FBI catalogs hidden weapons that terrorists could use

? The FBI is warning security personnel about dozens of everyday items — from belt buckles to keys to a deadly deck of cards — that can conceal knives or other weapons terrorists could use to hijack an airliner.

Many items cost less than $20 and can be difficult to detect using airport screening devices, according to an FBI statement accompanying the 89-page catalog obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The catalog has been converted into a CD and circulated to airport screeners and law enforcement around the country amid heightened vigilance aimed at preventing another suicide hijacking by al-Qaida.

“It was designed to raise security awareness for law enforcement and airline security,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said.

U.S. law enforcement officials previously have warned that al-Qaida might use improvised or easily obtained substances to mount attacks, especially chemicals that are dangerous when mixed. What makes the FBI weapons list unusual is that most of the concealable knives, pepper spray devices and other items are inexpensive and can be purchased from manufacturers in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Italy, Sweden, China and elsewhere.

Knives are concealed in belt buckles, hairbrushes and combs, working cigarette lighters, crucifixes, lipstick cases, canes, umbrellas, keychains, pens, mock credit cards and money clips. While many of the blades are small, others are at least four inches long and some are sword-length.

Among the more exotic items is a deck of fake playing cards made of metal, with sharp edges, that can be thrown with deadly results. One fake key made in Japan conceals a knife and a smaller key that could be used to escape from handcuffs.

One device, called a “shuckra,” is a metal tube containing a wire that, when locked into place, becomes a hardened spike that could be used as a dagger.

There are false name-brand soup, hairspray, shaving cream and cleanser cans with hidden compartments — the FBI calls them “can safes” — where weapons or dangerous substances could be placed. Fake books with hollowed centers are used as safes.

Each item in the catalog is shown with a ruler to give security personnel a sense of scale and an X-ray image of how it might appear when viewed in an airport screening device.

The FBI’s collection was purchased through catalogs, at knife shows and through other commercial outlets. Officials said none of the items was confiscated from passengers.

The 19 men who hijacked four jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001, used common boxcutters as weapons, and the FBI catalog is circulating at a time of increased security at airports based on intelligence collected from captured al-Qaida operatives and al-Qaida safe houses about plans for another attack using the nation’s air travel system.

The Transportation Security Administration forbids air travelers from carrying sharp objects into an aircraft cabin. The agency bans such items as boxcutters, metal scissors with pointed tips, meat cleavers, swords and ice picks.