Obama: Two explosives on US-bound cargo planes for Chicago synagogues DEBKAfile Special Report October 29, 2010, 10:53 PM (GMT+02:00)
Device found at East Midlands, UK, airportPresident Barack Obama, in a special statement Saturday, Oct. 29, dismissed speculation of an Al Qaeda dry run and disclosed "a credible terrorist threat to the United States" by means of two packages containing explosives originating with al Qaeda in Yemen and planted on UPS and Fedex cargo flights bound for the US. Obama disclosed that two Jewish places of worship in Chicago were among the targets of the package plot.
The threat to the US and its allies is still in force, the US president warned. He stressed the importance of cooperating with the Yemeni government to destroy Al Qaeda.
Security agencies on three continents went on high terror alert after being tipped off by allied intelligence that explosive packages had been addressed to the White House and Chicago synagogues from Yemen. The first suspect package, a photocopier ink cartridge rigged with wires and white powder, was found on a Chicago-bound UPS flight from Yemen at the British East Midlands airport. The second was confiscated at the Fedex facility at Dubai airport.
US authorities are unclear how the explosive substances were to have been detonated. Much still remains to be investigated.
debkafile reported earlier:
The tipoff by an allied intelligence service of an air cargo terror plot reached Washington Thursday night, Oct. 28. After that US, British, French, German and Gulf counter-terror and aviation security agencies went into round-the-clock mode. Saturday, they decided to quarantine three cargo flights at Philadelphia and Newark, NJ, international airports for intensive sweeps of freights from Yemen.
The Chicago Jewish Federation was warned to be extra careful because some of the suspect parcels containing black power were addressed to local synagogues.
Security measures were tightened at all US airports for passengers as well as freight and the public was advised to be extra vigilant. As confusion mounted over the nature of the "attack", dozens of alarms were phoned in during the day from different parts of America. They included sightings of two UPS pick-trucks in Queens and Brooklyn, an unaccompanied bag on a street bench which caused part of San Francisco's financial district to be temporarily evacuated and a backpack in bushes outside a courthouse in Portland, Maine.
A special new counter-terror center was established in the UK with labs for screening suspicious articles.
debkafile's counter-terror sources report three theories current about the motives behind the air mail plot:
1. The small number of suspect packages - apparently less than the fingers of one hand - was used to probe the intercontinental aviation security systems for cargo planes and airports handling freights to the United States preparatory to a major attack.
2. The imposition of heightened security for air cargo comparable to that applied to passenger traffic would throw the mail industry into chaos, causing extreme financial losses and disrupting an important branch of the Western economy.
3. Getting one of the suspect packages delivered at the White House in Washington would have given al Qaeda a tremendous propaganda boost -
especially in the run-up midterm congressional elections.
