This report comes just as the Transportation Security Administration has decided to give 10,000 of its workers access to secret intelligence. Some impeccable timing there at the TSA. “Terror Talk Growing Louder on the Web,” from CBS News, February 12:
(CBS) CBS News has learned that U.S. Intelligence officials are seeing a marked increase in terror-related Internet chatter with a frightening focus: Jihadists bent on finding gaps in airport security – all linked to al Qaeda in Yemen, reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.
On one radical website, a writer invites fellow members to post information on how to bypass airport screening.
Another member asks about explosive detection devices, writing: “We have that system in place in Algiers…does anyone know if it’s capable of detecting [the flammable gas] butane?”
On another Jihadist site, a visitor questions security involving 3D scanners at British airports asking: “Can I refuse [to pass through] for religious reasons?”
Before long comes this answer: “…advise those who wish to avoid the Heathrow scanners to take the train to Paris… and then board a plane from there.”
Perhaps most disturbing — the recent discovery of a confidential TSA document on a Yemeni Web site discussing the rules for searching passengers.