It's the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, and some US officials fear his terrorist network may attempt to commemorate the day with plots of their own. Airports around the world are on high alert for terrorists outfitted with "body bombs" (which are just as grueseome as they sound).
For the last year, U.S. and European authorities have publicly warned that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate, and its master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, have been designing body bombs with no metal parts to get past airport security.
"We are treating the information seriously," John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, told ABC News in 2011.
In public, U.S. officials say there is no credible information of an impending attack. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Peter Boogaard released a statement Monday evening saying, "We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death."
But earlier Monday, White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan called the al Qaeda group in Yemen the greatest threat to the U.S.
"AQAP continues to be al Qaeda's most active affiliate, and it continues to seek the opportunity to strike our homeland," said Brennan during a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C.
The likelihood of anything happening is pretty low, officials say -- lately, after all, al Qaeda has made the news more for failed terror plots -- but terrorists love anniversaries, and caution can't hurt.
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