U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday confirmed the presence of explosive material in two packages mailed to Jewish synagogues in Chicago from Yemen and Dubai.
In a hastily arranged press conference, Obama said suspicious packages found on board UPS and FedEx cargo planes were a “credible terrorist threat” against the American people.
British investigators found an ink toner cartridge that had been “manipulated” to look like a bomb on board a UPS cargo plane when it stopped in London on Thursday.
Tests on the cartridge were negative for explosives, leading some to speculate that this may have been a dry run by al Qaeda — or an attempt to distract the media from focusing on the predicted Democratic losses during the midterm elections in the U.S.
U.S. President Obama was advised of the terrorist threats late Thursday.
CNN and CBS says there may be a dozen more suspicious packages bound for the U.S.
A Joint Terrorism Task Force source tells CBS News that investigators are looking for between 10-20 packages shipped out of the UPS office in Sanna, Yemen during the same time frame.
In case it wasn’t obvious, the initial investigations resulted from a tip, not routine security processing, according to CNN [link]
UPS has grounded all cargo planes in the U.S., and both UPS and FedEx have suspended service from Yemen to the U.S.
Locally, security has been stepped up at Hartsfield Airport.
Photo: Reuters
