Explosives Found on Planes amid US Terror Probe
Last updated 5:15 a.m. Eastern
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 Qaeda 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 Qaeda'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.
According to two CBS News sources, the explosive material discovered Friday was PETN, the same chemical used by failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Dubai police said Saturday one of the two seized devices, discovered in a shipment of air cargo from Yemen and bound for the United States, contained the powerful explosive PETN and bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda. They said in a statement carried by official state news agency WAM that the explosives were discovered in the ink cartridge of a computer printer. They say the device, sent from Yemen in a FedEx shipment, was prepared in a "professional manner."
PETN Explosive a Favorite of Terrorists
CBS News national Security Correspondent David Martin reports Saudi Arabia tipped off authorities to the threat. Intelligence officials have been monitoring the suspected plot for days, an official said.
An official United Arab Emirates security source said the package discovered there was a device containing explosive materials. This does not mean they were actual bombs, CBS News reports. Some tests were negative but the latest tests are positive for at least some explosives.
It's not yet clear that the devices contained enough material - or the right combination of materials to produce an explosion, reports CBS News justice correspondent Bob Orr. But al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has experienced bomb makers. Previous explosives have been hidden in cassette cases, picture frames and radios. Officials do not know if the devices were designed to explode in the air or needed to be detonated by a person on ground, presumably once they arrived in Chicago.
Both packages were sent from the same address in Yemen to Jewish organizations in Chicago, U.S. officials said.At least one was a synagogue.
The package in England, discovered aboard a plane in East Midlands, north of London, contained a printer toner cartridge with wires and powder. It was found during routine screening of cargo in England, prompting authorities to scour three planes and a truck in the United States on Friday, U.S. officials said.
A source told CBS News that the packages in the U.K. and Dubai contained a syringe, powder and cell phone components. (Scroll down to see a photo of one of the cartridges.)
A Joint Terrorism Task Force source told CBS News that investigators were looking for between 10-20 packages shipped out of the UPS office in Sanna, Yemen during the same time frame.
Yemeni officials said they had launched a terrorism investigation, and Scotland Yard said its investigators were testing a number of items seized from the plane in East Midlands.
In the U.S., searches were conducted in Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and New York City. Local officials said all of the suspicious items and UPS planes that were searched had been given the "all clear."
The White House says Mr. Obama's weekend travel plans to campaign ahead of the midterm elections will not be affected by the terror probe.
Obama Won't Change Travel Plans
UPS said it is immediately suspending shipments out of Yemen after authorities thwarted the potential attack.
Security Gaps Plague Cargo Shipping
"As a precaution, DHS has taken a number of steps to enhance security," theHomeland Security Department said in a statement. "Some of these security measures will be visible while others will not."
Since the failed Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, Yemen has been a focus for U.S. counterterrorism officials. Before that attack, the U.S. regarded al Qaeda's branch in Yemen as primarily a threat in the region, not to the United States.
The Yemen branch known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has since become a leading source of terrorist propaganda and recruiting. Authorities believe about 300 al Qaeda members or cells operate in Yemen.
The Yemeni government has stepped up counterterrorism operations, with help from the U.S. military and intelligence officials. Mohammed Shayba, general-director of the state airline's cargo department, said the government is conducting an investigation.
"Those in charge are in constant meetings and they are investigating and taking the issue seriously," he told The Associated Press.
Friday afternoon, an Emirates Airlines passenger jet carrying cargo from Yemen was escorted from the Canadian border to New York City by two military fighter jets, U.S. officials said. They said it was a precautionary action.
CBS/AP 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 Qaeda 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 Qaeda'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.
According to two CBS News sources, the explosive material discovered Friday was PETN, the same chemical used by failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Dubai police said Saturday one of the two seized devices, discovered in a shipment of air cargo from Yemen and bound for the United States, contained the powerful explosive PETN and bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda. They said in a statement carried by official state news agency WAM that the explosives were discovered in the ink cartridge of a computer printer. They say the device, sent from Yemen in a FedEx shipment, was prepared in a "professional manner."
PETN Explosive a Favorite of Terrorists
CBS News national Security Correspondent David Martin reports Saudi Arabia tipped off authorities to the threat. Intelligence officials have been monitoring the suspected plot for days, an official said.
An official United Arab Emirates security source said the package discovered there was a device containing explosive materials. This does not mean they were actual bombs, CBS News reports. Some tests were negative but the latest tests are positive for at least some explosives.
It's not yet clear that the devices contained enough material - or the right combination of materials to produce an explosion, reports CBS News justice correspondent Bob Orr. But al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has experienced bomb makers. Previous explosives have been hidden in cassette cases, picture frames and radios. Officials do not know if the devices were designed to explode in the air or needed to be detonated by a person on ground, presumably once they arrived in Chicago.
Both packages were sent from the same address in Yemen to Jewish organizations in Chicago, U.S. officials said.
The package in England, discovered aboard a plane in East Midlands, north of London, contained a printer toner cartridge with wires and powder. It was found during routine screening of cargo in England, prompting authorities to scour three planes and a truck in the United States on Friday, U.S. officials said.
A source told CBS News that the packages in the U.K. and Dubai contained a syringe, powder and cell phone components. (Scroll down to see a photo of one of the cartridges.)
A Joint Terrorism Task Force source told CBS News that investigators were looking for between 10-20 packages shipped out of the UPS office in Sanna, Yemen during the same time frame.
Yemeni officials said they had launched a terrorism investigation, and Scotland Yard said its investigators were testing a number of items seized from the plane in East Midlands.
In the U.S., searches were conducted in Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and New York City. Local officials said all of the suspicious items and UPS planes that were searched had been given the "all clear."
The White House says Mr. Obama's weekend travel plans to campaign ahead of the midterm elections will not be affected by the terror probe.
Obama Won't Change Travel Plans
UPS said it is immediately suspending shipments out of Yemen after authorities thwarted the potential attack.
Security Gaps Plague Cargo Shipping
"As a precaution, DHS has taken a number of steps to enhance security," the
Since the failed Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, Yemen has been a focus for U.S. counterterrorism officials. Before that attack, the U.S. regarded al Qaeda's branch in Yemen as primarily a threat in the region, not to the United States.
The Yemen branch known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has since become a leading source of terrorist propaganda and recruiting. Authorities believe about 300 al Qaeda members or cells operate in Yemen.
The Yemeni government has stepped up counterterrorism operations, with help from the U.S. military and intelligence officials. Mohammed Shayba, general-director of the state airline's cargo department, said the government is conducting an investigation.
"Those in charge are in constant meetings and they are investigating and taking the issue seriously," he told The Associated Press.
Friday afternoon, an Emirates Airlines passenger jet carrying cargo from Yemen was escorted from the Canadian border to New York City by two military fighter jets, U.S. officials said. They said it was a precautionary action.
(CBS)
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Tsarnaev friend implicates dead brother, self in murders 135 Comments
- Tornado victims start picking up the pieces
- Tornado's destructive path 17 Photos
- Up-close video of Moore, Okla., tornado Play Video
- Oklahoma tornado as seen by storm chasers Play Video
- Brigadier general suspended over altercation with woman
- Deadliest U.S. tornadoes 10 Photos
- 2 infants among 10 kids killed in Oklahoma tornado
If the "War on Terror" was for real there would be Americans dead on the streets...the worlds most liberal gun laws and the most porous borders. Snipe a gas tanker driving through any city in any state ,why these stupid poorly executed attempts. And the "underwear bomber" got on a plane without a passport and what was the response ? More "screening" in AMERICA ? *** the "underwear bomber" boarded overseas !
False flags to herd the sheeple. Why is it, that with millions and millions of dollars at their disposal, that people who have no other purpose than to kill Americans are so poor at doing it? Is it because we have every single extremist tied up in combat overseas? Really, all of them? Or maybe, it's because we have Jack Bauer types who are saving us every day and we just don't hear about it??? PFFFFT.
WAKE UP. You're being fooled. The biggest threat we face is from our rulers. But keep drinking the kool-aid our g'ment is dishing out, idiots.
Will the two of you get out of your basements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess living in a basement is frowned upon by your elitist club, you people have been living in a bubble for way too long, it doesn't matter how many pocessions or properties somebody has, you'll figure it all out very soon
by Empire--George-- October 30, 2010 9:23 AM EDT
Hey moron, this was real....there was REAL explosives sent to Chicago, it wasn't made up, it's not a fear tactic......what is wrong with you people ? It's your sickening complacency that gets us hit again.
Yea, right, and so it Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I just feel sorry for any one that would be sold on this malarkey, and I do indeed find saddening.
As this contrived scare unraveled, Obama held a press conference in which he reversed earlier announcements that there were no explosives in the packages found on the planes. Obama claimed that the packages ?did apparently contain explosive material,? completely contradicting earlier reports which quoted authorities as saying that both the package found in the UK and the two found in the U.S. were all duds and contained no explosive material.
?Investigators examined two UPS planes that landed at Philadelphia International Airport and another at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, said Mike Mangeot, a UPS spokesman. Authorities later gave the ?all-clear? at the airport in Newark, U.S. and U.K. officials said. (CNN)
Far to many Americans are still being fooled by the "left-right paradigm." What they seem to not realize is that both the left, and the right have been knee deep in this terror scare since 9/11. Any American who can think logically should realize that neither party has been willing to call for new investigations into what happened on 9/11, even as more and more information and data continues to be released showing that explosions were going off, and at least one went off before the first plane hit the north tower.
In both video and sound recordings made on 9/11, secondary explosions can be heard, and are mentioned by various reporters, firemen, police officers, and other emergency personnel. Of course, that whole story was rewritten in the days and weeks that followed 9/11, and until recently, much of the evidence confirming secondary explosions, had been successfully hidden from the public. The National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) which possessed much evidence showing that there was secondary explosions, was forced to reveal files, and videos, which show without a doubt that secondary explosions did occur on 9/11. NIST was forced to release these documents and videos under the Freedom of Information Act, after a filings by the International Center for 9/11 Studies.
One has to wonder just how long it will be before a majority of Americans come to the realization that what they were told, and what they are being told about 9/11, by the powers that be, and their corporate media pundits, does not stand up to scrutiny. The fact the Building 7 fell in free fall late in the afternoon on 9/11, and was neither touched by a plane, or severally damaged by falling debris, should have every American asking questions, and demanding a new investigation.
This supposed terror threat that Obama would now have us believe to be real, even after it was announced that no explosives were found, appears to be just one more example of how far our government leaders and the corporate media are willing to go, in order to use the fear mechanism against the American people.
As long as the American people continue to be gullible to such hocus-pocus we will see these tactics used again and again, to scare the America people in an attempt to sway the there vote in upcoming elections. As more and more people wake up to the realities of what is happening in America, and just how many times they have been lied to, fooled and deceived, tactics such as this will become worthless. Even in this case, Obama may be making a boneheaded move that could very well backfire on him, and the Democrat party.