News Saturday, October 30, 2010
6
Yemeni Police Arrest Female Suspect in Package Explosive Plot

MORE FROM BUSINESSWEEK
Holocaust Crimes by German Diplomats Are Exposed in New Study
Local Governments Need 5 Years for Revenue Recovery
Nobel Winner Pissarides Says U.S. Economy Risks ‘Lost Decade’
Record Crop Cooling Food Inflation Lures Nomura: India Credit
Blackstone Third-Quarter Profit Rises on Real Estate
STORY TOOLS
e-mail this storyprint this story
1diggadd to Business ExchangeBy Mohammed Hatem Hasan Ali and Mourad Haroutunian
Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Yemeni security forces arrested a woman suspected of attempting to send two parcel bombs to the U.S. via air-cargo services, the nation’s defense ministry said.

The woman, who wasn’t identified, was taken into custody at her home in Sana’a, the capital, the ministry said in a mobile phone text message yesterday. The local NewsYemen website reported the woman is a university student and was arrested at the house along with her mother.

As police surrounded the house, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference to announce the expected arrest and to declare he wouldn’t accept any outside attempt to deal with al-Qaeda operatives in the country.

“We will not accept any intervention in our internal affairs,” Saleh said. “We do not want anybody to hunt down al- Qaeda, for we will chase down al-Qaeda wherever they are, using our own planes and equipment.”

The arrest came as officials in the U.S. and the Middle East linked the attempted bombings to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist organization.

Dubai police said a parcel from Yemen intercepted and defused at a FedEx Corp. facility in Dubai Oct. 29 was similar to an al-Qaeda bomb, Dubai police said.

The parcel included a computer printer with explosive materials hidden inside the ink cartridge and an electric circuit connected to a mobile phone’s SIM card, the emirate’s official WAM news agency said, citing a statement from Dubai police.

“The targeting manner carries characteristics similar to methods previously carried out by terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda,” the statement said.

Qatar Airways Flight

The package originated on a Qatar Airways passenger flight from Yemen, Akbar Al Baker, the airline’s chief executive officer, said in an interview yesterday.

The package seized in Dubai and another containing explosives that was intercepted in the U.K. were both being shipped from Yemen to synagogues in Chicago, President Barack Obama said Oct. 29. The parcels represented a “credible terrorist threat,” Obama said.

One of the packages was set to be detonated by a cell phone and the other by a timer, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Authorities don’t rule out other potentially lethal packages having been shipped and so far not detected, the person said.

Al-Qaeda Hallmarks

Investigators are looking at whether the shipments were staged as rehearsals for a future attack, said a U.S. official who requested anonymity. The “plot does have the hallmarks” of an attack by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on the CBS “Early Show” yesterday.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said yesterday steps will be taken to stop all unaccompanied cargo entering the U.K. from Yemen after interception of a device at East Midlands Airport the previous day. The package seized was viable and could have exploded on board an aircraft, she said.

May said the U.K. threat level was at “severe,” though there was no indication “that another attack is imminent.”

More Packages Sought

Authorities in Yemen were searching for more packages yesterday and had examined 24 suspect parcels in Sana’a, the Associated Press reported, citing a Yemeni security official.

The Oct. 29 discoveries triggered examinations of three air-cargo flights that landed in Philadelphia and in Newark, New Jersey.

Authorities are trying to “understand who is behind” the explosives and “the scope of the threat that we might face,” John Brennan, Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, said at an Oct. 29 briefing at the White House. Brennan said authorities are conducting a forensic analysis and examining intelligence that might indicate “how this was going to be used.”

Additional steps are being taken to screen cargo, Obama said in remarks at the White House. Brennan said it is “prudent” to ensure that packages from Yemen are “looked at very carefully, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

The incident spurred United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx to put an embargo on shipments from Yemen. The U.S. Postal Service also suspended acceptance of international mail originating in Yemen.

‘Credible’ Threat

Obama said he and his top intelligence aides concluded that there was “a credible terrorist threat against our country” and pledged to “destroy this al-Qaeda affiliate” based in Yemen. The president spoke yesterday about the plot with British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to a White House statement.

Brennan notified Obama about the potential threat at 10:35 p.m. on Oct. 28, setting in motion a response that included the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration, Gibbs said.

Yemen also figured in the U.S. inquiry on the last major security threat on a U.S. jetliner, the attempted bombing of a Delta Air Lines Inc. plane on Dec. 25. Obama told reporters in January that evidence indicates that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was trained and equipped by a Yemeni group affiliated with al-Qaeda.

Explosive PETN

Abdulmutallab was accused in a Jan. 6 indictment of trying to detonate a bomb hidden under his clothing that contained the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN. The explosive in the packages seized “appears to be” PETN, Napolitano said in an interview on CNN.

Checks for explosives are required for all 4.2 billion pounds of freight shipped on passenger planes annually within the U.S., plus goods on flights headed for international destinations, under a U.S. rule that took effect in August.

Air-freight carriers, which have raised concerns about security measures adding to costs, don’t have the same restrictions imposed on passenger airlines, which have all their cargo screened.

All air-cargo employees go through background checks, and cargo-storage facilities must have security so no one without clearance has access to the packages. Freight companies also must supply information to U.S. authorities about their cargo before it arrives.

UPS, the world’s largest package-delivery company, screens shipments that will be carried on passenger jets, although it doesn’t have to screen cargo on its own planes, according to information on the company’s website.

The Department of Homeland Security said it was boosting security at airports, including more thorough screening of cargo.

“Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams and pat downs,” the department said in a statement.

--With assistance from Mike Harrison in London, Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta, Mike Tackett, Roger Runningen, Justin Blum, Hans Nichols, Jeff Bliss and Joe Sobczyk in Washington, Rob Tuttle in Doha, Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai, and Chris Dolmetsch and Patricia Hurtado in New York. Editors: Mark Rohner, Ann Hughey

To contact the reporters on this story: Mourad Haroutunian at mharoutunian@bloomberg.net Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.ne
 

Source: