By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
King Abdullah on Monday appointed as interior minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has led a crackdown on al-Qaeda terrorists and survived a suicide bomb attack claimed by the jihadists.
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri has built a reputation as al Qaeda's bomb-making savant one potential near miss at time: Explosive-rigged underwear aboard a Christmas flight to the U.S. in 2009, printers fitted with high-grade explosives the next year and now possibly a metal-free device that could avoid airport detectors.
A Saudi militant believed killed in the U.S. drone strike in Yemen constructed the bombs for the al Qaeda branch's most notorious attempted attacks — including the underwear-borne explosives intended to a down a U.S. aircraft, and a bomb carried by his own brother intended to assassinate a Saudi prince.
The FBI has a fingerprint and forensic evidence linking al Qaeda's top bomb maker in Yemen to a trio of explosive devices used in recent attacks on the United States, tangible reminders that Osama bin Laden's death has not eliminated the threat from the group's most active and dangerous franchise.
U.S. intelligence agencies remain on alert but do not think additional package bombs are immediately heading for the U.S. after the third failed attack by the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula over the weekend.
The radical Islamic cleric who is the target of an Obama administration kill-or-capture order played a major role in directing the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day and in other terror plots, a senior U.S. intelligence official has revealed.
The FBI is working to track down several hundred American Muslims who traveled to Yemen in recent months and received training there at the hands of the al Qaeda terrorist group, according to U.S. government officials.
