Al-Qaeda bombmaker represents CIA’s worst fears

View Photo Gallery — Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri is the top bomb maker for al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch. American officials believe his latest bomb was designed to be smuggled on to a U.S.-bound aircraft last month. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies have foiled a series of plots by al-Qaeda and its affiliates to blow up airplanes in the United States and Europe.

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Peter Finn, Published: May 8

SANAA, Yemen — He has dispatched his own brother to death, hiding a bomb on him before he crossed into Saudi Arabia to target the kingdom’s chief counterterrorism official. He has tried to attack the United States three times in the past three years, building small, sophisticated and hard-to-detect devices in his workshop in the rugged terrain of southern Yemen.

Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who hails from a middle-class Saudi family, is the top bombmaker for al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch. Only 30 years old, he represents the CIA’s worst fears: a highly skilled terrorist determined to attack the United States.

(Original here.)