News & Politics - Terror plot thwarted as US-bound explosives seized

vc318 · 10-29-2010, 08:12 PM

Terror plot thwarted as US-bound explosives seized - National Business - MiamiHerald.com

Terror plot thwarted as US-bound explosives seized

WASHINGTON -- Authorities on three continents thwarted multiple terrorist attacks aimed at the United States from Yemen on Friday, seizing two explosive packages addressed to Chicago-area synagogues and packed aboard cargo jets. The plot triggered worldwide fears that al-Qaida was launching a major new terror campaign.

President Barack Obama called the coordinated attacks a "credible terrorist threat," and U.S. officials said they were increasingly confident that al-Qaida's Yemen branch, the group responsible for the failed Detroit airliner bombing last Christmas, was responsible.

Parts of the plot might remain undetected, Obama's counterterror chief warned. "The United States is not assuming that the attacks were disrupted and is remaining vigilant," John Brennan said at the White House.

One of the packages was found aboard a cargo plane in Dubai, the other in England. Preliminary tests indicated the packages contained the powerful industrial explosive PETN, the same chemical used in the Christmas attack, U.S. officials said. The tests had not been confirmed.

In the U.S., cargo planes were searched up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and an Emirates Airlines passenger jet was escorted down the coast to New York by American fighter jets.

No explosives were found aboard those planes, though the investigation was continuing on at least two.

Obama's sobering assessment, delivered from the White House podium, unfolded four days before national elections in which discussion of terrorism has played almost no role. The president went ahead with weekend campaign appearances.

The terrorist efforts "underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism," the president said. While he said both packages that contained explosives originated in Yemen, he did not explicitly assign blame to al-Qaida, which is active in that Arab country and long has made clear its goal of launching new attacks on the United States.

Authorities in Dubai intercepted one explosive device. The second package was aboard a plane searched in East Midlands, north of London, and officials said it contained a printer toner cartridge with wires and powder. Brennan said the devices were in packages about the size of a breadbox.

While Obama didn't specifically accuse Yemen's al-Qaida branch, Brennan called it the most active al-Qaida franchise and said anyone associated with the group was a subject of concern.

The radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who now is in hiding in Yemen, is believed to have helped inspire recent attacks including the Fort Hood shooting, the Times Square bombing attempt and the failed Detroit airliner bombing last Christmas Day. Another American hiding in Yemen, Samir Khan, has declared himself a traitor and has helped produce al-Qaida propaganda.

Most of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation.

That's some very intense news. How do these sort of things just get past airport security?I'm glad no explosives were found.

**sunnykerr** · 10-29-2010, 08:26 PM

Isn't part of the story about how it didn't get past airport security?

I mean, from the little coverage I've seen, one package was seized in an English airport precisely because security was vigilant and the other is pretty much the same story, only in Dubai, right?

Of course, the answer to your question has probably more to do with lack of funding and personel as well as technology not having yet caught up to all the ways that a bomb can be created.

I mean, I saw that printer cartridge-cum-bomb on CNN. That thing was tiny. Wired to put a crator somewhere, for sure. But wee.

It's a testament to how good these people are at their job that it got caught at all.

living destiny · 10-30-2010, 02:28 PM

Is it bad that I'm a LITTLE bit paranoid of flying ? Esp in and out of the USA.

**sunnykerr** · 10-30-2010, 04:17 PM

Of course, it's not.

Fear of flying is one of the most common and it's not like the American politicians and media don't TOTALLY work together to scare the pants out of you all.

You just have to remember that safe flights are a bagillion times more common than unsafe ones. More than a bagillion even.

living destiny · 10-30-2010, 08:42 PM

Totally. I'm not really scared of flying in general. I just know that we have to be more cautious is all.

**sunnykerr** · 10-30-2010, 08:54 PM

See, not really... I don't think anyway.

There are way more rules when you're flying into the United States then when you're flying into anywhere else. But it's just random stuff like you have to take off your shoes when you cross those X-ray machines.

It's not really scary. It's just annoying.

living destiny · 10-30-2010, 09:44 PM

Yeah

I'm going on a trip soon and I'm like YAY time to dress down. Last time they took my mom randomly and had to search her from head to toe. LOL.

**Wildfire Girl** · 11-01-2010, 08:30 AM

There is a LOT of security now days. Not that it's a bad thing, but last time they had me take my sweatshirt off. Thankfully I had a little tank underneath it, but still ...

**sunnykerr** · 11-01-2010, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Bombs tip-off 'came from former al-Qaeda member'

The crucial tip-off that led to the discovery of parcel bombs on two cargo planes came from a repentant al-Qaeda member, UK officials say.

Jabr al-Faifi handed himself in to authorities in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, the officials told the BBC.

The US says its main suspect in the failed bomb plot is the chief bombmaker for al-Qaeda's Yemeni branch.

Yemeni officials said 14 suspected al-Qaeda members had surrendered in the restive southern province of Abyan.

Abyan's governor said five senior figures were among those who had handed themselves in, and more fighters were expected to surrender in the coming days.

Yemen is facing mounting multi-national pressure to battle al-Qaeda, says the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Sanaa, but some doubt its ability to do so as it faces social, economic and political problems at home.

US intelligence officials have suggested the Saudi bombmaker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, said to be in his 20s, is the key suspect in last week's attempt to send the parcel bombs from Yemen to the US.

One bomb travelled on two passenger planes before being seized in Dubai. The other almost slipped through Britain, and UK authorities have been criticised for their initial failure to find the bomb on a plane at East Midlands airport.

UK Home Secretary Theresa May said the device was probably intended to detonate mid-air, and has announced a review of all aspects of the UK's air freight security, as well as restrictions on the transportation of ink cartridges.

She was addressing parliament after Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government's emergency planning committee, Cobra.

The UK has already stepped up its air freight security, suspending cargo and passenger flights from Yemen.

Mrs May said cargo flights from Somalia would also be suspended due to suspected links between militants in the two countries.

"From midnight tonight we will extend the suspension of unaccompanied air freight to this country not just from Yemen but also Somalia," she said.

Al-Qaeda bombmaker?

Jabr al-Faifi is reportedly one of several former detainees at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation in December 2006.

After leaving Guantanamo he went through a rehabilitation programme in Saudi Arabia and then rejoined al-Qaeda in Yemen before turning himself in to Saudi authorities, AFP news agency reports.

He contacted Saudi government officials saying he wanted to return home and a handover was arranged through Yemen's government, interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said.

Both bombs used in the latest plot were hidden inside printer toner cartridges and contained the powerful plastic explosive PETN, which is difficult to detect.

John Brennan, counter-terrorism adviser to US President Barack Obama, said the devices were built by the same man who made the explosive device containing PETN that was used in a failed "underpants" plane bomb attack over Detroit on Christmas Day.

One of the detonators was reportedly almost exactly the same as the one used in the US attack attempt.

"[The bombmaker] is a very dangerous individual - clearly somebody who has a fair amount of training and experience," Mr Brennan told ABC News.

"We need to find him and bring him to justice as soon as we can."

Asiri is believed to have built the bomb that his brother, Abdullah, used in an assassination attempt on the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Mohammed Bin Nayif. The prince survived the suicide attack, in which PETN was also used.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says most of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's more dangerous operatives are Saudis, driven out of their own country by a highly effective counter-terrorism campaign that has not yet been matched in Yemen.

Mr Brennan said the US and its allies could not assume that there were no other packages containing bombs out there.

"What we are trying to do right now is to work with our partners overseas to identify all packages that left Yemen recently, and to see whether or not there are any other suspicious packages out there that may contain these [Improvised Explosive Devices]," he told ABC.

Yemeni flights banned

The two packages were shipped from Sanaa through UPS and another US cargo firm, FedEx. The parcels were addressed to synagogues in the US city of Chicago.

One device was carried on an Airbus A320 from Sanaa to Doha. It was then flown on another aircraft to Dubai, Qatar Airways said.

Meanwhile, Germany has announced a ban on all passenger and cargo flights from Yemen.

That makes Italy the only western European country still allowing direct passenger flights from Yemen - a total of two Yemenia Airways flights a week.

Most flights leaving Yemen travel to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt.

Yemen's Minister of Transport Khalid al-Wazir told BBC Arabic the country had tightened security on cargo shipments leaving its airports.

"We emphasise the need to continue sharing intelligence among the parties concerned in the countries concerned, on a continuing, rapid and urgent basis, so that we can ensure maximum security for our airports, our skies and our planes," he said.

A team of US investigators has already been sent to Yemen to help track down those involved in the plot.

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff told the BBC that help from the West is vital to the Yemeni authorities, whose anti-terror cababilities "may not be up to the job".

Meanwhile, US investigators are re-examining wreckage of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Dubai in September.

Two crew members died when the jet crashed shortly after take-off. On Sunday, UAE investigators said there was no evidence that the crash was caused by an explosion.

Source

So there's some hope in this, in a way, if a former member of al-Qaeda was the reason we found out about it in the first place.

The other part of it, though, is that it's pointless to put restrictions on Yemen. Its government is completely toothless, as we saw last winter.

I think the UK, which has announced plans to implement screening of all packages (though, of course, they neither say how or why it hasn't been done this whole time) is on the right track.

living destiny · 11-01-2010, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildfire Girl (View Post)

There is a LOT of security now days. Not that it's a bad thing, but last time they had me take my sweatshirt off. Thankfully I had a little tank underneath it, but still ...

Good thing you did girl.

Oh well that's good that the tip came from a former member. People are trying at least.

**sunnykerr** · 11-02-2010, 07:28 PM

And he also wouldn't have been able to either gain nor pass on that information if he was still in Guantanamo.

**sunnykerr** · 02-27-2011, 11:26 AM

I've added tags to the thread.


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