Not happening, fortunately

Rachael Levy has another Slate article, this one about a foiled attack:

The Associated Press has the scoop from unnamed U.S. officials: the CIA foiled a plot by an al-Qaeda affiliate to bring down a U.S.-bound airliner on or around last week's anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death.
The weapon of choice: an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to bring down a plane over Detroit back on Christmas of 2009. The device appears to have been metal-free, raising concerns that it could have passed through airport security undetected.
News of the plot is particularly noteworthy because the Obama administration had reassured the public at the time that they had no indication of any specific, credible threats tied to the anniversary. That suggests that preventing the attack either took some last-minute heroics or that the White House wasn't being completely upfront with what it knew and when.

The AP with more on the plot and the upgraded underwear bomb:
This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, officials said. The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought his plane tickets when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It's not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.
The AP learned of the thwarted plot last week, but says it agreed to government requests not to publish what it knew immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. "Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement," according to the report.

Rico says we gotta figure out a way to make these underwear bombs go off outside the terminal; it'd be messy, but it'd discourage the bastards. (And the White House 'not being completely upfront with what it knew and when'? What a surprise...)