France: One Of US-Bound Mail Bombs Was About To Explode

At JFK Airport last night (WABC 7)

Last night, the DHL cargo facility at JFK Airport was evacuated due to a suspicious package. The package, which had a cellphone and paperwork, was ultimately deemed safe, but the episode signaled how worried authorities are in the wake of last week's mail bombs, which were sent from Yemen and intercepted in the U.K. and Dubai. Now, France's interior minister claims one of the bombs was defused 17 minutes before it was set to explode.

The Daily News reports, "Brice Hortefeux declined to reveal where he got the information from, which bomb it was, or where it could have potentially exploded, during an interview with the country's state-run channel, France-2 Televison." The packages, which contained printer parts as well as the explosive PETN, are believed to be the work of Al Qaeda operatives, specifically Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, in Yemen.

The packages, shipped by UPS and FedEx, were addressed to synagogues in Chicago, but experts say they were designed to explode mid-air. One of the bombs also traveled on two passenger flights.

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By Jen Chung in News on November 4, 2010 8:45 AM

Comments [rss]

ianmac47

Passenger airlines have found shipping cargo in the luggage compartment of their planes a quick way to add profit to a flight. The result over the last few years has been to add fees for checked luggage--thus discouraging passengers from bringing bags to place in the luggage hold and free up more space for cargo. This is all the fault of airlines looking to squeeze a few extra pennies out of their transcontinental flights; if cargo wasn't being carried in passenger planes, it would not be possible to drop a bomb at Fedex and potentially kill several hundred people in flight.

Checked baggage fees = Terrorism.

PTG in nyc

Yea, airlines shouldn't be allowed to use the extra cargo space in their planes to fill it with actual stuff that companies are willing to pay them to do. That's just plain silly of them to try and make money.

If you had it your way, the price of an airline ticket would go up, you know because companies pay to use the cargo space, which generates revenue besides that which it makes off its customers.

Nyctini11

This isn't about a passenger flight though, at least the last time i checked i couldn't get a reservation on DHL or Fed-ex flights.

Politburo

I guess you missed the last sentence. Freight companies do not always use their own equipment.

Politburo

Now, France's interior minister claims one of the bombs was detonated 17 minutes before it was set to explode.
Presumably detonated should read defused.

Please proofread. It only takes a minute or two.