11:31 . 09/05
The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee expressed dismay that someone leaked information about a double agent who infiltrated al Qaeda and helped foil a plot to blow up a U.S.-bound plane.
The double agent, who volunteered as a suicide bomber for the terrorist group, was actually working as an intelligence agent for Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing American and foreign officials.
The man departed Yemen, traveled through the United Arab Emirates and gave the bomb and information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to the CIA, Saudi intelligence and other foreign intelligence agencies, the newspaper said.
The mine, which the agent was to use, was made by an example of an explosive and was to be set off in a plane on its route from Amsterdam to Detroit.
At the end of 2009, a Nigerian who arrived in Michigan also attempted to set off the explosive hidden in his underwear.
