American officials collecting examples of potential bombs from security agencies around the world are discovering that the latest threats come from items of everyday use, reports ABCNews.com.
'They (the terrorists) are innovative, they are creative,' US Transport Security Administrator Kip Hawley says. What he is holding up in support of his contention is a small watch, which doubles up as a bomb detonator in capable, and determined, hands.
The watch is a duplicate of one such recovered from a suicide bomber overseas, and comes with a battery and a little bit of explosive. All a terrorist needs to do is get the watch through security, and press it up against a bomb-filled vest, says ABCNews.com.
Then there is the common-enough toothbrush, refitted as a detonator to set off plastic explosive in a briefcase.
A terror plot broken up by the US authorities in 2006 planned to use liquid bombs in soft drink bottles, and in other innocuous-looking items like MP3 players. It was after this that airlines all over banned liquids onboard.
In December 2001, Britisher Richard Reid made us wiser to the shoe bomb threat, which experts have since discovered is very real. Such a bomb can actually cut through metal and bring down an aircraft.
Since then, authorities have been discovering various objects concealed in shoe linings, like toggle switches and electronic components.
But the nightmare posed by medical devices deemed necessary, like the increasingly ubiquitous back braces, is hard to crack. Hawley in fact demonstrated to ABCNews.com how such a device can conceal RDX
Increasingly, the terrorist is turning creative and 'taking harmless objects, even food, and turning them into explosivesÂ… They're going to use everything they can get their hands on to use against us,' says Hawley.
