Establishment media report that the recent
assassination of a 37-year old Yemeni and the breakup of an alleged
underwear-bomb plot are connected through a CIA
informant. 

In a
scoop the New York Times
fails to acknowledge, the
L.A. Times reports that the reported underwear bomber
was in fact a CIA informant from whom the U.S. government
hoped to obtain the whereabouts of the stylishly dressed Ibrahim
Hassan Asiri, whom the paper identifies as a “feared” al Qaeda bomb
maker. The informant and the bomb have both been extracted from
Yemen, but the effort netted only Yemeni national Fahd Mohammed
Ahmed Quso, who seemingly met death while still rocking the grunge
look: 

Experts are analyzing the sophisticated device at the FBI’s bomb
laboratory at Quantico, Va., to determine if it really could evade
current security measures. It appears an upgraded version of the
so-called “underwear bomb” that failed to take down a passenger jet
over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Like that bomb, this device bears the forensic signature of
feared Al Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan Asiri, who was born in
Saudi Arabia and is believed to be hiding in Yemen. But the double
agent apparently never got close to Asiri, who remains one of the
top CIA targets. 

The operation had an added benefit, however. It
produced intelligence that helped U.S. authorities finally locate
Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Quso, a top Al Qaeda operative in Yemen. Quso
had been on the FBI’s most wanted list for his alleged involvement
in the bombing of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni
port in 2000. The FBI had offered a $5-million bounty for
information leading to his capture. 

On Sunday, a CIA drone aircraft fired a missile that killed Quso
as he stepped out of his car in Yemen, U.S. officials
said. 

The drone strike and the effort to obtain the explosive device
“are part of the same operation,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.),
who heads the House Homeland Security Committee.

More on
Quso. 

More on
Asiri. 

Drones at home. 

Drones abroad. 

Drones
in dogfights. 

Previous underwear bomber.