Trouble in Saudi Arabia: Al-Qaeda’s ‘Bum’ Assassination Attempt
A suicide bomber almost managed to kill a heavily guarded Saudi prince, passing through several security checkpoints with a bomb hidden in his rectum.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef of Saudi Arabia and his son, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, have many enemies. For decades, the powerful and unaccountable elder Prince Nayef has “overseen” the Saudi police force; Nayef once boasted that his law enforcement agency solves 100 percent of the kingdom’s annual crimes. Nayef regularly uses torture to elicit confessions from Saudi nationals as well as visitors from other countries, and for this human rights officials have repeatedly referred to Nayef as “the grim reaper of international law.” More recently, the elder Nayef was put in charge of a program to help terrorists living in and around Saudi Arabia to repent and change their ways. To administer the program, Nayef put his son, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in charge.
On August 28, one of those alleged to have repented — Abdullah Hassan Taleh al-Asiri, a 23-year-old Saudi national — almost succeeded in killing the younger prince by exploding himself during a meeting. The royal family had high hopes for a better outcome in its attempts to bolster support for its controversial program. It even went so far as to gamble flying al-Asiri into the kingdom from Yemen on a royal jet, despite the fact that al-Asiri is on a list of 85 terrorists wanted by the Saudi authorities. Scott Stewart of STRATFOR Global Intelligence explained what happened during the meeting:
After al-Asiri entered a small room to speak with Prince Mohammed, he activated a small, improvised explosive device (IED) he had been carrying inside his anal cavity. The resulting explosion ripped al-Asiri to shreds but only lightly injured the shocked prince — the target of al-Asiri’s unsuccessful assassination attempt.
Al-Qaeda was quick to take credit for the suicide bombing (according to SITE). After all, it was a major public relations coup. For starters, the royals had been tricked — promised surrender and instead given a Trojan horse. Saudi’s princes pride themselves on having impenetrable personal security systems. Instead, this recent incident revealed a major flaw in the royal armor, not to mention in the country’s airline security system. Al-Qaeda was quick to point out (through jihadist websites) that al-Asiri had passed through two major security checkpoints, in the Najran and Jeddah airports, before boarding a royal jet with explosives hidden up his bum.
A bomb hidden in his anal cavity? Why does this sound so terribly familiar?
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Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
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23 Comments
1. ProudKafir7908:Tough luck for the number 1 promoter of anti-Western hatred and financiers of terrorism on this planet. This botched assassination attempt, condemned by the Saudis only because it targeted one of their own too-lazy-to-ever-consider-doing-any-real-work “royals” (expect them to never condemn such acts when infidels, a.k.a. human beings, are their target) is nothing but mahoundianism working its “magic” of inevitable inter-family, inter-clan, inbred bedouin savage, dog-eat-dog slaughter, which is inherent to every single place in this world where mahound-worshippers make up nearly 100% of the population (Somalia is just like Saudi Arabia too, but without oil.) Daniel Pipes has written about this tribal affliction among cousin-kissing bedouin savages in a review of Philip Carl Salzman’s Culture and Conflict in the Middle East:
http://www.danielpipes.org/5412/the-middle-easts-tribal-affliction
So long as Western political leaders keep those mahoundian lower forms of life out of the civilized parts of this planet (and too bad so few of them have the backbone to do so or defend our need to act on it), we ought to let mahoundianism keep working its “magic” among those that choose to worship mahound’s imaginary alter-ego allah. That can only work to our advantage.
Sep 24, 2009 - 2:33 am 2. canuck:I bet Junior was covered in feces from head to toe…the assassin’s and his own.
Saudi Arabia was really the number one reason to develop the Neutron bomb that killed the organisms but spared the infrastructure.
Sep 24, 2009 - 3:35 am 3. Chap:–This attack is after a roundup by the prince of 44 AQ-related professionals in the kingdom, only two weeks later.
–The prince has been trying to find indirect methods of avoiding AQ attacks by accepting surrenders, and this was a surrender where others were promised to come along. That’s what supposedly was happening when the guy blew up. This turned out to be really effective in hardening his attitude and Saudi attitudes in general towards AQ.
–The family of the AQ member is quoted in the local papers as thanking the prince for extending traditional courtesy to their insane son, an interesting phrasing which is not good for local support of AQ.
The prince was clearly lucky that the guy was sitting down when he went off…
Sep 24, 2009 - 6:38 am 4. pelaut:Maybe the Saudis will take Guantanamo?
Sep 24, 2009 - 6:42 am 5. MarkD:That had to hurt, but not for long.
I wonder what he’s going to do with his 72 virgins or raisins? Not much, in his condition.
Sep 24, 2009 - 7:01 am 6. gordo12:Chickens coming home to roost?
What does the all bowing one say?
Sep 24, 2009 - 7:45 am 7. Now and Then:I think it might have been this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8dsqLDtfWQ&feature=PlayList&p=D2DA29DED95AA8D4&index=0&playnext=1
Sep 24, 2009 - 8:19 am 8. dman:Explosives where sun dont shine? Man thats got to hurt
Ever hear of Preperation H?
Sep 24, 2009 - 8:36 am 9. Satan:I got the guy, but he’s not as fun as most of my toys.
Sep 24, 2009 - 8:39 am 10. Bill:Think Tom Arnold in Austin Powers:
“What did you eat?!?”
Sep 24, 2009 - 9:45 am 11. Scott:¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!
Sep 24, 2009 - 9:51 am 12. don:Ah yes, the C-4 keester stash could be an airline industry game changer. Since water boarding is torture and now forbidden, I’m sure the current FBI is just having wonderful success squeezing information out of the current jihad bomb plotter in custody for lying to the police. I bet the FBI is getting all sorts of crucial information on the plot and its cell members, especially after the suspect invoked his Miranda rights. I’m sure the suspect will start talking when a judge offers him limited use immunity and the possibility of time in custody credits should he be found guilty of conspiring to do mass suicide bombings. In fact, I’m so sure the FBI will be successful that those of still flying will be lining up for cavity searches to get a boarding pass, because you never know what you don’t know, and we’ll have to do it for the children.
Sep 24, 2009 - 10:35 am 13. Ruebacca:If AQ killed anothe 3k infidels the Arabs would go back to loving them.
Sep 24, 2009 - 11:16 am 14. Michael T:I guess this will entail better surveillance in the future. One group of a–holes examining another group of a–holes. Would make for an entertaining video for Youtube.
Sep 24, 2009 - 11:51 am 15. BrianH:Does this incident augur a future in which wheelchair-bound American grandmothers of Irish/Italian descent will receive the latex glove treatment from female TSA staff behind a screen in the line to board a Southwest Airlines flight, while the defendants in the NYC bombing plot case will get beachfront incarceration in fabulous Bermuda without having their body cavities violated?
Did the bomb contain assorted items from the hardware bins at Home Depot, liberally seasoned with rat poison?
In the inevitable videotaped suicide note, did the bomber go on an interminable digression about government-lab-created “fish flu” and a plug for Dear Leader’s health care proposals?
So many unanswered questions.
Sep 24, 2009 - 12:42 pm 16. Leatherneck:He will be the butt of jokes for all time.
Sep 24, 2009 - 1:29 pm 17. sefton:Rectum? It damn near killed ‘em!
Sep 24, 2009 - 2:22 pm 18. McBride:It was only a matter of time before the practitioners of the “man love Thursay” praxis got around to a C-4 suppository.
Sep 24, 2009 - 3:05 pm 19. McBride:Thursday
Sep 24, 2009 - 3:08 pm 20. David was here:I really don’t get all the hand-wringing here. IT DIDN’T WORK! I mean, if he HAD set himself off in a plane, it would have been an incredible mess. The clown blew himself up, but the human body has the ability to absorb an enormous amount of kinetic (read explosive) energy before being changed into chopped hamburger. I think this is a loser proposition. If you are wearing the bomb on the outside, the power goes out. If you have it on the inside, you act as a buffer for all the people around you. Other than covering everyone around you in offal and feces, I suspect that you can’t jam enough explosives up your asshole to get an effective explosive. On the other hand, maybe, in light of this experience, there is now a dedicated hard-core group of Al Quaeda activists who are now inserting larger and larger devices into their rectums in order to allow for more powerful explosive devices…ok, I’ll stop now. The imagery is becoming disturbing…
David
Sep 25, 2009 - 6:32 am 21. uburoisc:Maybe Allah put it there when he bent over to pray.
Sep 25, 2009 - 7:37 am 22. don:Seems to me all you have to do is squat your butt loaded with a pound of plastic high explosive on the passenger deck directly over the central fuel tank on a 747, dial 911 to initiate the detonator, and boom; you’re on your way to virgin heaven. With the plane debris two miles down on the seabed in the central Atlantic, who would ever know?
Sep 25, 2009 - 7:45 am 23. Lex Steele:I believe this terrorist was using the Lex Steele version of a TATP Bomb
http://www.holisticwisdom.com/lex-steele-dildo.htm
Gives new meaning to the term “Trojan bomber”!
Damn Dirty Terrorists! >:)
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:25 pm