Explosives Bound For U.S. Bear "Hallmarks of Al Qaeda"

Yesterday, suspicious Chicago-bound packages intercepted in the UK and Dubai triggered a concerns over UPS packages on flights at Newark and Philadelphia International Airports, as well as on a UPS truck in Brooklyn, and even prompted a military fighter jet escort for a commercial Emirates flights landing at JFK Airport. It turns out that the packages, mailed from Yemen and headed to Chicago synagogues (including one across the street from President Obama's home in the Windy City), tested positive for explosives. Obama called it a "credible terrorism threat," as other officials said it may very well have been a test run for a bomb plot.

Today, the NY Times reports that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as well as police in Dubai "confirmed that the bomb discovered in [Dubai] in cargo from Yemen bound for the United States contained the explosive PETN, the same chemical explosive in the bomb sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit last Dec. 25. That plot, too, was hatched in Yemen, a country that is regarded as one of the most significant fronts in the battle with extremists." This morning, a Yemen official said that as many as 26 packages were sought for investigation. Yemen is also where wanted Al Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki is in hiding.

Napolitano also said the plot "has the hallmarks of Al Qaeda... The investigation is ongoing and just as we have an adversary who keeps pushing the system, trying to conduct a plot, we are ourselves continuing to make sure we get to the source of this and make sure that we take care of this problem." Saudi Arabia was credited for tipping off the U.S. to the threat.

The packages in the UPS truck at MetroTech in downtown Brooklyn were, the Daily News reports, "later found to be envelopes from Yemen." The items "temporarily shut down the Manhattan Bridge and part of Flatbush Ave," but they "were cleared after an NYPD X-ray of the envelopes revealed they simply contained bank receipts and other papers."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 30, 2010 10:32 AM

Comments [rss]

dgeee

Sounds like a false flag operation to influence the elections. It worked for Bush...

Holsum Pan

I haven't been on this site in a while. Looks like Gothamist has a new Troll named Paula. Paula needs to be IGNORED. People, stop FEEDING the Troll and the Troll will go away.

S.D.

No, no, Not a troll, she's just batshit crazy...

exnyer

Sounds to me like you need a Full Frontal Lobotomy only then will you be able to digest a different pov.

PaulaNYC

I'm a "troll" because I don't follow the normal Obama Zombie "Hope...Change...Hope...Change" nonsense?

Typical Liberal...Diversity in Everything...except opinion.

handsomedevil

I'm a "troll" because I don't follow the normal Obama Zombie "Hope...Change...Hope...Change" nonsense?

You hate your President so much, why don't you just move?

Tony

The most ‘terrifying’ thing thus far is the almost religious un-shakeable belief in our current system, by all parties involved, everyone fervently commenting. British PM David Cameron said: ‘In the end these terrorists think that our interconnectedness, our openness as modern countries is what makes us weak.

‘They are wrong – it is a source of our strength, and we will use that strength, that determination, that power and that solidarity to defeat them.’

No word on whether ‘defeating them’ is going to involve another ten years of military action, but we can all agree the rhetoric of a call to arms is always frightening, just as it’s intended to be. Thank goodness we’re working ourselves into a fury and continually increasing international security.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/10/first-suspicious-package-arrest-in-yemen-al-qaeda-said-to-be-responsible/

OSN!

I got your suspicious package right here!

potsmoker

they showed THEY LIVE on the boob tube today.

classic. watch it, we are ASLEEP.

we keep falling for the propaganda...

dadoc

Oh, yeah, if I'm Al Quaeda, I'm gonna send Toner cartridge bombs with cellphone dets from Yemen via UPS to synagogues in Chicago. Like I couldn't call my cousin on Atlantic Avenue or in Detroit and ask him to pay cash at Staples, load 'em up, fake some return address labels, send USPS Priority Mail flat rate with box-lid triggers? And what recipient at a synagogue is gonna open and unsolicited, unknown sender UPS package from friggin Yemen? Something about this whole media event stinks, and I smell bacon, not hummus.

handsomedevil

Nah. You are assuming that the dude in Yemen HAS a relative in the US, and/or a sophisticated understanding of how a Jewish center would respond to an unsolicited package. Neither is necessarily the case.

Occam's razor, dude. Maybe it just is what it looks like, a half-assed attempt to stir the pot.

dadoc

Yeah, it is a half-assed attempt at something. But by who? :)

PaulaNYC

You hate your country so much, why don't you move somewhere else?

handsomedevil

You hate your country so much, why don't you move somewhere else?

Haha, political correctness. Only one way of thinking is acceptable! It's intellectual fascism! Wheeeeeeeee.

(Never mind that you don't understand dadoc at all.)

dadoc

Don't hate it at all, and really don't hate at all. Born here, still here, try to do right by what it's supposed to be. have a nice day, and try not to blow an aneurysm :)

darkdrseuss

Anyone ever see the movie "Wag the Dog"? Just a thought, seeing nov 2 is around the corner...

handsomedevil

Actually, Al Quaeda has tried to influence prior elections by issuing threats etc. To me it's more plausible that they intentionally did this during election time instead of some domestic agent creating fake attacks.

(I'm not saying a false flag attack is impossible, of course, since the anthrax thing was probably domestic. But even then you have to ask who did it and why - could be either "side.")

manuelmontalvo

i think youre right, muslim terrorists are very likely to try and "wag the dog" (especially around the 2012 election). im surprised they are not more effective with their efforts.

manuelmontalvo

killing a few ups pilots and dispersing some mail into the atlantic ocean cant be the goal. is this an attempt to drag us into a yemen war? a dry run for something different (like a similar attack on a passenger plane)?

handsomedevil

Who says it was a dry run? Maybe the intention was to actually have these packages delivered to Jewish centers in Chicago, thus creating a panic and influencing the election.