Terrorism Close Calls

Three homegrown US operatives link up with Al Qaeda and hatch an audacious terror plot to wreak maximum carnage - they plan to detonate homemade bombs hidden in backpacks simultaneously on various trains in the New York City subway system. It’s up to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force working with their counterparts at US Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency to stop the plot before they strike.

Khalid Aldwasari, a 20-year-old Saudi national on a student visa in the United States purchases chemicals for bombs and researches targets - among them the Dallas residence of former President George W. Bush, several dams in Colorado and California. He also has plans to travel to New York and plant bombs in rental cars and blow them up at rush hour. An FBI operation helps uncover the plot and reveals that the Saudi student has both the technical knowledge and the political motivation to carry out his plans.

Once foiled the details of the plot were easy to find. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) wrote about it in their online magazine listing the cost of the items used – in all they spent a little over US$5000 in a plot to blow up UPS and FedEx cargo planes using highly sophisticated printer cartridge bombs. The devices are timed to explode in mid-air over the eastern United States. Just three hours before the bombs are set to explode, they’re discovered by US, British and United Arab Emirates intelligence services. It is one of the most successful examples of international intelligence sharing between countries to date.

The plot has all the makings of a Hollywood action film –Manssour Arbabsiar, an Iranian-born car salesman living in Texas plans to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. Manssour reaches out to the Mexican Cartel for help, but the cartel member he enlists is also a DEA source. The resulting investigation reveals a disturbing link between Manssour and the top echelon of the Iranian government. It’s a plot that if successful could have resulted in mass casualties and been the staging of a possible war.

A terror cell made up of 25 predominantly British born men of Pakistani decent plot to create another 9/11. The plan is to smuggle liquid explosives inside sports drinks to be detonated simultaneously by suicide bombers on at least 7 flights headed from London’s Heathrow Airport to the US and Canada. This deadly threat would drive both the US and Britain to new levels of transatlantic security and intelligence sharing and forever change the way we travel today.

A man with ties to white supremacists goes on the run after his plan to bomb a Martin Luther King Day march is foiled by the FBI.

Four terrorists plan a two-pronged attack in Germany: detonate bombs in popular nightclubs, followed by larger bombs in the streets once people flee.

A young mother's suicide attack at an Israeli checkpoint ignites interest in her motivations as well as her baffling backstory.

The arrest of a 14-year-old boy in England sparks a frantic investigation into a terror plot halfway around the world in Australia.

A horrific terrorist plot -- suicide bombers and shooters working in tandem -- is foiled when a suspect makes an unexpected move.