by Patrick Appel
The media are freaking out about terrorists potentially using surgically implanted explosives to get past security. An "explosives specialist at the Department of Homeland Security" keeps calm:
Before we consider if an internally placed device is viable, we have to remember that a threat is what you can do versus what you want to do. Do the terrorists want to utilize a Colombian drug-smuggling semi-submersible to attack a major oil terminal? Maybe. Do the terrorists actually have the ability to use a small motorboat with an IED using ordnance as the main charge to attack oil merchants? Yes.
When we look at the “threat” of internally placed devices there are many limitations. Explosives are toxic to the body. Even the explosives used by the U.S. military can have adverse affects on skin. Placed inside the body, these explosives would have to be sealed. If sealed, would all of the components have to be included within the sealed “package”? There are too many variables, but each leads the “experts” to believe that an “expert” is needed to pull this off. Somebody trained in medicine, not [new al-Qaeda leader] Dr. [Ayman] Zawahiri’s old ass, would have to perform the surgery without killing the person during/after the surgery itself.
He concludes that "many don’t believe that they have the ability to actually pull it off," but terrorists "have the ability to try and fail though, which is just as effective as a success."
The Dish 