ISIS BRIDE COULD HAVE BLOWN UP BERTIE JET
Security never checked Smith’s suitcase
ISIS bride Lisa Smith could easily have detonated a bomb on board the Government jet, an ex-colleague who worked closely with her revealed last night.
The suitcase the former Air Corps member carried on board with her personal belongings was never checked by security, the Irish Mirror has learned.
Now a Defence Forces whistleblower insists the State is glossing over the threat she posed shortly before she was radicalised here and fled to Syria.
As the Government debates what action, if any, it can take against the former party girl, the concerned member said: “Bags on military jets are not X-rayed. You could carry whatever you want in it.
“She could have brought an anthrax airburst device on board and detonated it over Washington DC while the aircraft was on a diplomatic mission.”
A senior official had previously raised concerns about the lack of checks on military jets, but this advice was ignored.
The security source said: “Baggage taken on board the Government jet is never vetted, because it is considered to be ‘diplomatic.’”
They also blasted claims Smith, 37, did not have access to sensitive information that would help ISIS terrorists attack Ireland.
The source said: “Is knowing the movements of Government ministers not sensitive information?”
The whistleblower insists officials Lisa Smith in Syrian camp are now trying to conceal the massive gaps in State security. They said: “The Government isn’t happy because it gives the anti-immigration lobby and anti-eu crowd something to poke [Taoiseach] Leo [Varadkar] with, especially if it got out the type of information she was privy to in Baldonnel.”
Before quitting, Smith, from Dundalk, Co Louth, showed up to the air base in Muslim head dress after converting to Islam in 2010.
The source said: “No questions were raised over that. It was her right to wear that of course.”
But shortly after she quit, authorities realised she had been radicalised and quizzed those who worked close to her to try find out more.
The source said: “This is a serious lapse of State security, they know there are active cells in Ireland.”
Smith is being held in northern Syria with her daughter.
A Defence Forces spokeswoman told the Irish Mirror last night: “We do not comment on security or operational matters.”
Lisa Smith with then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2008