Terrorists – 0, CIA – 1?

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Tuesday that terrorists keep trying to come up with “more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people,” after a plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner was foiled by the CIA.

U.S. officials said Monday that the plot involved a bomb that improved on the one that had been sewn into the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in a plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

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In addition to being a threat to commercial planes, the official said this type of bomb could be used in crowded places, on other transportation systems or for assassinations.

The official noted that the bomb “was never near a plane” and “never posed a risk.” The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.

From AP:

The United States and India on Tuesday called for Pakistan to do more to stop terrorism and pledged to keep up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

However, the two countries remained divided over the future of India’s large oil imports from Iran, which the U.S. wants to see drastically reduced to put pressure on Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program.

“We don’t believe Iran would be back at the negotiating table unless there had been the unrelenting pressure of international sanctions. And this pressure must stay on if we want to see progress toward a peaceful resolution,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a press conference in the Indian capital.

About 9 percent of India’s oil imports come from Iran, and though it has reduced those imports recently, it could still face U.S. sanctions next month if Washington determines it has not done enough under a law aimed at pressuring Iran to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.

In other news, the Navy might get its own unmanned drones. A drone vessel. That’s neat too.