Possible Terrorist Plot - Cargo Planes in Philadelphia and Newark being Inspected

[BetteDavisEyes]

Holidays are approaching. Heavy passenger travel season. College students heading home for the holidays. Family vacations when the kids aren't in school. Holiday gatherings for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year. A perfect time for those who seek to disrupt our lives. Please be careful.

 

[hockeymom]

Very confusing. Now reports say no credable threat!!! I guess we will find out when things settle down.

 

[Skittles]

The plane being escorted in NY has landed.

Heard it on the radio.

I understand the prez is going to be making a comment soon. Just announced. Maybe at 1:00 pdt???

fran

PS....this must be serious....

CNN says the President will speak at 4:15 eastern.

 

[Blue_Dolphin308]

Obama has labeled it CREDIBLE

 

[Sleuthster]

President reports that initial analysis shows packages did contain explosive material. CNN headline, no story yet.

 

[hockeymom]

President reports that initial analysis shows packages did contain explosive material. CNN headline, no story yet.

When they say that,does it mean that ink cartridge thing they found or is it something in addition to that? I'm so confused!!

What does everyone think this is about? Why do this now? Is it elections? Since Obama has the impression of being soft on terror,I would think they would want his party to be in power,as opposed to Republicans. This ,to me is just something candidates can use in the last couple days to talk about being tough on terror.
If they were going to go to all the trouble of this,why not just do it? Why plant dummy explosives?

 

[Sleuthster]

Im not sure. I did read that one of the packages initally tested positive for radioactive material in an earlier report. I just cant believe that a bomb could fit in a small printer cartridge.

 

[Sleuthster]

I believe they're checking all cargo originating in Yemen. So perhaps they found something.............

Oh, I did see a ......Maybe this is it.

fran

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/2...t-philadelphia-international/?test=latestnews


A crew member aboard a UPS plane arriving to Philadelphia from Paris, France later notified authorities on approach about a suspicious package. The crew member described a possible radiological component to the package, the incident report said. The two occupants safely exited the aircraft after landing in a remote area of the airport.

This is the article Im referring to. Radiological component is sort of ambigous. acording to wiki a radiological weapon is made of components which could spread radioactive material.

The president said that the packages contained exposive material but that doesnt really say if it was indeed radioactive or if the component was just a timer or something.

 

[Sharedspirit]

The Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is suspected, and U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the chemical used, PETN, was also used in the failed Christmas Day airline bombing that was tied to the same group.



Bomb Materials From Yemen Found on Way to Jewish Places of Worship in Chicago

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Im not sure. I did read that one of the packages initally tested positive for radioactive material in an earlier report. I just cant believe that a bomb could fit in a small printer cartridge.

Years ago didn't somebody get caught with a bomb in the sole of his shoes?
I know there are pipe bombs and such that are as small as a coke can.

I don't know much about bombs but I think a printer cartridge could contain one. I don't know how much damage a bomb that size could do though.

JMO

ETA: was it a small printer cartridge or a toner cartridge? Toner cartridges are sometimes a lot larger than a printer cartridge.

 

[Herding Cats]

Not at all hard to make a fairly lethal bomb the size of a toner cartridge, or even an ink cartridge. Depends on what the 'load' is, you know? Bio, nuclear, chemical...they don't need a whole lot to be fairly destructive, at least in a terrorist sense.

I mean, if a small bio weapon went off, and killed 200 people, that's not a huge death count, but imagine how scared anyone would be to open packages, or - shoot, anything?

Al Quaida (radical muslims - there, call me a racist if you will...) in Yemen, and AQ in general, are definitely active. They have, in the past, timed their attacks to coincide with specific dates and/or events, like elections and holidays. This timing is rather expected nowadays...

And if they target something that has an economic impact right now, it will be devastating in many ways. Imagine if the entire holiday shipping schedule was interrupted, either by additional security measures or by bombs exploding. How would that affect the holidays, especially when we're shipping things all over the world, importing tons of stuff, and so on? If we can't ship, shopping will drastically decline. If stores can't ship into their markets, shopping will drastically decline as well.

And since we are in an economic earthquake right now, the ripple effect on Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Mom and Pop stores who rely on holiday shopping to make ends meet will be in dire straits. Then add the trickle down theory, and we indeed have the makings of a serious attack, using only cargo planes and small bombs, with a low body count.

There have been many terrorist plots discovered and dismantled. As Fran said upthread, AQ seems to have been testing the waters for something bigger. AQ does, of course, want bigger, but even smaller and successful would work. I have no doubt that today's events are part of a testing process, and AQ has learned a whole lot today - making them even more deadly than they have been. There have been dry-runs (as Fran mentioned) with bomb making parts; watches, cellphones, and bits of relatively innocuous things which, together, are the pieces of the bomb puzzle. And I have no doubt that AQ wants to nail us again. The only questions I have are "when" and "how."

Seems to me, the "how" is being answered now.

The only question left, then, is "when."

Best-
Herding Cats

 

[i.b.nora]

These were viable devices that could have gone off. They were to be triggered by a cell phone.
They were many times more powerful than the 'bomb' found in the Christmas Pants Bomber's er, uh, pants.
Just listening to Anderson Cooper on CNN.

 

[fran]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39917639/ns/us_news-security/

Air cargo seen as weak spot in terrorism security net

Shipments from overseas little scrutinized aboard cargo-only jets, insiders say

U.S. authorities on Friday said they were tightening screening of air cargo in the wake of incidents in which packages from Yemen containing explosives triggered a worldwide security scare.

But aviation insiders say that even with the additional measures, only a small percentage of the air freight originating overseas is likely to be examined before it arrives at U.S airports.:slap:why are they telling the enemy 'only a small percentage of air freight from overseas is examined?':banghead:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[fran]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/10/29/robertson.terror.threat.update.cnn?hpt=T1

Possible Suspect in Terror Threat?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<video at link>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[hockeymom]

Not at all hard to make a fairly lethal bomb the size of a toner cartridge, or even an ink cartridge. Depends on what the 'load' is, you know? Bio, nuclear, chemical...they don't need a whole lot to be fairly destructive, at least in a terrorist sense.

I mean, if a small bio weapon went off, and killed 200 people, that's not a huge death count, but imagine how scared anyone would be to open packages, or - shoot, anything?

Al Quaida (radical muslims - there, call me a racist if you will...) in Yemen, and AQ in general, are definitely active. They have, in the past, timed their attacks to coincide with specific dates and/or events, like elections and holidays. This timing is rather expected nowadays...

And if they target something that has an economic impact right now, it will be devastating in many ways. Imagine if the entire holiday shipping schedule was interrupted, either by additional security measures or by bombs exploding. How would that affect the holidays, especially when we're shipping things all over the world, importing tons of stuff, and so on? If we can't ship, shopping will drastically decline. If stores can't ship into their markets, shopping will drastically decline as well.

And since we are in an economic earthquake right now, the ripple effect on Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Mom and Pop stores who rely on holiday shopping to make ends meet will be in dire straits. Then add the trickle down theory, and we indeed have the makings of a serious attack, using only cargo planes and small bombs, with a low body count.

There have been many terrorist plots discovered and dismantled. As Fran said upthread, AQ seems to have been testing the waters for something bigger. AQ does, of course, want bigger, but even smaller and successful would work. I have no doubt that today's events are part of a testing process, and AQ has learned a whole lot today - making them even more deadly than they have been. There have been dry-runs (as Fran mentioned) with bomb making parts; watches, cellphones, and bits of relatively innocuous things which, together, are the pieces of the bomb puzzle. And I have no doubt that AQ wants to nail us again. The only questions I have are "when" and "how."

Seems to me, the "how" is being answered now.

The only question left, then, is "when."

Best-
Herding Cats

I hate to even say this ,but I have often thought if someone wanted to really hurt our economy,they could really get us on something revolving the Christmas holiday season. If people were scared enough,they wouldn't go out shopping, then to impact the shipping industry on top of that. The thought frightens me to death.

 

[hockeymom]

Could be more bombs out there, plus 2 arrests made. Interesting that a UPS plane crashed in September from Dubai. Coincidence?

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/artic...viser-john-brennan-says/19696446?ncid=webmail

 

[hockeymom]

Down right scary!

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/al-qaida-group-takes-responsibility-for-mail-bombs/19705548

 

[orb4me]

Didnt we all just go through this a few years ago, and lots of people stayed home from shopping malls?

And here we go again. Maybe they are sending these odd ball things to see how they set off security. Or focus our attention on UPS plans, and a semi will blow up in one of our huge downtowns. or more than one. 9/11 was 4 different air planes.

Some may argue, but jmo. the end times!!!!! I have never in my 67 yrs seen so much weather related things, banks going broke, the list goes on and on. All we lack now is the Antichrist. Those of us that are saved will not be here to see this, and we need to spread the word. Jesus Christ is our savior, no one else can save us.

 

[songline]

suspicious packages everywhere!!! Whats going on? How does one decide if a package is suspicious? I hate that we have to live in constant fear of this kind of crap!!!

Israel lives this way for 60 years.
And we have people here that think that the mosque near the twin towers is not a calculate move
when there are over 200 mosques in NYC if it is really culture they want, they can have it,
but that is not what they want :waitasec:

Again this is all a result of so much "Political Correctness".
uke:

 

[songline]

Didnt we all just go through this a few years ago, and lots of people stayed home from shopping malls?

And here we go again. Maybe they are sending these odd ball things to see how they set off security. Or focus our attention on UPS plans, and a semi will blow up in one of our huge downtowns. or more than one. 9/11 was 4 different air planes.

Some may argue, but jmo. the end times!!!!! I have never in my 67 yrs seen so much weather related things, banks going broke, the list goes on and on. All we lack now is the Antichrist. Those of us that are saved will not be here to see this, and we need to spread the word. Jesus Christ is our savior, no one else can save us.

BBM
Yes there are test runs, and then with no warning there is the real run

We do have to pray a lot. GOD has a master plan we just dont know it. You can pray to Jesus and I can pray to the "one and only" it does not matter as long as we do pray.