Authorities Believe Immediate Threat Contained, But Warn More Attacks Coming
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, PIERRE THOMAS, RHONDA SCHWARTZ, JACK CLOHERTY, JIM SCIUTTO and BARBARA PINTO
Al Qaeda Bombs From Yemen Were Bound For Chicago Synagogues
U.S. authorities are cautiously confident that they have contained the imrmediate terror threat by stopping two explosive packages bound for the U.S., but say that Americans should expect more terror attempts from Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Good Morning America that “we always presume” more attempts are coming. “We are always leaning forward and thinking about what the next plot could be,” said Napolitano, “and how we go after this relentless enemy.”
Napolitano also said that the devices intercepted, which originated in Yemen, do bear the “hallmarks of al Qaeda, particularly al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” the terror group’s Yemen-based affiliate.
A FedEx package intercepted in Dubai and a UPS package stopped in England were both constructed out of close to a pound of explosive powder hidden inside the toner cartridges of printers. Dubai authorities said Saturday the explosive powder in the FedEx parcel was PETN. PETN is the same material that was used in the failed Christmas day bombing of Northwest flight 253, but the amounts discovered in the devices in Dubai and England were seven or eight times greater.
Follow @IntelHub“The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden in the printer,” said a Dubai police statement. “The tactic carries the hallmarks of methods used previously by terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda.”
Maybe since Al Quaeda is a figment of HS’s imagination, they can stop this “barrage” of attacks. Sorry, that was not very nice for me to say.