Quote:2 November 2010 Last updated at 18:05

Top security official to investigate cargo bomb events

David Cameron has asked his national security advisor to investigate the handling of events surrounding the discovery of a viable explosive device at East Midlands airport on Friday.

Sir Peter Ricketts will examine what led to a lag of more than 10 hours between US President Barack Obama and the UK PM being told of the situation.

A No 10 spokesman said the inquiry was standard practice in such cases.
Mr Cameron has praised the police for the way they handled the incident.
But an ex-Labour minister said it was "extraordinary" that Mr Cameron had not been told immediately.
The bomb was found on a US-bound cargo plane at East Midlands airport, hidden in a printer cartridge that had been posted in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
It was found after a tip-off and was not picked up by initial screening.
Following the discovery, unaccompanied freight flown to the UK from Yemen and Somalia was banned.
Lessons learned
A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that an investigation into the sequence of events following its discovery was under way and that if there were lessons to be learnt "we will learn them".
He reiterated that the prime minister and home secretary Theresa May were told at 1400 on Friday but did not dispute reporters' assertions that a minister knew at 0800 that day.
When asked why it had then taken six further hours to inform the prime minister, the spokesman said the suspicious package had undergone a "large degree of examination".
This meant, the spokesman added, that it "took some time before they - the police - were able to establish the facts".
'Very surprised'
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said questions were being asked about why it apparently took so long to inform the prime minister of the incident.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond was told initially in the morning, because of the closure of the airport, and the home secretary was told later when it was clear the package really was suspicious, he added.
Former security minister Admiral Lord West said he found the sequence of events "quite amazing".
"I imagine there will be several 'interviews without coffee' for people as a result of this," he told the BBC.
"It is extraordinary the prime minister wasn't told almost immediately... You should know straightaway. It could have been really embarrassing for him, if something had been mentioned about this.
"I would be furious if I was him and something has slipped up in the routine and the measures that should automatically happen. I'm very surprised, I must say."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11673245

David Guyatt Wrote:Don't waste the money Dave, even I know the answer.

"They" didn't tell you and Cousin Obama, because you're both "transients" and not important enough to waste time on except as an afterthought --

David Guyatt Wrote:especially as they were very busy coordinating world media "management" and cleaning up any errors, omissions and cock-ups to make sure their cover story stood up to scrutiny.

Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Last time I looked, the East Midlands was in England, not the US of A.

Jan Klimkowski Wrote:

David Guyatt Wrote:Don't waste the money Dave, even I know the answer.

"They" didn't tell you and Cousin Obama, because you're both "transients" and not important enough to waste time on except as an afterthought --

Yup.

David Guyatt Wrote:especially as they were very busy coordinating world media "management" and cleaning up any errors, omissions and cock-ups to make sure their cover story stood up to scrutiny.

And there were cock-ups.

The Americans briefed that explosive material had been found at East Midlands airport after the Brits had declared that there was no explosive material present.

Last time I looked, the East Midlands was in England, not the US of A.

Funny that.

I wonder how many hands the toner cartridge went through before Americans confidently declared it contained explosives, and then even announced the type of explosive, PETN, along with ready prepared briefings about PETN's previous terrorist use and the actual identity of the bombmaker in Yemen.

Damn - those Yankee detectives are brilliant. :bandit:

At reading from a prepared script. :call2:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:Have the British back-peddled and now said it did indeed have explosive [beg your pardon, our oversight...looked like flour], or are they just playing quiet obedient poodle?

Quote:The New American Credo: Might Is Right

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Global Research, November 3, 2010

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21746

In my last column, Who Has The Crystal Ball, I questioned the existence of “the liberal media,” and I remarked that it would be interesting to know the manufacturer of the full body scanners and the company’s relationship to the US and Israeli governments.

Conservative readers wrote to me saying that, as I had not mentioned National Public Radio, I had hidden “the liberal media” under the table. Another reader, well informed on the subject, told me about the full body scanner company and its relationship to the US and Israeli governments.

Let’s begin with the latter.

The full body scanners are manufactured by Rapiscan Systems, a firm represented by the Chertoff Group. The Chertoff Group is Michael Chertoff, a dual Israeli/US citizen appointed Secretary of Homeland Security in 2005 by Puppet President George W. Bush. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) used Obama’s economic stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to purchase 150 Rapiscan machines. Much larger purchases are in the works.

Chertoff has been a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a federal prosecutor who convicted and destroyed the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, apparently illegally as the conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court. But, of course, the firm and the careers of its employees were already destroyed by Chertoff.

Chertoff was also appointed Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice by George W. Bush. Chertoff supervised the 9/11 investigation or non-investigation.

Chertoff is also the co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act, a piece of fascist legislation that destroys American civil liberties.

Today Chertoff is using his government credentials to push full body scanners into American airports. A rights group, FlyersRights.org, has criticized Chertoff for abusing “the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners.”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/01/02/group_slams_chertoff_on_scanner_promotion/

Now let’s have a look at National Public Radio. Once upon a time NPR was an alternative voice. That voice was discarded during the Bush administration when Republican fundraiser Gay Hart Gaines was appointed by Dubya as vice chair for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Cheryl Feldman Halpern was appointed chair of the Corporation by Dubya, and Elizabeth Sembler was appointed by Dubya to the board of the corporation.

These women are certainly not liberals. Gaines is affiliated with right-wing and neoconservative organizations, such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the National Review Institute. According to Common Cause, Gaines was “an ardent fundraiser for Newt Gingrich.”
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gay_Hart_Gaines

Halpern is a Republican donor and a critic of NPR. Halpern has accused NPR of anti-Israel bias and said that public broadcasting journalists should be penalized for biased programs. Biased programs are those that don’t fit Republican and AIPAC agendas. Halpern accompanied President George W. Bush to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state in May 2008. Halpern is a board member of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a spin-off organization from AIPAC tasked with focusing primarily on influencing the US executive branch while AIPAC focuses on Congress. At her confirmation hearing, Halpern expressed her opinion that Public Broadcasting System’s Bill Moyers was not objective and regretted that as chair of the corporation she lacked the authority to “remove physically somebody who had engaged in editorialization of the news.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/14/AR2005071402099.html

Sembler is director of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Day School in Clearwater, Florida. Her husband is CEO of the Sembler Company, a shopping center development firm.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting board distributes federal funds to noncommercial radio and TV stations. It became clear to NPR that their funding was in question, and NPR deserted truth for money.

The Republican takeover was completed by an infusion of corporate money into NPR.

Today the station has as many advertisements for corporate donors as a commercial station. It still pretends to be financed by listeners, but NPR is now part of the corporate media and sounds like the voice of Israel.

Quote:Suspect package found at Glasgow Airport

Part of Glasgow Airport is being evacuated after a suspicious package was found.

The package was discovered in the departures security area at about 1955 GMT.

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said security staff had become aware of an item "deemed to be suspicious in nature".

Passengers who had already passed through departures security were allowed to travel.

It is not clear whether the bag had already been screened in the search area of the airport.

A spokesman for Glasgow Airport said: "A suspect package was found in the search area. Because it is in the search area we can no longer process passengers for their departures.

"We are still accepting flights as normal. We are not closed but we have cordoned off that area until the police say it is safe."

He added: "We have had to evacuate the search area and the adjacent road at the front of the terminal. The terminal is still accessible.

"The suspect package was found by one of the staff."

The last two flights due to leave from Glasgow Airport were delayed.

They are Easyjet's 2055 to Gatwick and British Midland's 2125 flight to Heathrow.

Quote:4 November 2010 Last updated at 17:13
Yemen parcel bomb 'was 17 minutes from exploding'
One of the two parcel bombs intercepted last week after being sent from Yemen was defused 17 minutes before it was due to explode, France's Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has said.
The two bombs were being sent via air freight to the US but were intercepted in Dubai and the UK and defused.
A White House spokesman said the 17 minutes claim could not be confirmed.
Mr Hortefeux did not say which of the two bombs he was referring to or reveal his source.
"There were parcel bombs from Yemen heading for the United States, and I can tell you, for example, that one of these parcels was disarmed 17 minutes before the planned explosion," he said.
Mr Hortefeux was speaking to France-2 television.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the question of when the bombs were to go off was still being investigated and there was no evidence to confirm Mr Hortefeux's statement.
An official in the United Arab Emirates told Associated Press news agency that if Mr Hortefeux was referring to the Dubai bomb then he was "not correct".
A British official also told AP that the UK bomb was still under investigation and the possible timing of its detonation had not been determined.
Neither official could be named because they were not authorised to speak on the investigations, AP said.
Saudi tip-off
Security forces in Yemen are hunting for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's suspected bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, in connection with the two devices. He is also suspected of being behind last year's failed 25 December attempt to bomb a US airliner and other attacks.
The bombs were found after a tip-off from Saudi authorities and were pulled off US-bound planes in England and Dubai.
They were made of a difficult-to-detect explosive called PETN, and concealed within printer cartridges inside larger packages.
German officials have said the bombs contained 300-400g of PETN, more than enough to cause a large explosion.
Both bombs were wired to circuit boards from mobile phones but did not contain the SIM cards needed to receive calls, US officials have said. This indicates the phones were to be used as timers.
US officials also said packages intercepted in September that were linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may have been a dry run for last week's bombs, as the bomb makers could trace the route and timings of the packages delivery on the freight companies' websites.
A number of Western countries have suspended air freight from Yemen and tightened security of air cargo in light of last week's events.

Quote:Bomb could have exploded in flight: Dubai police

Package came in from Sanaa via Doha; Operation bears Al Qaeda hallmarks; Parcel contained highly explosive PETN

By Mohammed Al Sadafy
Published Saturday, October 30, 2010

The explosive device was equipped with an electrical circuit board linked to a SIM card and the toner of a printer. (WAM)
Dubai Police have said that the bomb found aboard a FedEx plane on Friday contained the highly explosive PETN -- the same substance used by the would-be 2009 Christmas Day "underpants" bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab and 2001 attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid.
Dubai police chief General Dahi Khalfan said: "This was a parcel bomb and a terrorist act could have occurred," adding that the device could have "exploded" on board the airplane had it not been intercepted in time.
The device consisted of a computer printer whose ink contained explosive material, connected to a mobile phone SIM card and a circuit board, a police statement said.

Quote:Ink bomb defused 'with 17 minutes to spare': Device at UK airport was ready to explode

By DAVID WILLIAMS, REBECCA CAMBER and STEPHEN WRIGHT
Last updated at 7:26 AM on 5th November 2010

The ink bomb found at a British airport was defused just 17 minutes before it was due to explode, it was claimed yesterday.
Al Qaeda planners believed the plane carrying it would have been over the Atlantic or the U.S. mainland when it was primed to go off in a Lockerbie-style attack.
But the plane made an unscheduled refuelling stop at East Midlands Airport because of the weight of its cargo. Such was the expertise of the bombmaker and the sophistication of the device that it took a bomb disposal expert seven attempts to establish that it was viable and defuse it.

One of the two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week was defused just 17 minutes before it was set to explode, France's interior minister revealed. Pictured, the cartridge found in a parcel intercepted by Dubai security officials

The parcel included explosive materials hidden inside the ink cartridge and an electric circuit connected to a mobile phone SIM card

The bomb hidden in a printer cartridge contained 400 grams of the powerful explosive PETN – 50 times more than needed to punch a hole in the aircraft’s skin – and was wired to a mobile phone.

The SIM card had been removed so it could not receive calls and the Yemen-based bombmaker set up either the alarm or timer functions to detonate the device.

Quote:Cargo plane bomb plot: how the terror alert unfolded

The discovery of explosive devices intended for synagogues in Chicago on a cargo plane at East Midlands airport sparked an international terror alert. This is how events unfolded.

Late on Thursday night, an MI6 officer responsible for Yemen received a tip-off from a local source of a possible Al-Qaeda plot to smuggle bombs to America on board cargo aircraft.

Quote:Alerted to the plot by Saudi intelligence, security officials chased the two packages across five countries, trying frantically over the next two days to prevent an explosion that could have come at any moment.

Quote:Cargo plane bomb alert: explosive devices 'designed to harm US synagogues'
An international terrorist alert over a possible al-Qaeda parcel bomb threat to synagogues has been triggered following the discovery of a package containing explosive material at a British airport....

Quote:Bomb 'meant to explode on plane'

30 October 2010 Last updated at 20:59

The Prime Minister has said he believes the device found on board a cargo plane at East Midlands airport was designed to go off on the aircraft.
Earlier, Home Secretary Theresa May said the bomb was viable and could have brought down the plane if it had exploded.
It was one of two packages from Yemen placed on board US bound cargo planes.

Quote:17 November 2010 Last updated at 13:30

Germany tightens airport security over attacks threat

Extra security measures will remain in place until further notice, the interior minister said

Germany is increasing security at airports and railway stations in light of "concrete indications" of terrorist attacks being planned for the end of November.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it followed a tip-off from another, unnamed country.

Germany had information on "sustained efforts" by Islamist extremists to carry out attacks, he said.

He said the extra security would remain in place "until further notice".

"There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria," Mr de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

The federal police force has been ordered to step up checks at airports and train stations, he added.

Yemen connection
Mr de Maiziere said Germany had received a tip-off after two parcel bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen to the United States last month.

October 2010: four German Islamists killed in US drone attack in northern Pakistan, believed to be part of a group which vanished from Hamburg in 2009
August 2010: Hamburg mosque linked to 9/11 attacks closed down on suspicion it is again being used to foment extremism
March 2010: four men jailed for planning explosions and attacks on US soldiers in Germany
2006: Moroccan student in Hamburg, Mounir al-Motassadek, convicted in connection with plotting the 9/11 attacks
Germany reconsiders terror risk
One of the bombs was despatched via the German city of Cologne but was intercepted in the UK.

The Yemen plot showed "the adaptability and the persistence of terrorists in pursuing their aims," Mr de Maiziere said, and also underlines "the reliability of some leads."

Germany would not allow international terrorism to constrict its way of life or liberal culture, he said.

Last year, twelve militants vanished from Hamburg, some to resurface in Northern Pakistan where at least one, but not all were killed in an American drone attack.

Some of the new security measures would be clearly visible, Mr de Maiziere said, but others would not.

The BBC's Stephen Evans, in Berlin, says a month ago, Germany was dismissive of American warnings of attacks. That feeling has now gone.