NYPD still in dark on seized al-Qaida bomb

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly on Friday expressed impatience with the lack of information his department is getting about a sophisticated underwear bomb seized in a Mideast anti-terror operation.

An undercover agent penetrated al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen and secured the device before it could be used on a passenger plane bound for the United States. The bomb was turned over to U.S. intelligence officials for analysis.

Specifics about the new device should be shared with the city's bomb squad, Kelly said.

"This is the type of information we want. This is the type of information that we need, we deserve, in the nation's biggest [terrorist] target," he said.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who has been briefed on the underwear bomb, backed Kelly.

"I would say top law enforcement should be informed of it, and that should include the NYPD," said King, who heads the House subcommittee on Homeland Security.

The FBI's analysis of the bomb is about 95 percent complete, King said. He could not say for security reasons whether tests have determined whether airport body scanners would detect the apparatus if a terrorist attempted to smuggle it aboard an aircraft.

The device is an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Officials said the new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system.