Cargo planes bomb plot
Encyclopedia
On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 g (10.6 to 14.1 oz) of plastic explosive
s and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia
's security chief. They were bound from Yemen
to the United States, and were discovered at en route stop-overs, one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai
in the United Arab Emirates
.
One week later, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP) took responsibility for the plot, and for the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6
. U.S. and British authorities had believed that AQAP, and specifically Anwar al-Awlaki
, were behind the bombing attempts. They also believed the bombs were most likely constructed by AQAP's main explosives expert, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri.
According to the USA and the UK, the bombs were probably designed to detonate mid-air, with the intention of destroying both planes over Chicago or another city in the U.S. Each bomb had already been transported on both passenger and cargo planes.
, the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and former Central Intelligence Agency
station chief in Riyadh
, Saudi Arabia, to warn him of the plot. The Saudis provided the U.S. and Germany with the tracking numbers and addressees of the two packages, and told them to look for toner cartridge
s. The packages had been dropped off by a woman at FedEx and UPS offices in Sana'a
, Yemen, on October 27, and were slated to arrive in Chicago, Illinois
, on November 1.
Saudi Arabia had reportedly learned of the plot through Jaber al-Faifi
, a former Guantánamo Bay detention camp inmate who had been handed over to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation
in 2006. Al-Faifi escaped in 2008, and re-joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but on October 16, 2010, turned himself in to Saudi Arabia and provided it with information. Yemen officials suspected al-Faifi had actually been a double agent
for Saudi Arabia ever since he rejoined al-Qaeda. Security professionals said the Saudi tip appeared to be based on far more recent, specific, up-to-the-minute intelligence than al-Faifi could provide, and that a Saudi double agent in AQAP was the source of the tip-off.
has a hub. There, it was switched to UPS Flight 232, a Boeing 767
cargo plane bound for East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire
. From there, it was to fly on to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, and then on to O'Hare International Airport
in Chicago.
On October 29, 2010, the UPS plane landed at East Midlands Airport at 2:13 AM local time. British authorities had been alerted to the existence of the bomb, and British military and police explosives experts waiting for the plane conducted an initial search of the plane's cargo in the airport's UPS parcels distribution depot. Officers from the Scotland Yard
Counter Terrorism Command joined them.
Searching with explosives detection equipment and sniffer dogs, they failed to find any explosives. When U.S. authorities provided the precise tracking number of the package, the printer was scanned, x-rayed, subjected to chemical swabs, and sniffed by bomb-detecting dogs. Still, no explosives were detected and it was cleared. Removing the suspect package for further examination, at 4:20 AM local time the authorities allowed the UPS plane to proceed to Philadelphia.
Later forensic examination indicated that the bomb was inadvertently "disrupted" and deactivated when Scotland Yard explosive officers separated and removed the printer cartridge from the printer during their examination at about 7:40 am. The deactivation occurred approximately three hours before the bomb was due to explode. The officers did not realize at the time that they had defused a live bomb.
At 10 am the British gave the all-clear, and removed safety cordons from the airport. A later forensic examination indicated that if the device had not been disrupted, it would have detonated at 10:30 AM (5:30 AM Eastern time).
British officials continued to believe that there were not any explosives in the package. U.S. authorities insisted that the package be inspected again. British authorities then consulted with officials in Dubai, who had discovered their bomb in a computer printer cartridge, and MI6 spoke with the source of the Saudi Arabian tip-off. Scotland Yard explosives officers flew the printer and the cartridge in a police helicopter to a government laboratory outside London, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Fort Halstead
, and subsequently discovered the bomb in a final search, at around 2 PM.
Qatar Airways
said that the package with the second bomb had been carried on two of its commercial passenger jets.
The first passenger jet was a 144-seat Airbus A320
. It flew from Sana'a, Yemen, to Doha International Airport
in Doha
, Qatar
, on October 28. The second passenger plane was an Airbus A321, or a Boeing 777
, flying from Doha to Dubai. Depending on the type of aircraft used for the second flight, its seating capacity was anywhere from 144 to 335.
On October 29, at around 9 am GMT, the second package was discovered on a FedEx Express plane at the FedEx depot at the Dubai airport. The FedEx plane had been slated to fly onward to Newark Liberty International Airport
in Newark, New Jersey
, and then on to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
, an LGBT
synagogue
, at a Unitarian church on Barry Avenue in Lakeview, and the other had been sent to an inactive Orthodox synagogue formerly on Pratt Avenue in East Rogers Park. Simon Calder
observed in The Independent
:
The packages were addressed to specific individual names at the addresses—the names of historical figures from the Spanish Inquisition
and the Crusades
. One package was addressed to Diego Deza
, the name of a Grand Inquisitor
during the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500s. The other package was addressed to Reynald Krak, a name for Raynald of Châtillon
, a French knight of the Second Crusade
who was beheaded in 1187 by the Kurdish Muslim Sultan Saladin
, who defeated Christian Western invaders in the 12th century.
Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation
said the choice of historic enemies as addressees was an inside joke, reflecting al-Qaeda's view of history. He said: “The jihadis ... narrative is that non-Muslims are always on the attack, always trying to take Muslim lands. The jihadis like the narrative, because it justifies violence, since they claim that they’re only defending Islam.” He added that there was an element of taunting the West, as there may have been in including a picture of Chicago’s skyline with the nation's tallest building, Willis Tower, front and center in the latest edition of Inspire, AQAP's new English-language magazine. That mirrored Osama bin Laden’s decision to pose in 1998 in front of a map of East Africa, where al-Qaeda operatives were about to bomb two U.S. embassies
. "I don't dismiss anything as a coincidence," said and who trains law enforcement agencies on counterterrorism. "These guys (al-Qaida) are professionals." Sam Kharoba, founder of the Counter Terrorism Operations Center, said: "Historically they go after iconic targets. The Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) is one of those."
U.S. and U.K. officials believe the planes, and not the addressees, were the targets.
HP LaserJet P2055 desktop laser printer
. Inside each printer was a sophisticated, expertly constructed bomb in its toner cartridge, which was filled with explosives.
The toner cartridges were filled with the odorless military grade plastic explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a white powder that is one of the most powerful explosives known. The bomb found in England contained 400 grams (14.1 oz) of PETN, five times the amount needed to level a house. The one found in Dubai contained 300 grams (10.6 oz) of PETN.
By comparison, the bomb in the terrorist suspect's underwear in the attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing contained only about 80 grams (2.8 oz) of PETN. Hans Michels, professor of safety engineering
at University College London
, said that just 6 grams (0.2 oz) of PETN—around 50 times less than was used—would be enough to blow a hole in a metal plate twice the thickness of an aircraft's skin. The PETN was of "an extremely high concentration", according to British criminal investigators, and its manufacturers would require "logistics that only state facilities should have access to," according to German investigators, who sent a team to England.
Each bomb also consisted of cell phone circuitry with an alarm timer, a phone battery, a thin wire filament, and a syringe filled with lead azide. PETN and a syringe were also both used in the failed 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot.
The package intercepted in Dubai was shipped in a cardboard box that also contained souvenirs, clothes, compact discs, and several books written in English. The device's wiring indicated that it was done by professionals as it was set up so that, if subjected to x-ray
security scanning, all the printer components would appear to be correct.
Features not relevant to the alarm timer function, such as the screen faces
, had been removed, resulting in batteries that might have been able to last three to four days. The device was reported to carry markings resembling a Bird
D736 cell phone.
The bomb found in England is being inspected at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Fort Halstead
in Kent
. U.S. analysts are carrying out forensic tests on the other bomb, in the United Arab Emirates.
The bombs' detonator
s were the alarm timers on cell phone circuitry that was discovered in the two bombs. Each bomb had a cell phone alarm that had been set, which was constructed to trigger power from a phone battery. That would in turn send an electrical current through, and heat, a thin wire filament, similar to those in lightbulbs. The wire filament, from a broken light-emitting diode
, was in a plastic medical syringe
that contained 5 gram (0.17636981052556 oz) of lead azide, a powerful chemical initiator
. Once hot, the lead azide would ignite. That would then cause the PETN to detonate, in turn.
There had initially been speculation that the bombs might be detonated by receipt of a telephone call or text message, but the SIM cards necessary to receive calls had been removed, rendering the phones unable to receive any communication, but increasing battery life. Brennan said that the bombs "were able to be detonated at a time of the terrorists' choosing", and "did not need someone to actually physically detonate them."
Mid-air capability
British Prime Minister David Cameron
and officials in the U.S. believe that the bombs were designed to detonate as the planes were in flight, destroying the planes carrying the bombs in mid-air. Britain's Home Secretary
, Theresa May
, said British investigators concluded the U.K. device was “viable and could have exploded”, and that had the device detonated, "the aircraft could have been brought down”, and investigators said the explosion would have caused a "supersonic
blast". Brennan also said that the bombs were each powerful enough to bring down a plane. They would have been as capable of destroying the planes as the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103
over Lockerbie
in 1988, killing 270 people.
Cargo vs. passenger planes
Brennan said it was not clear whether those attempting the bombing had known, or could have known, whether the packages would be carried on cargo or passenger planes. Because there are not any scheduled cargo flights out of Yemen, it was likely the terrorists knew the bombs would be loaded onto passenger planes for at least part of the journey. In addition, most freight to the U.S. is carried on passenger flights. In any event, James Halstead, a consultant with Aviation Economics, said "In a worst case, it would stop world trade. UPS and FedEx would probably go bust. We'd have a full-disaster scenario."
Timing and location
U.S. officials said that an analysis of the cellphone circuitry in the bombs suggested that the intent was to delay their mid-air detonations until U.S.-bound planes carrying them were close to landing in the U.S.
On November 10, a Scotland Yard spokesman said that forensic examination indicated that if the device discovered in England had not been disrupted and removed and the plane had proceeded onward, it would have detonated at 10:30 am BST [5:30 AM Eastern time] and could have occurred over the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
" The UPS plane entered U.S. airspace by flying over New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Shipping times cannot be predicted accurately. But cargo industry sources said it would have been possible for the terrorists, using earlier deliveries as a guide, to narrow down a time window to a few hours.
, said: "It is evident that had we not had the intelligence, our security countermeasures would not have identified these improvised explosive devices." PETN is difficult to detect because it has a very low vapor pressure
at room temperature, meaning very little of it gets into the air around the bomb, where it can be detected.
Qatar Airways said that "the explosives discovered [that it had carried] were of a sophisticated nature whereby they could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs", and were only discovered after the intelligence tip-off.
Both parcels were x-rayed in Sana'a, and the one in Dubai was x-rayed there, without the bombs being spotted. The Bundeskriminalamt
(BKA; the German Federal Criminal Police Office) received copies of the Dubai x-rays, and one BKA investigator said that German security staff would not have identified the bomb either. When X-rayed, the PETN would resemble the cartridge's ink powder. The timers that were used would have looked like part of the printers’ electronics.
, by English novelist George Eliot
, a woman who wrote under an assumed identity
. The packages were permitted to continue on to what appeared to be “random addresses” in Chicago.
After the attempted attack in October, authorities believed that the September parcels may have been a test run for the attack. Package delivery firms such as UPS send minute-by-minute shipment location information to customers by e-mail or phone, when a package is dispatched and every time the package is scanned. The locations of the packages shipped in September could have been tracked by the senders on the shippers’ websites, and may have been used by the plotters to later plan the detonation timing for the two bombs. That would have allowed them to estimate when planes carrying the bombs would be over Chicago or another city, and conceivably enable them to set timers on the two bombs to trigger explosions where they would cause the greatest damage. Richard Clarke
, former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council
, said: "The dry run
is always important to Al-Qaeda. In this case they wanted to follow the packages using the tracking system."
took responsibility for the plot. It posted its acceptance of responsibility on a number of radical Islamist websites monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group
and the NEFA Foundation, and wrote: "We will continue to strike blows against American interests and the interest of America's allies." The statement continued: "since both operations were successful, we intend to spread the idea to our mujahedeen brothers in the world and enlarge the circle of its application to include civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft."
The U.S. and U.K. had suspected it was behind the attack. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano
, British Home Secretary Theresa May, and Dubai police had all noted that these types of explosives are "hallmarks" of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
It also claimed responsibility for the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6
, a Boeing 747-400
cargo plane, in Dubai on September 3, in which both pilots were killed. U.S. and United Arab Emirates investigators had said they had not found any evidence of an explosion or terrorist involvement in that incident. They were skeptical about the September crash claim, and suggested that it was probably an attempt by AQAP to claim responsibility where it had not played any role, in order to falsely bolster its image. On September 10, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said AQAP's claim that it was involved in the September UPS plane crash was false.
On November 21, AQAP provided a detailed account of the plot (which it called "Operation Hemorrhage") in its English-language magazine Inspire, said that it cost only $4,200 to mount and was intended to disrupt global air cargo systems, and said it reflected a new strategy of low-cost attacks designed to inflict broad economic damage. The magazine included photos of the printers and bombs, as well as a copy of the novel Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
that it said it had placed in one package, because AQAP was “very optimistic” about the operation’s success.
reported that unnamed U.S. counter-terrorism officials suspected that Anwar al-Awlaki of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was behind the plot. In addition, when Brennan was asked about al-Awlaki's suspected involvement in the plot, he said: "Anybody associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a subject of concern." The New York Times
reported that "some analysts believe the [attempted Chicago bombing] may also be linked to Mr. Awlaki". The Daily Telegraph
reported that "U.S. and British security officials believe" al-Awlaki was behind the attack. U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein said "al-Awlaki was behind the two ... bombs."
President Obama had previously put al-Awlaki on a targeted killing
list. The American Civil Liberties Union
and the Center for Constitutional Rights
have sued, seeking to have a U.S. federal court prevent the U.S. government from carrying out the targeted killing of al-Awlaki in Yemen. Al-Awlaki has also been linked to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
, the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing
, and the failed 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
, as well as other terrorist incidents. Al-Awlaki was later killed in a targeted killing, in September 2011.
, the Nigerian who attempted to ignite the Christmas Day bomb on a plane in 2009. One of the detonators was nearly precisely the same as the one used in the Christmas Day attack.
Al-Asiri had previously recruited his younger brother as a suicide bomber. His brother tried to kill Prince Nayef in 2008, using a 1-pound (454 gram) PETN bomb that al-Asri had hidden in his brother's rectum
. The brother approached the Prince and detonated the bomb, dying in the attempt as he blew himself up. Nayef survived with minor injuries.
, and mailed the packages in the student's name. The student and her mother are no longer suspects.
and his administration reacted quickly to the incident, making public statements that it was a "credible threat". A New York Times opinion piece suggested that the quick response would be well received politically for the 2010 U.S. elections
.
The U.K., the U.S., Germany, France, and Belgium stopped accepting freight package cargo shipments from Yemen, and the Netherlands and Canada suspended all cargo flights from Yemen. Germany also suspended passenger flights from Yemen until November 15. In addition, Britain and the U.S. stopped accepting air cargo from Somalia, and prohibited passengers from carrying certain printer cartridges on flights. Sweden advised its citizens to refrain from all travel to Yemen until further notice.
Also, FedEx, UPS, and Mideast-based shipper Aramex
suspended their shipping operations in Yemen. The Middle East's biggest airline Emirates and Sharjah-based Air Arabia
stopped carrying cargo from Yemen, and Abu Dhabi
-based Etihad Airways
stopped carrying cargo from Yemen and Somalia.
The U.S. increased air passenger screenings, and expanded a new, more thorough pat-down search procedure for airline passengers. Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), complained saying "Americans now must choose between a virtual strip search and a grope", but declined to say whether the ACLU would file a legal challenge to the new procedure.
in Sana'a, Yemen, in an unrelated matter on November 2 with plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda. Prosecutor Ali al-Saneaa announced the charges against al-Awlaki as part of a trial against another man, Hisham Assem, who had been accused of killing a Frenchman. On November 6, Yemeni Judge Mohsen Alwan ordered that al-Awlaki be caught dead or alive.
Separately, Home Secretary May said on November 3 that an associate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was in touch with al-Awlaki, had been arrested earlier in 2010 for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on passenger planes in Britain.
Plastic explosive
Plastic explosive is a specialised form of explosive material. It is a soft and hand moldable solid material. Plastic explosives are properly known as putty explosives within the field of explosives engineering....
s and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
's security chief. They were bound from Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
to the United States, and were discovered at en route stop-overs, one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
.
One week later, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It was named for al-Qaeda, and says it is subordinate to that group and its now-deceased leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen...
(AQAP) took responsibility for the plot, and for the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6
UPS Airlines Flight 6
UPS Airlines Flight 6 was a cargo flight operated by UPS Airlines. On 3 September 2010, a Boeing 747-400 flying the route between Dubai International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport crashed close to Dubai airport, killing the two crew members. The aircraft had departed Dubai International...
. U.S. and British authorities had believed that AQAP, and specifically Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
, were behind the bombing attempts. They also believed the bombs were most likely constructed by AQAP's main explosives expert, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri.
According to the USA and the UK, the bombs were probably designed to detonate mid-air, with the intention of destroying both planes over Chicago or another city in the U.S. Each bomb had already been transported on both passenger and cargo planes.
Locating the bombs
On October 28, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister in charge of Counter-terrorism, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, called John BrennanJohn O. Brennan
John O. Brennan is chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama; officially his title is Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President...
, the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and former Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
station chief in Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
, Saudi Arabia, to warn him of the plot. The Saudis provided the U.S. and Germany with the tracking numbers and addressees of the two packages, and told them to look for toner cartridge
Toner cartridge
A toner cartridge, also called laser toner, is the consumable component of a laser printer. Toner cartridges contain toner powder, a fine, dry mixture of plastic particles, carbon, and black or other coloring agents that make the actual image on the paper...
s. The packages had been dropped off by a woman at FedEx and UPS offices in Sana'a
Sana'a
-Districts:*Al Wahdah District*As Sabain District*Assafi'yah District*At Tahrir District*Ath'thaorah District*Az'zal District*Bani Al Harith District*Ma'ain District*Old City District*Shu'aub District-Old City:...
, Yemen, on October 27, and were slated to arrive in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, on November 1.
Saudi Arabia had reportedly learned of the plot through Jaber al-Faifi
Jabir Jubran Al Fayfi
-First annual Administrative Review Board:A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared forJabri Jabran Al Fayfi'sfirst annualAdministrative Review Board,on December 3, 2004.The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention....
, a former Guantánamo Bay detention camp inmate who had been handed over to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation
Care Rehabilitation Center
The Care Rehabilitation Center is a facility in Saudi Arabia intended to re-integrate former jihadists into the mainstream of Saudi culture.The center is located in a former resort complex, complete with swimming pools, and other recreational facilities, outside Riyadh.According to Peter Taylor,...
in 2006. Al-Faifi escaped in 2008, and re-joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but on October 16, 2010, turned himself in to Saudi Arabia and provided it with information. Yemen officials suspected al-Faifi had actually been a double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
for Saudi Arabia ever since he rejoined al-Qaeda. Security professionals said the Saudi tip appeared to be based on far more recent, specific, up-to-the-minute intelligence than al-Faifi could provide, and that a Saudi double agent in AQAP was the source of the tip-off.
England
The first package left Sana'a, Yemen, on a passenger plane, flying to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It then was flown onward on a UPS cargo plane to Cologne/Bonn Airport in Germany, where UPS AirlinesUPS Airlines
UPS Airlines is an American cargo airline owned by United Parcel Service Inc. . The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Its home airport is located at Louisville International Airport...
has a hub. There, it was switched to UPS Flight 232, a Boeing 767
Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail...
cargo plane bound for East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
. From there, it was to fly on to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and then on to O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
in Chicago.
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
Counter Terrorism Command joined them.
Searching with explosives detection equipment and sniffer dogs, they failed to find any explosives. When U.S. authorities provided the precise tracking number of the package, the printer was scanned, x-rayed, subjected to chemical swabs, and sniffed by bomb-detecting dogs. Still, no explosives were detected and it was cleared. Removing the suspect package for further examination, at 4:20 AM local time the authorities allowed the UPS plane to proceed to Philadelphia.
Later forensic examination indicated that the bomb was inadvertently "disrupted" and deactivated when Scotland Yard explosive officers separated and removed the printer cartridge from the printer during their examination at about 7:40 am. The deactivation occurred approximately three hours before the bomb was due to explode. The officers did not realize at the time that they had defused a live bomb.
At 10 am the British gave the all-clear, and removed safety cordons from the airport. A later forensic examination indicated that if the device had not been disrupted, it would have detonated at 10:30 AM (5:30 AM Eastern time).
British officials continued to believe that there were not any explosives in the package. U.S. authorities insisted that the package be inspected again. British authorities then consulted with officials in Dubai, who had discovered their bomb in a computer printer cartridge, and MI6 spoke with the source of the Saudi Arabian tip-off. Scotland Yard explosives officers flew the printer and the cartridge in a police helicopter to a government laboratory outside London, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead is a research site of Dstl, an Executive Agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks...
, and subsequently discovered the bomb in a final search, at around 2 PM.
Dubai
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C. , operating as Qatar Airways, is the flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, it operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 100 international destinations from its base in Doha, using a fleet of over 100 aircraft...
said that the package with the second bomb had been carried on two of its commercial passenger jets.
The first passenger jet was a 144-seat Airbus A320
Airbus A320
The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...
. It flew from Sana'a, Yemen, to Doha International Airport
Doha International Airport
Doha International Airport is the only commercial airport in Qatar. It has three mosques, free Wi-Fi, a duty-free area, a few eateries and 42 parking bays for aircraft. There are also 60 check-in gates, 8 baggage claim belts and over 1,000 car parking spaces.The airport suffers from...
in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, on October 28. The second passenger plane was an Airbus A321, or a Boeing 777
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from , depending on model...
, flying from Doha to Dubai. Depending on the type of aircraft used for the second flight, its seating capacity was anywhere from 144 to 335.
On October 29, at around 9 am GMT, the second package was discovered on a FedEx Express plane at the FedEx depot at the Dubai airport. The FedEx plane had been slated to fly onward to Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport , first named Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport within the city limits of both Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States...
in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, and then on to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
Addressees
The packages were addressed to outdated addresses of two Jewish institutions in Chicago. Investigators believe the terrorists used an outdated directory of Chicago Jewish institutions, which is still available on the internet. One package had reportedly been addressed to the former address of Congregation Or ChadashCongregation Or Chadash
-References:*Brody, Jennifer. , j., September 5, 1997.*Byrne, John; Hinkel, Dan. , Chicago Tribune, October 30, 2010.*, Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame website. Accessed November 7, 2010....
, an LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, at a Unitarian church on Barry Avenue in Lakeview, and the other had been sent to an inactive Orthodox synagogue formerly on Pratt Avenue in East Rogers Park. Simon Calder
Simon Calder
Simon Calder , is an English travel writer, currently the senior travel editor for The Independent newspaper.-Biography:...
observed in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
:
Yemen is not a natural provider of office supplies to organisations such as synagogues in the Chicago area. Therefore, you might fondly imagine that the staff in the parcels offices in the capital, Sana'a, might have checked the despatches more closely before allowing them anywhere near an aircraft, cargo or passengers. But they didn't.
The packages were addressed to specific individual names at the addresses—the names of historical figures from the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
and the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. One package was addressed to Diego Deza
Diego Deza
Diego Deza was a theologian and inquisitor of Spain. He was one of the more notable figures in the Spanish Inquisition, and succeeded the notorious Tomás de Torquemada to the post of Grand Inquisitor.-Early life:...
, the name of a Grand Inquisitor
Grand Inquisitor
Grand Inquisitor is the lead official of an Inquisition. The most famous Inquisitor General is the Spanish Dominican Tomás de Torquemada, who spearheaded the Spanish Inquisition.-List of Spanish Grand Inquisitors:-Castile:-Aragon:...
during the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500s. The other package was addressed to Reynald Krak, a name for Raynald of Châtillon
Raynald of Chatillon
Raynald of Châtillon was a knight who served in the Second Crusade and remained in the Holy Land after its defeat...
, a French knight of the Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...
who was beheaded in 1187 by the Kurdish Muslim Sultan Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
, who defeated Christian Western invaders in the 12th century.
Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation
New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a non-profit public policy institute and think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind and Walter Russell Mead....
said the choice of historic enemies as addressees was an inside joke, reflecting al-Qaeda's view of history. He said: “The jihadis ... narrative is that non-Muslims are always on the attack, always trying to take Muslim lands. The jihadis like the narrative, because it justifies violence, since they claim that they’re only defending Islam.” He added that there was an element of taunting the West, as there may have been in including a picture of Chicago’s skyline with the nation's tallest building, Willis Tower, front and center in the latest edition of Inspire, AQAP's new English-language magazine. That mirrored Osama bin Laden’s decision to pose in 1998 in front of a map of East Africa, where al-Qaeda operatives were about to bomb two U.S. embassies
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
. "I don't dismiss anything as a coincidence," said and who trains law enforcement agencies on counterterrorism. "These guys (al-Qaida) are professionals." Sam Kharoba, founder of the Counter Terrorism Operations Center, said: "Historically they go after iconic targets. The Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) is one of those."
U.S. and U.K. officials believe the planes, and not the addressees, were the targets.
Contents
Each package contained a Hewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
HP LaserJet P2055 desktop laser printer
Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers , laser printers employ a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced...
. Inside each printer was a sophisticated, expertly constructed bomb in its toner cartridge, which was filled with explosives.
The toner cartridges were filled with the odorless military grade plastic explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a white powder that is one of the most powerful explosives known. The bomb found in England contained 400 grams (14.1 oz) of PETN, five times the amount needed to level a house. The one found in Dubai contained 300 grams (10.6 oz) of PETN.
By comparison, the bomb in the terrorist suspect's underwear in the attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing contained only about 80 grams (2.8 oz) of PETN. Hans Michels, professor of safety engineering
Safety engineering
Safety engineering is an applied science strongly related to systems engineering / industrial engineering and the subset System Safety Engineering...
at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, said that just 6 grams (0.2 oz) of PETN—around 50 times less than was used—would be enough to blow a hole in a metal plate twice the thickness of an aircraft's skin. The PETN was of "an extremely high concentration", according to British criminal investigators, and its manufacturers would require "logistics that only state facilities should have access to," according to German investigators, who sent a team to England.
Each bomb also consisted of cell phone circuitry with an alarm timer, a phone battery, a thin wire filament, and a syringe filled with lead azide. PETN and a syringe were also both used in the failed 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot.
The package intercepted in Dubai was shipped in a cardboard box that also contained souvenirs, clothes, compact discs, and several books written in English. The device's wiring indicated that it was done by professionals as it was set up so that, if subjected to x-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
security scanning, all the printer components would appear to be correct.
Features not relevant to the alarm timer function, such as the screen faces
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
, had been removed, resulting in batteries that might have been able to last three to four days. The device was reported to carry markings resembling a Bird
Ningbo Bird
Ningbo Bird is a Chinese manufacturer of mobile phones.The company was established in 1992 in Fenghua and, in 1997, became China’s largest pager manufacturer. Ningbo Bird started manufacturing mobile phones in 1999. It was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange the next year...
D736 cell phone.
The bomb found in England is being inspected at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead is a research site of Dstl, an Executive Agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. U.S. analysts are carrying out forensic tests on the other bomb, in the United Arab Emirates.
Detonation
DetonatorsThe bombs' detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....
s were the alarm timers on cell phone circuitry that was discovered in the two bombs. Each bomb had a cell phone alarm that had been set, which was constructed to trigger power from a phone battery. That would in turn send an electrical current through, and heat, a thin wire filament, similar to those in lightbulbs. The wire filament, from a broken light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
, was in a plastic medical syringe
Syringe
A syringe is a simple pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
that contained 5 gram (0.17636981052556 oz) of lead azide, a powerful chemical initiator
Pyrotechnic initiator
A pyrotechnic initiator is a device containing a pyrotechnic composition used primarily to ignite other, more difficult-to-ignite materials, e.g. thermites, gas generators, and solid-fuel rockets...
. Once hot, the lead azide would ignite. That would then cause the PETN to detonate, in turn.
There had initially been speculation that the bombs might be detonated by receipt of a telephone call or text message, but the SIM cards necessary to receive calls had been removed, rendering the phones unable to receive any communication, but increasing battery life. Brennan said that the bombs "were able to be detonated at a time of the terrorists' choosing", and "did not need someone to actually physically detonate them."
Mid-air capability
British Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
and officials in the U.S. believe that the bombs were designed to detonate as the planes were in flight, destroying the planes carrying the bombs in mid-air. Britain's Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, Theresa May
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May is a British Conservative politician who is Home Secretary in the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition government. She was elected to Parliament in 1997 as the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead, and served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party, 2003–04...
, said British investigators concluded the U.K. device was “viable and could have exploded”, and that had the device detonated, "the aircraft could have been brought down”, and investigators said the explosion would have caused a "supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
blast". Brennan also said that the bombs were each powerful enough to bring down a plane. They would have been as capable of destroying the planes as the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
over Lockerbie
Lockerbie
Lockerbie is a town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It lies approximately from Glasgow, and from the English border. It had a population of 4,009 at the 2001 census...
in 1988, killing 270 people.
Cargo vs. passenger planes
Brennan said it was not clear whether those attempting the bombing had known, or could have known, whether the packages would be carried on cargo or passenger planes. Because there are not any scheduled cargo flights out of Yemen, it was likely the terrorists knew the bombs would be loaded onto passenger planes for at least part of the journey. In addition, most freight to the U.S. is carried on passenger flights. In any event, James Halstead, a consultant with Aviation Economics, said "In a worst case, it would stop world trade. UPS and FedEx would probably go bust. We'd have a full-disaster scenario."
Timing and location
U.S. officials said that an analysis of the cellphone circuitry in the bombs suggested that the intent was to delay their mid-air detonations until U.S.-bound planes carrying them were close to landing in the U.S.
On November 10, a Scotland Yard spokesman said that forensic examination indicated that if the device discovered in England had not been disrupted and removed and the plane had proceeded onward, it would have detonated at 10:30 am BST [5:30 AM Eastern time] and could have occurred over the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
" The UPS plane entered U.S. airspace by flying over New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Shipping times cannot be predicted accurately. But cargo industry sources said it would have been possible for the terrorists, using earlier deliveries as a guide, to narrow down a time window to a few hours.
Detection
Frank Cilluffo, the director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, said: "It is evident that had we not had the intelligence, our security countermeasures would not have identified these improvised explosive devices." PETN is difficult to detect because it has a very low vapor pressure
Vapor pressure
Vapor pressure or equilibrium vapor pressure is the pressure of a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases in a closed system. All liquids have a tendency to evaporate, and some solids can sublimate into a gaseous form...
at room temperature, meaning very little of it gets into the air around the bomb, where it can be detected.
Qatar Airways said that "the explosives discovered [that it had carried] were of a sophisticated nature whereby they could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs", and were only discovered after the intelligence tip-off.
Both parcels were x-rayed in Sana'a, and the one in Dubai was x-rayed there, without the bombs being spotted. The Bundeskriminalamt
Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)
The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior...
(BKA; the German Federal Criminal Police Office) received copies of the Dubai x-rays, and one BKA investigator said that German security staff would not have identified the bomb either. When X-rayed, the PETN would resemble the cartridge's ink powder. The timers that were used would have looked like part of the printers’ electronics.
Preparation
In mid-September 2010, U.S. intelligence intercepted three packages linked to AQAP that were being shipped from Yemen to Chicago, including one sent to an Islamic bookshop. They searched the packages, but did not find any explosives; only books, papers, CDs, and other household items. One of the packages included the 1860 novel The Mill on the FlossThe Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot , first published in three volumes in 1860 by William Blackwood. The first American edition was by Thomas Y...
, by English novelist George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, a woman who wrote under an assumed identity
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
. The packages were permitted to continue on to what appeared to be “random addresses” in Chicago.
After the attempted attack in October, authorities believed that the September parcels may have been a test run for the attack. Package delivery firms such as UPS send minute-by-minute shipment location information to customers by e-mail or phone, when a package is dispatched and every time the package is scanned. The locations of the packages shipped in September could have been tracked by the senders on the shippers’ websites, and may have been used by the plotters to later plan the detonation timing for the two bombs. That would have allowed them to estimate when planes carrying the bombs would be over Chicago or another city, and conceivably enable them to set timers on the two bombs to trigger explosions where they would cause the greatest damage. Richard Clarke
Richard A. Clarke
Richard Alan Clarke was a U.S. government employee for 30 years, 1973–2003. He worked for the State Department during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush appointed him to chair the Counter-terrorism Security Group and to a seat on the United States National...
, former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
, said: "The dry run
Dry run (terrorism)
A dry run is an act committed by a terrorist organization without carrying out any actual terrorism in an attempt to determine whether a technique they are planning to use will be successful. The dry run is part of the rehearsal for a terrorist act, and is often the immediate precursor to the attack...
is always important to Al-Qaeda. In this case they wanted to follow the packages using the tracking system."
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
On November 5, 2010, al-Qaeda in the Arabian PeninsulaAl-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It was named for al-Qaeda, and says it is subordinate to that group and its now-deceased leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen...
took responsibility for the plot. It posted its acceptance of responsibility on a number of radical Islamist websites monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group
SITE Institute
The Search for International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group is an organization that tracks the online activity of terrorist organizations. The SITE Institute was founded in 2002 by Rita Katz and Josh Devon, who had left the Investigative Project...
and the NEFA Foundation, and wrote: "We will continue to strike blows against American interests and the interest of America's allies." The statement continued: "since both operations were successful, we intend to spread the idea to our mujahedeen brothers in the world and enlarge the circle of its application to include civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft."
The U.S. and U.K. had suspected it was behind the attack. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano
Janet Napolitano is the third and current United States Secretary of Homeland Security, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She is the fourth person to hold the position, which was created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the 21st...
, British Home Secretary Theresa May, and Dubai police had all noted that these types of explosives are "hallmarks" of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
It also claimed responsibility for the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6
UPS Airlines Flight 6
UPS Airlines Flight 6 was a cargo flight operated by UPS Airlines. On 3 September 2010, a Boeing 747-400 flying the route between Dubai International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport crashed close to Dubai airport, killing the two crew members. The aircraft had departed Dubai International...
, a Boeing 747-400
Boeing 747-400
The Boeing 747-400 is a major development and the best-selling model of the Boeing 747 family of jet airliners. While retaining the four-engine wide-body layout of its predecessors, the 747-400 embodies numerous technological and structural changes to produce a more efficient airframe...
cargo plane, in Dubai on September 3, in which both pilots were killed. U.S. and United Arab Emirates investigators had said they had not found any evidence of an explosion or terrorist involvement in that incident. They were skeptical about the September crash claim, and suggested that it was probably an attempt by AQAP to claim responsibility where it had not played any role, in order to falsely bolster its image. On September 10, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said AQAP's claim that it was involved in the September UPS plane crash was false.
On November 21, AQAP provided a detailed account of the plot (which it called "Operation Hemorrhage") in its English-language magazine Inspire, said that it cost only $4,200 to mount and was intended to disrupt global air cargo systems, and said it reflected a new strategy of low-cost attacks designed to inflict broad economic damage. The magazine included photos of the printers and bombs, as well as a copy of the novel Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
that it said it had placed in one package, because AQAP was “very optimistic” about the operation’s success.
Anwar al-Awlaki
The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported that unnamed U.S. counter-terrorism officials suspected that Anwar al-Awlaki of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was behind the plot. In addition, when Brennan was asked about al-Awlaki's suspected involvement in the plot, he said: "Anybody associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a subject of concern." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that "some analysts believe the [attempted Chicago bombing] may also be linked to Mr. Awlaki". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
reported that "U.S. and British security officials believe" al-Awlaki was behind the attack. U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein said "al-Awlaki was behind the two ... bombs."
President Obama had previously put al-Awlaki on a targeted killing
Targeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
list. The American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
and the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...
have sued, seeking to have a U.S. federal court prevent the U.S. government from carrying out the targeted killing of al-Awlaki in Yemen. Al-Awlaki has also been linked to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
Fort Hood shooting
The Fort Hood shooting was a mass shooting that took place on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, the most populous U.S. military installation in the world, located just outside Killeen, Texas. In the course of the shooting, a single gunman killed 13 people and wounded 29 others...
, the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing
Northwest Airlines Flight 253
Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was an international passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands, to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan, United States...
, and the failed 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
The attempted car bombing of Times Square on May 1, 2010, was a planned terrorist attack that was foiled when two street vendors discovered the car bomb and alerted a NYPD Patrolman to the car bomb threat after they spotted smoke coming from a vehicle...
, as well as other terrorist incidents. Al-Awlaki was later killed in a targeted killing, in September 2011.
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri
US officials suggested that Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the main explosives expert for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is a likely suspect due to his history of creating explosive devices using PETN, including his involvement in the failed Christmas Day bomb plot. Brennan said that evidence suggested the same person constructed both the Yemen parcel bombs and the device worn by Umar Farouk AbdulmutallabUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber", is a suspected terrorist who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25,...
, the Nigerian who attempted to ignite the Christmas Day bomb on a plane in 2009. One of the detonators was nearly precisely the same as the one used in the Christmas Day attack.
Al-Asiri had previously recruited his younger brother as a suicide bomber. His brother tried to kill Prince Nayef in 2008, using a 1-pound (454 gram) PETN bomb that al-Asri had hidden in his brother's rectum
Rectum
The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the gut in others, terminating in the anus. The human rectum is about 12 cm long...
. The brother approached the Prince and detonated the bomb, dying in the attempt as he blew himself up. Nayef survived with minor injuries.
Released suspect
On October 30, 2010, a 22-year-old female Yemeni engineering student was arrested in Sana'a, Yemen, on suspicion of having shipped the packages. Her mother was also arrested. Both were released by the following day. Officials in Yemen determined that the student's identity had been stolen by another women who had assumed her identityIdentity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
, and mailed the packages in the student's name. The student and her mother are no longer suspects.
Political
US President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and his administration reacted quickly to the incident, making public statements that it was a "credible threat". A New York Times opinion piece suggested that the quick response would be well received politically for the 2010 U.S. elections
United States elections, 2010
The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate were contested in this election along with 38 state and territorial...
.
Security
Security alerts were triggered in the U.S., the U.K., and the Middle East. An Emirates flight containing a package in transit from Yemen to the U.S. was intercepted by Canadian CF-18 and U.S. F-15 fighter jets, and escorted to New York as a precaution. Two FedEx planes containing packages originating from Yemen were also searched.The U.K., the U.S., Germany, France, and Belgium stopped accepting freight package cargo shipments from Yemen, and the Netherlands and Canada suspended all cargo flights from Yemen. Germany also suspended passenger flights from Yemen until November 15. In addition, Britain and the U.S. stopped accepting air cargo from Somalia, and prohibited passengers from carrying certain printer cartridges on flights. Sweden advised its citizens to refrain from all travel to Yemen until further notice.
Also, FedEx, UPS, and Mideast-based shipper Aramex
Aramex
Aramex is a global transportation and logistics services company providing a variety of express, logistics, freight forwarding and domestic distribution services. The company was established in 1982 and is headquartered in Amman, Jordan...
suspended their shipping operations in Yemen. The Middle East's biggest airline Emirates and Sharjah-based Air Arabia
Air Arabia
Air Arabia is a low-cost airline with its head office in the Sharjah Freight Center, Sharjah International Airport, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates....
stopped carrying cargo from Yemen, and Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
-based Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways
Etihad Airways is the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates. Established in July 2003 and based at Abu Dhabi International Airport, Etihad commenced operations in November 2003....
stopped carrying cargo from Yemen and Somalia.
The U.S. increased air passenger screenings, and expanded a new, more thorough pat-down search procedure for airline passengers. Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
(ACLU), complained saying "Americans now must choose between a virtual strip search and a grope", but declined to say whether the ACLU would file a legal challenge to the new procedure.
Al-Awlaki
Four days after the bombs were discovered, al-Awlaki was charged in absentiaIn absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
in Sana'a, Yemen, in an unrelated matter on November 2 with plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda. Prosecutor Ali al-Saneaa announced the charges against al-Awlaki as part of a trial against another man, Hisham Assem, who had been accused of killing a Frenchman. On November 6, Yemeni Judge Mohsen Alwan ordered that al-Awlaki be caught dead or alive.
Separately, Home Secretary May said on November 3 that an associate of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was in touch with al-Awlaki, had been arrested earlier in 2010 for allegedly planning a terrorist attack on passenger planes in Britain.
See also
- Similar terrorist plots
- 1988 Lockerbie BombingPan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
, Pan Am plane destroyed by PETN bomb, killing 270 people - 1994 Philippine Airlines Flight 434Philippine Airlines Flight 434Philippine Airlines Flight 434 was the route designator of a flight from Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Pasay City, the Philippines, to New Tokyo International Airport , Narita near Tokyo, Japan, with one stop at Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Cebu, the Philippines.On December 11, 1994...
, test run for al-Qaeda Operation Bojinka, killing one plane passenger in bombing - 1995 Bojinka plot, al-Qaeda plot to blow up 12 planes as they flew from Asia to the US
- 2001 shoe bomb plot, failed al-Qaeda PETN bombing of plane
- 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot2006 transatlantic aircraft plotThe 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada...
, failed plot to blow up at least 10 planes as they flew from the U.K. to the U.S. and Canada - 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, failed al-Qaeda PETN bombing of plane
- 1988 Lockerbie Bombing
- 2010 European terror plot2010 European terror plotThe 2010 European terror plot was an alleged Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda plot to launch "commando-style" terror attacks on France, United Kingdom, and Germany. The existence of the plot was revealed in late September 2010 after it was disrupted by intelligence agencies...
- Related lists
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- List of terrorist incidents, 2010
External links
- After Thwarted Bomb Plot, US Military Operations in Yemen Could Intensify - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- "Two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) secreted inside computer printers and shipped via commercial cargo aircraft from Yemen with final destination the USA.", InterpolInterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
Orange Notice, November 6, 2010