jihad.
So, creating attacks, making attacks, creating bombs with what you have available to you, presumably in a Western environment.
[Czekala.]
When AQAP does issue these online publications, especially the English-speaking ones, we see a spike in online activity, as well as a credible threat reporting increasing.
We've seen a number of individuals be inspired by this type of publication that Anwar al-Awlaki was associated with.
The Boston Bombers, during the Boston Marathon, reportedly received instructions on the pressure cooker bomb they used from this online publication.
There are countless other examples of individuals that were inspired by this publication.
[Harner.]
In Inspire Magazine Number Two, there was a section about the ultimate lawnmower which was taking your vehicle and running through crowds of people as a way to conduct jihad, which has become more and more popular in recent years.
[sirens and chatter.]
[narrator.]
After the failed cargo bombs, AQAP plan even more insidious ways to hide explosives.
Intelligence sources reveal AQAP trying to recruit a surgeon to implant explosives in the bodies of potential suicide bombers, to circumvent airport detection equipment.
The explosives would contain no metal parts, making them virtually undetectable by x-ray machines.
Ibrahim al-Asiri is reported to be responsible for the development of this new weapon.
As Al-Qaeda and its terror affiliates adapt new strategies against the West, America's security assets expand their capabilities to counter them.
[Harner.]
The package bomb plot certainly elevated Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as a major threat, but this very bold, external operation targeting the U.
S.
mainland definitely made it a much higher target for the U.
S.
Intelligence Community.
[Czekala.]
Through our investigation and review of intelligence, we were able to identify the mastermind bomb maker and a significant number of other individuals who had a part in the planning.
[narrator.]
Anwar al-Awlaki is believed to be the operational head in charge of the cargo plot.
In addition to radicalizing and inspiring individuals, he took on a more operational role, as we saw from the Underwear Bomber, the cargo plot, and also with several other British nationals that met him in Yemen and he tasked them to conduct terrorist attacks.
In addition, he's inspired numerous people in the United States to conduct attacks, including an individual named Carlos Bledsoe, who shot a U.
S.
military recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2009.
He also inspired U.
S.
service member Nidal Hasan in Fort Hood, Texas, which, Nidal Hasan killed approximately 13 individuals in a shooting.
[narrator.]
Describing AQAP as an imminent threat, former U.
S.
President Obama and the U.
S.
Justice Department draw up a secret memo authorizing drone strikes on AQAP leadership.
Anwar al-Awlaki is placed on the Central Intelligence Agency's list of terrorists approved for targeted killing.
A secret U.
S.
surveillance operation code named Troy has covert operatives zeroing in on Anwar al-Awlaki's location to a compound in Al-Jawf.
Operatives watch the compound 24/7, waiting for al-Awlaki to make a move.
When he finally does, remote control operators 7000 miles away from a CIA base in the United States, race to get armed drones into position.
As al-Awlaki climbs into a pickup truck, the drones lock in on the vehicle with pinpoint precision.
A mile overhead, a special joint operation plane beams back real-time tracking.
The drones fire three hellfire missiles at their target hitting the vehicle, killing al-Awlaki and one other high-ranking Al-Qaeda member, Samir Khan, the editor of Inspire Magazine.
Anwar al-Awlaki becomes the first American citizen to be targeted and killed by U.
S.
drone strikes.
For U.
S.
forces, the death of the man linked to dozens of terror attacks is a success.
Earlier this morning, Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed in Yemen.
The death [applause.]
The death of Awlaki is a major blow to Al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate.
Awlaki was the leader of external operations for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.
He directed the failed attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009, he directed the failed attempt to blow up U.
S.
cargo planes in 2010, and he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children, to advance a murderous agenda.
We celebrated as one publicly, but privately, there was the real concern of the advancement that AQAP, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had made toward these explosives.
[narrator.]
For extremists and sympathizers, Anwar al-Awlaki has become a martyr, and even in death, spreads his ideology online.
[indistinct announcement.]
[crowd cheering.]
[booming.]
[crowd screaming.]
[narrator.]
In the years following the 2010 cargo plot, new AQAP leaders continue where al-Awlaki left off.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
One suicide attack by AQAP targets Yemeni army soldiers, killing 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen's capital.
I AM CHARLIE AQAP also claims the responsibility for the deadly assault on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, in 2015.
As a result, former President Obama's administration increases drone strikes, killing many in AQAP leadership, but not without collateral damage.
A strike targeting another senior AQAP operative also kills Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year old American-born son.
Five years later, Anwar al-Awlaki's eight year old American daughter suffers a similar fate when she's inadvertently killed during a commando attack ordered by President Trump on a known AQAP compound.
The U.
S.
military has conducted over 100 strikes since President Trump took office, killing several top leaders and degrading both AQAP and ISIS abilities in Yemen.
Nevertheless, the fight against terrorism still relies heavily on intelligence gathering and communication between international counterterrorism agencies.
Whether it was on the cartridge explosive plot or others, we find out, this is what we did not have in 9/11.
You have people actually in countries giving us intelligence.
You then have other countries working with us to put that intelligence together, to connect the dots.
You have all our agencies here in the U.
S.
then, working double time, and overtime, and triple time, to run down every possible lead that they have, maybe from other related cases that we thought unrelated at the time.
You have all of this coming together, which, none of it really happened before 9/11.
The one thing about this case besides the The close call that these bombs could have gone off The great working relationship between not just the FBI, but our local partners overseas and the other members of the U.
S.
Intelligence Community.
[Czekala.]
There's nothing like working counterterrorism.
It really is You know, it may sound cliché, but it's a cause bigger than myself.
It's bigger than my squad mates, my colleagues.
It's a great cause.
I mean, to see innocent people get killed in terrorist attacks, and I take it very personally.
[Harley.]
This incident made me realize that, uh Really, the biggest weapon against Al-Qaeda and terrorism is open, trusted lines of communications, not only between U.
S.
agencies within the embassy environment, and not only with with the other foreign counterparts, but also with the private sector.
If FedEx hadn't alerted me that morning, I hadn't made that phone call, I don't know what would've happened.
[narrator.]
Today, AQAP and other Al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations continue to be a formidable threat.
As we've seen with Al-Qaeda, they're very persistent and determined.
They don't give up very easily.
If they have a plot, they plan to keep furthering that plot and perfecting it to make sure it works.
With the 9/11 attacks, we saw that AQ had tried to attack the World Trade Center in '93, and they vowed to be back, and they were.
If they can use a printer, what will they use tomorrow?
Terrorists have hidden bombs in cargo planes, timed to explode in midair over the United States.
[Barbara Harner.]
Each bomb contained approximately one pound of PETN, which is enough high explosive material to explode a modern vehicle.
[booming.]
The result of a large cargo plane going down and exploding over a large population area would be devastating.
[narrator.]
The devices are concealed in two identical packages that had been cleared by security.
When you find out these scientists and experts looked at it, examined it, and said there wasn't⦠There was nothing there.
[John Harley.]
They did miss the explosives, and that's due to the fact that these bombs were incredibly sophisticated.
[narrator.]
Al-Qaeda forces in Yemen are ramping up attacks on the West, and this is their call to action.
[automatic gunfire.]
[chatter in Arabic.]
They were the most feared and dangerous terrorist organization in the world.
[Harner.]
When someone says, "We want to attack, we want to kill you," it is our responsibility to believe them and try to take counter measures to make sure that they are not successful.
[narrator.]
True stories of the world's deadliest terror plots with exclusive access to leading counterterrorism experts and the elite agents who stopped the attacks.
- Homegown terrorists.
- Jihadi propaganda.
Neo-Nazis.
[King.]
This is cuts across ideological lines, and it cuts across nationalism lines.
The depravity of the enemy we face knows no bounds, and so does our determination to keep them from hurting people.
People's lives depend on their success.
[narrator.]
On this episode of Terrorism Close Calls, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula plot a large-scale attack targeting cargo planes with explosives.
The FBI, along with their counterparts in England and the United Arab Emirates, work together to locate, identify and eliminate the threat.
The cargo delivery business is a booming multi-billion-dollar industry, and none comes close to the complex, far-reaching and highly developed delivery operations of FedEx and UPS.
With close to 40 million packages delivering daily via 900-plus cargo planes to 375 airports and 220 countries combined, it's not only a logistical challenge, it's an extreme security challenge, as terror networks attempt to zone in on the vulnerabilities within the system.
Aviation itself still remains the number one target for terrorists.
[electronic whirring.]
Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian man, successfully smuggles a bomb sewn in his underwear onto Northwest Airlines flight 253, flying from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 passengers on board.
[indistinct announcements.]
[narrator.]
As he attempts to detonate the bomb, it malfunctions and fails to explode.
If successful, it would have blown a massive hole through the side of the aircraft and rained burning debris and bodies onto the city below.
[siren blaring.]
While in custody, Abdulmutallab, soon known as the "Underwear Bomber," tells authorities he is being directed by an organization calling itself AQAP.
AQAP is Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Sunni-based terrorism organization made up of Yemini and Saudi Al-Qaeda members.
AQAP is able to take advantage of Yemen's fragile internal government, allowing them to establish safe havens in the surrounding areas in order to conduct weapons training and prepare for attacks not only in Yemen, but also towards the U.
S.
and Europe.
Just weeks before the underwear bombing, the U.
S.
designates the group a terrorist organization, describing AQAP as Al-Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate.
Bryan Czekala, an FBI special agent in the Washington field office, is assigned to the extraterritorial counterterrorism squad.
AQAP was formed in approximately 2006, after 23 high-ranking Al-Qaeda members in Yemen escaped a prison, and basically reconstituted the group.
Among the 23 were very senior Al-Qaeda officials, including several who had ties with Osama bin Laden and other senior Al-Qaeda members.
These individuals, again, rebranded.
Their goal was to basically establish a caliphate, or Islamic state within Yemen.
The leaders of AQAP at the time were Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anwar al-Awlaki, who was in Yemen at the time.
[camera shutter clicks.]
[narrator.]
Anwar al-Awlaki is a Yemini-American born cleric and spokesman for Al-Qaeda.
He is also one of their most successful recruiters.
[Czekala.]
He spent several⦠several years in the United States before traveling to the United Kingdom and then back to Yemen in 2004.
He became a very prominent Islamic scholar, especially in the English-speaking communities.
He encouraged young, impressionable individuals to conduct violent jihad overseas.
He basically said it was their duty to engage in violent jihad.
[narrator.]
Even after the failed underwear bomb, AQAP praises the attempt, promising more attacks to come.
AQAP is looking for a success.
[indistinct chatter.]
Congressman Pete King, a key member of the Homeland Security Committee, is summoned to an emergency briefing.
On a Friday, learned about a plane that started in Yemen and was gonna go in through London too, and onto the U.
S.
, and we had been told by a source that there was an explosive device on it.
You Very seldom, you gonna get such a specific tip as this.
[narrator.]
The tip comes from Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the Deputy Interior Minister in charge of counterterrorism in Saudi Arabia, who had himself escaped four assassination attempts, one by AQAP the year prior.
Prince Mohammed shares details with the U.
S.
Department of Homeland Security, warning of a terrorist plot to hide two bombs in packages destined for Chicago.
We had received very specific, credible information, and we were able to get specific information on two separate packages, which enabled the U.
S.
Intelligence Committee to pinpoint their location and act accordingly.
[narrator.]
FBI Special Agent Barbara Harner specializes in terror threats coming out of Yemen and AQAP.
We knew that there was one on FedEx and one on UPS.
[narrator.]
Both explosive packages depart from Sana'a, Yemen, one placed on a Qatar Airways commercial passenger plane, the other on a FedEx cargo plane, both flights en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
[Harner.]
They were stopped at hubs in Dubai, and the various carriers went through with its own security protocols, and the UPS package proceeded on its route.
[narrator.]
Both packages clear FedEx and UPS x-ray, and physical inspections in Dubai.
One package is placed on a UPS cargo plane to Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany, and then loaded onto UPS flight 232, a Boeing 767 cargo plane bound for East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, England.
Its final destination is O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, via Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
By the time that the UPS package had arrived in the U.
K.
, there was strong belief within the intelligence communities that this was, in fact, a bomb.
[narrator.]
Just hours after the U.
S.
Department of Homeland Security issued a worldwide alert, flight 232 arrives at East Midlands Airport and is met by British military, police explosive experts, and Scotland Yard's counterterrorism agents.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
U.
S.
authorities provide the exact tracking number for the package, allowing British authorities, to locate and open it.
Inside, they find a printer.
The printer is carefully examined, scanned with explosive detection equipment, x-rayed, swabbed with chemicals, and sniffed by bomb-detection dogs.
Everything was analyzed, and they found no trace of explosives, no explosive device whatsoever.
[narrator.]
Meanwhile, four other UPS planes are quarantined and searched in the U.
S.
, and other suspicious packages are being checked out on cargo planes in the U.
K, France and Dubai.
[Harner.]
Concurrently with when we were getting the information that these two particular packages were of concern, the FBI reached out to our legat office in Abu Dhabi, particularly our Assistant Legat John Harley, who began the process of working with his local partners there.
[narrator.]
Legats, also known as legal attachés, are offices operated by the Federal Bureau of investigation: FBI.
There are legats in 46 countries around the world.
Special agents assigned to these offices work with their counterparts in foreign countries to obtain information on crimes and criminals that could harm U.
S.
citizens or interests.
John Harley is the assistant legal attaché in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
[Harley.]
I got a call from my acquaintance.
He was a senior security officer at FedEx in Dubai, which is one of their major hubs.
He called me to let me know that a shipment that had originated in Yemen had been taken off and was being looked at by two Dubai bomb techs along with their dogs and actually took the printer apart to take a look inside of it.
That shipment that came from Yemen was intended to go on a FedEx airplane and was destined for the United States.
I immediately got in my vehicle and started the two-hour drive to Dubai.
[narrator.]
Over 4500 miles away in East Midlands, British security personnel are still inspecting the suspicious UPS package.
[clicking.]
[Harley.]
They examined it there, and didn't find anything initially.
Uh What they decided to do in the UK then was to actually then cordon it off and not have it go further on, and not be loaded back on the airplane.
They wanted to take it back to their lab for more intense examination.
[siren blaring.]
[siren blaring.]
[narrator.]
Although no explosive material is found in the printer, the package is removed and the plane is allowed to fly on to Philadelphia.
Back in the United Arab Emirates, Agent Harley is still en route to the FedEx facility in Dubai.
[Harley.]
So, I'm on the way there, when my FedEx contact calls me and lets me know that, "Hey, John, I'm just letting you know they wrapped up the scene.
They looked through everything.
" [whirring.]
[narrator.]
Like their British counterparts, the Dubai police bomb techs find no evidence of explosives.
Authorities on site consider the scene secure.
After being cleared, the printer was being loaded back onto the FedEx plane for an imminent departure, headed to the United States.
[narrator.]
The package is now on the FedEx express plane at the Dubai airport, scheduled to fly to Newark before arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
In England, bomb experts at East Midlands Airport disassemble, examine, and test every piece of the printer.
Nothing appears out of the ordinary until they pull out the ink cartridge and discover protruding wires and a circuit board partly covered in a white powder.
Britain's bomb experts have discovered the bomb the Saudi's had warned about.
[camera shutter clicks.]
London's legal attaché immediately get on the line to Dubai.
[Harley.]
The legal attaché in London tells me that they have an incident there in which a shipment that originated through Yemen and Dubai uh, was now in the U.
K.
and the British authorities had discovered a bomb.
They asked me what Dubai was looking at in the shipment that they had, and I said that it was a printer.
And they said that's exactly what they had in the U.
K.
[clicking.]
I told him that the Dubai police had searched the printer, and had removed several devices and had determined there was nothing there and put it back, at which point the legat said, "The U.
K.
examined it and didn't find anything initially either, and that it was likely that it was in the ink cartridge.
" [narrator.]
In Dubai, the package with a possible bomb is currently on a FedEx plane sitting on the tarmac, scheduled to depart for Chicago.
[Harley.]
At this point, I'm realizing that there's probably a bomb now being loaded back on the aircraft, and I'm two hours from Dubai, and I need somebody to act on this and get this thing back off the airplane, and get it looked at again.
They've already cleared this device, so there's gonna be some reluctance unless they get some new information that says, "Hey, we're gonna pull this thing back off and look at it.
" [narrator.]
Agent Harley calls CIA in Dubai to explain that the situation is critical.
[Harley.]
At this point, I have I am concentrating on the emergency I have at hand.
I have no other information that tells me that there are any other explosives going anywhere.
There might be, I don't know at this point.
[narrator.]
Agent Hurley's contact works swiftly to stop the FedEx plane from departing, and John soon receives a call from his contact at the airstrip.
[sirens blaring.]
[Harley.]
"John, don't know what's going on, but, " he said, " we've now got about 100 Dubai police officers out here, and they said they've cordoned off the entire area, and they're pulling the shipment off the plane.
" [narrator.]
The Dubai bomb experts missed the bomb on the initial search, but with new information coming in from London, the removal of the ink cartridge reveals the explosive device hidden inside.
The two bombs, the one in the U.
K.
and the one now discovered in Dubai, uh, were virtually identical.
It looked like a printer.
Uh The device looked just like a printer.
Now taken apart completely, you could see the obvious explosives material that were there.
[rustling.]
[Harley.]
In a good many of these cases, when you're looking at an improvised explosive device, you could sometimes see where they put duct tape or You know something's been tampered with.
The bomb maker in this case did an incredibly, um clean job.
[Harner.]
They were built sophisticated enough that you could remove the cartridge and insert it without detonating the bomb or any sort of indication that it was, in fact, a non-standard printer.
[narrator.]
The devices in both Dubai and England have accidentally been made safe by bomb experts who stop it from exploding by simply removing the printer cartridge from the printer.
The explosive device was comprised of a printer, and has a large commercial ink cartridge.
The main charge of the device, all the explosive powder, was in the ink cartridge.
Once it's inserted, the bomb is activated and is able to detonate.
However, if you remove it, it's not gonna detonate because the current won't reach the main charge.
Last night and earlier today, our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, working with our friends and allies, identified two suspicious packages bound for the United States.
An initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material.
[narrator.]
Agent Harley returns to his office in Abu Dhabi to speak with Washington to debrief and get a plan together for next steps.
[music continues.]
[indistinct chatter.]
[Harley.]
As an immediate action by the United Arab Emirates and by FedEx, FedEx shut down its shipments coming out of Yemen and United Arab Emirates shut down all air travel coming from Yemen into the United Arab Emirates.
[Czekala.]
There was definitely a fear that there were more bombs on the way.
And as a result, we went back and started looking at suspicious packages coming from Yemen going back several months, if not longer, to see, "Did we miss anything?" "What dots do we need to connect?" [narrator.]
They turn their attention back to a suspicious package sent to a local business in Chicago a month earlier.
And it was nothing that they had asked for or solicited, and they provided it to the FBI and we examined it, and it was just somewhat unusual.
[narrator.]
The FBI investigate the shipping numbers, and discover two other packages from Yemen shipped to addresses in Chicago around the same time.
The three packages that came to Chicago, they had shipper numbers from FedEx and UPS locations in Yemen, so we knew they had been shipped from Sana'a, which is the capital of Yemen.
The FBI was able to obtain those and research the material that was in them.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
Although the mystery packages from Yemen are filled with benign items like clothes and books, The FBI believe they are test runs for the printer bombs discovered in the cargo planes in Dubai and England.
Those were likely test run packages to allow the shipper to determine how long it took for a package from being delivered to the Fedex or UPS counter to be in flight, over what countries it would be in flight, and then when it would be delivered to its destination.
[narrator.]
The FBI begin to determine the likelihood of more threats.
I had regular interactions with John Harley, who was our FBI representative in the UAE.
We coordinated, kind of, updates.
We're trying to determine what kind of information he was getting from the UAE authorities What kind of information we could start running to ground, back in Washington.
[keyboard clacking.]
[Harley.]
We didn't have any other intelligence that indicated there are more bombs.
[narrator.]
With no reports or intelligence regarding other suspicious packages, the FBI begins to formulate a plan to work with the Emirates and investigate the explosive devices.
The immediate reaction from the FBI is that we want to get experts into the country to take a look at this device, and in an effort to try to determine who the bomb maker is, what fingerprints are on it, and who it is we need to go after.
What the FBI was asking me to do with the Emiratis and the level of cooperation we were asking for with respect to flying teams of FBI agents in to examine this device had never been done before.
The Emiratis, realizing that they had a serious situation on hand, and wanting to do what was right in their interest for national security purposes and for everybody's, agreed that that was the way to go, and allowed us to bring in teams of FBI agents to look at the device and take samples.
The FBI sent explosive ordinance experts to both locations, both Dubai, where the FedEx package had been quarantined, and in the U.
K.
, where the UPS package was quarantined, and their analysis was that they were viable bombs that would have likely caused extensive damage.
[Czekala.]
I helped coordinate a team from my office over to the United Arab Emirates and, um start beginning to analyze the explosive device they had on the ground there.
My job was to comb through intelligence reporting, look for actionable leads and then send requests over to host nations.
For example, if we found information about a suspect, I would send information to our representative in Yemen, who would, in turn, pass it to the host security service, and they would act on it.
[narrator.]
U.
K.
forensic, along with FBI, confirm that the packages had been hand delivered to the same source in Yemen, with fictitious names on the address line.
One, I believe, was a Christian Crusader, and one was a figure from the Spanish Inquisition.
[Harner.]
When we investigated what those addresses correlated to, one had been a Jewish synagogue that had closed approximately ten years earlier, and the other was currently a Unitarian church that had, about five to ten years earlier, leased space to a gay and lesbian Jewish community organization.
[narrator.]
It's believed that the names on the packages are more of a symbolic gesture than the targets for the bombs.
The explosives are actually timed to explode in mid-flight.
The detonator, you could see, it was a partial cellphone that was used to go off based on an alarm.
[narrator.]
One of the two bombs is linked to a mobile phone, the other is attached to a timer.
Both bombs contain at least 300 grams of the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.
The timing of the explosives had been tested on the previous dry runs.
[Harley.]
Based on those dry runs, they set timers on the phones to go off over U.
S.
air space, at around a time where they would have crossed over the Eastern Seaboard, presumably over a large population.
They contained enough PETN to blow up a car.
[King.]
Well, you have to assume that if a explosive device is on a passenger plane and it goes off, you have to assume the worst.
You have to assume the plane is gonna go down.
You hope it doesn't, but the reality is, if it If you're over the Atlantic and a sophisticated explosive device goes off, there's a very good chance⦠Odds are, that plane's going down.
Everybody on the plane would be killed.
What are you talking 300, 400 people being killed.
This is, uh And again, the impact it would have psychologically, economically, apart from the human tragedy, would be, uh extreme.
[narrator.]
The Dubai police issue a statement confirming the package contains a PETN bomb, an odorless, military-grade plastic explosive.
PETN is an explosive that conventional single beam x-ray machines can't detect.
The discovery of the bombs sparks fears that a new vulnerability in aviation security has been discovered by the Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula: the AQAP.
[indistinct chatter.]
The FBI worked very closely with both UPS, FedEx as well as additional major shipping and cargo companies after this incident, to help them identify any vulnerabilities in their shipping processes.
[Harley.]
The result of this incident with Dubai police and with FedEx and with UPS, was, they had to take a look at all their procedures and figure out, you know, "How could we do a better job in catching these things before they even get to Dubai?" An incredible amount of money was spent both by United Arab Emirates and by FedEx and UPS in new technologies to screen all the incoming crates.
The fact that these bombs originated out of Yemen was a strong indication that it was most likely AQAP.
We had had the underwear bomber, Abdulmutallab, and it was a similar type of explosive material that was used in the underwear bomb as was found inside the ink cartridges.
The devices that came from Yemen appeared to have all the hallmarks of coming from a previous bomb maker that was known to the FBI.
[camera shutter clicks.]
[Czekala.]
Ibrahim al-Asiri, I would say, he's AQAP's most experienced, most skilled explosive expert.
He's primarily been involved in the group's external operations beginning back in August 2009.
[Harner.]
Um He's known for making somewhat unique improvised explosive devices.
[narrator.]
Saudi Arabian citizen, Ibrahim Al-Asiri, is considered one of the world's most dangerous, with both technical skills and determination to attack the West.
He is believed to be the mastermind behind the underwear bomb, and another similar device he engineered for his brother, Abdullah Al-Asiri, in 2009.
He plotted to kill the Saudi prince named Muhammad Bin Nayef.
And Ibrahim al-Asiri decided it would be good idea to have improvised explosive devices hidden in his brother's clothing.
[narrator.]
Saudi officials describe how the assassination attempt took place.
[speaking foreign language.]
He had a one-on-one meeting with the Saudi prince.
When Ibrahim al-Asiri's brother went close to the Saudi prince, the device was detonated, killing Ibrahim al-Asiri's brother.
[narrator.]
Not only did Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef survive the attempted assassination, he was also the main source in helping locate the explosives on the cargo planes.
But the U.
S.
still needs to find the group and people responsible.
[Harley.]
The thought from the FBI was, the most likely bomb maker for this, and given a level of expertise, was al-Asiri.
we are doing is looking at all individuals that we think might be involved in this.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been, uh, rather, uh open in its venom towards the United States, toward Western interests.
There are a number of individuals there that we're very concerned about, so we're looking at all possibilities.
[narrator.]
Another individual of concern is Samir Khan, an American citizen of Pakistani descent who grew up in Queens, New York and joined AQAP in 2009.
He became the editor and publisher of an English language online jihadist magazine called Inspire.
A month after the printer bomb discovery, AQAP details accounts of the plot in that magazine.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for it, and published an article saying that it only cost them $4200 to produce these bombs and carry out this plot.
They additionally described it as a success despite the bombs not detonating, because it would cause Western societies to lose so much money in fortifying their cargo screening procedures.
They actually think it's a win for them, to even just, you know, bypass American security.
They thought that was a win.
I'm sure they would like to have killed some Americans, but I think the fact that they were able to get a bomb as far as they did, that was a win for them.
[narrator.]
AQAP names the cargo plot "Operation Hemorrhage," and promise smaller, but more frequent attacks aimed "to bleed the enemy to death.
" Their strategy for terrorism: to cause maximum fear and economic disruption with a minimal amount of effort.
Inspire Magazine, it included a section about Open Source Jihad.
So, creating attacks, making attacks, creating bombs with what you have available to you, presumably in a Western environment.
[Czekala.]
When AQAP does issue these online publications, especially the English-speaking ones, we see a spike in online activity, as well as a credible threat reporting increasing.
We've seen a number of individuals be inspired by this type of publication that Anwar al-Awlaki was associated with.
The Boston Bombers, during the Boston Marathon, reportedly received instructions on the pressure cooker bomb they used from this online publication.
There are countless other examples of individuals that were inspired by this publication.
[Harner.]
In Inspire Magazine Number Two, there was a section about the ultimate lawnmower which was taking your vehicle and running through crowds of people as a way to conduct jihad, which has become more and more popular in recent years.
[sirens and chatter.]
[narrator.]
After the failed cargo bombs, AQAP plan even more insidious ways to hide explosives.
Intelligence sources reveal AQAP trying to recruit a surgeon to implant explosives in the bodies of potential suicide bombers, to circumvent airport detection equipment.
The explosives would contain no metal parts, making them virtually undetectable by x-ray machines.
Ibrahim al-Asiri is reported to be responsible for the development of this new weapon.
As Al-Qaeda and its terror affiliates adapt new strategies against the West, America's security assets expand their capabilities to counter them.
[Harner.]
The package bomb plot certainly elevated Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as a major threat, but this very bold, external operation targeting the U.
S.
mainland definitely made it a much higher target for the U.
S.
Intelligence Community.
[Czekala.]
Through our investigation and review of intelligence, we were able to identify the mastermind bomb maker and a significant number of other individuals who had a part in the planning.
[narrator.]
Anwar al-Awlaki is believed to be the operational head in charge of the cargo plot.
In addition to radicalizing and inspiring individuals, he took on a more operational role, as we saw from the Underwear Bomber, the cargo plot, and also with several other British nationals that met him in Yemen and he tasked them to conduct terrorist attacks.
In addition, he's inspired numerous people in the United States to conduct attacks, including an individual named Carlos Bledsoe, who shot a U.
S.
military recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2009.
He also inspired U.
S.
service member Nidal Hasan in Fort Hood, Texas, which, Nidal Hasan killed approximately 13 individuals in a shooting.
[narrator.]
Describing AQAP as an imminent threat, former U.
S.
President Obama and the U.
S.
Justice Department draw up a secret memo authorizing drone strikes on AQAP leadership.
Anwar al-Awlaki is placed on the Central Intelligence Agency's list of terrorists approved for targeted killing.
A secret U.
S.
surveillance operation code named Troy has covert operatives zeroing in on Anwar al-Awlaki's location to a compound in Al-Jawf.
Operatives watch the compound 24/7, waiting for al-Awlaki to make a move.
When he finally does, remote control operators 7000 miles away from a CIA base in the United States, race to get armed drones into position.
As al-Awlaki climbs into a pickup truck, the drones lock in on the vehicle with pinpoint precision.
A mile overhead, a special joint operation plane beams back real-time tracking.
The drones fire three hellfire missiles at their target hitting the vehicle, killing al-Awlaki and one other high-ranking Al-Qaeda member, Samir Khan, the editor of Inspire Magazine.
Anwar al-Awlaki becomes the first American citizen to be targeted and killed by U.
S.
drone strikes.
For U.
S.
forces, the death of the man linked to dozens of terror attacks is a success.
Earlier this morning, Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed in Yemen.
The death [applause.]
The death of Awlaki is a major blow to Al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate.
Awlaki was the leader of external operations for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.
He directed the failed attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009, he directed the failed attempt to blow up U.
S.
cargo planes in 2010, and he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children, to advance a murderous agenda.
We celebrated as one publicly, but privately, there was the real concern of the advancement that AQAP, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, had made toward these explosives.
[narrator.]
For extremists and sympathizers, Anwar al-Awlaki has become a martyr, and even in death, spreads his ideology online.
[indistinct announcement.]
[crowd cheering.]
[booming.]
[crowd screaming.]
[narrator.]
In the years following the 2010 cargo plot, new AQAP leaders continue where al-Awlaki left off.
[indistinct chatter.]
[narrator.]
One suicide attack by AQAP targets Yemeni army soldiers, killing 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen's capital.
I AM CHARLIE AQAP also claims the responsibility for the deadly assault on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, in 2015.
As a result, former President Obama's administration increases drone strikes, killing many in AQAP leadership, but not without collateral damage.
A strike targeting another senior AQAP operative also kills Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year old American-born son.
Five years later, Anwar al-Awlaki's eight year old American daughter suffers a similar fate when she's inadvertently killed during a commando attack ordered by President Trump on a known AQAP compound.
The U.
S.
military has conducted over 100 strikes since President Trump took office, killing several top leaders and degrading both AQAP and ISIS abilities in Yemen.
Nevertheless, the fight against terrorism still relies heavily on intelligence gathering and communication between international counterterrorism agencies.
Whether it was on the cartridge explosive plot or others, we find out, this is what we did not have in 9/11.
You have people actually in countries giving us intelligence.
You then have other countries working with us to put that intelligence together, to connect the dots.
You have all our agencies here in the U.
S.
then, working double time, and overtime, and triple time, to run down every possible lead that they have, maybe from other related cases that we thought unrelated at the time.
You have all of this coming together, which, none of it really happened before 9/11.
The one thing about this case besides the The close call that these bombs could have gone off The great working relationship between not just the FBI, but our local partners overseas and the other members of the U.
S.
Intelligence Community.
[Czekala.]
There's nothing like working counterterrorism.
It really is You know, it may sound cliché, but it's a cause bigger than myself.
It's bigger than my squad mates, my colleagues.
It's a great cause.
I mean, to see innocent people get killed in terrorist attacks, and I take it very personally.
[Harley.]
This incident made me realize that, uh Really, the biggest weapon against Al-Qaeda and terrorism is open, trusted lines of communications, not only between U.
S.
agencies within the embassy environment, and not only with with the other foreign counterparts, but also with the private sector.
If FedEx hadn't alerted me that morning, I hadn't made that phone call, I don't know what would've happened.
[narrator.]
Today, AQAP and other Al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations continue to be a formidable threat.
As we've seen with Al-Qaeda, they're very persistent and determined.
They don't give up very easily.
If they have a plot, they plan to keep furthering that plot and perfecting it to make sure it works.
With the 9/11 attacks, we saw that AQ had tried to attack the World Trade Center in '93, and they vowed to be back, and they were.
If they can use a printer, what will they use tomorrow?