Suspicious packages 'contain explosive material,' Obama says
October 29, 2010 -- Updated 2356 GMT (0756 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Saudi Arabia provided the intelligence tip to the United States
- A portion of one device resembles a cell phone, expert says
- Materials that were found "intended to do harm," security official says
- Suspicious packages, which originated in Yemen, were found in England and UAE, officials say
(CNN) -- Suspicious packages found in at least two locations abroad that were bound for Jewish organizations in the United States "apparently contain explosive material," President Barack Obama said Friday, calling the discovery "a credible threat against our country."
The packages led to increased searches of cargo planes and trucks in several U.S. cities, said law enforcement sources with detailed knowledge of the investigation.
U.S. officials believe that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, commonly referred to as AQAP, is behind the incident.
Obama confirmed that the packages originated in Yemen, the stronghold of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The circuit board bears similarities to a cell-phone, according to an engineer for a wireless phone parts manufacturer.
"We also know that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ... continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies," he said during a press briefing on the incident.
One suspicious package, found in the United Kingdom, contained a "manipulated" toner cartridge and had white powder on it as well as wires and a circuit board, a law enforcement source said.
"The size and shape of the printed circuit board are typical to a handset cell-phone-type device," said Olivier Clerc, the head of application engineering for a wireless phone parts manufacturer, who provided an analysis of the circuit board shown in a photograph obtained by CNN.
A similar package was discovered in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, the law enforcement source said. Sources in the UAE described the package as an explosive device with "sophisticated" wiring. It is believed to be a printer, the sources said. The UAE General Authority of Civil Aviation issued a statement saying the package was to be shipped on a FedEx cargo plane.
Both packages were bound for the United States, "specifically two places of Jewish worship in Chicago," Obama said.
"Initial examination of those packages has determined they do apparently contain explosive material," he said.
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said that "the materials that were found and the device that was discovered were intended to do harm."
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A U.S. official said it is likely that the material used was PETN -- a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin -- but said testing is ongoing to reach a definitive conclusion.
PETN was allegedly one of the components of the bomb concealed by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who is accused of trying to set off an explosion aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit, Michigan, on December 25. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also believed to be behind that botched attack.
Brennan, while declining to provide specifics, also said intelligence officials were specifically looking for such suspicious packages when the first discovery -- the package in the United Kingdom -- was made.
He later issued a statement thanking Saudi Arabia, saying the United States is "grateful" for the country's help in identifying the threat within the two packages.
A source with firsthand knowledge of the tip told CNN that the Saudi Arabian government gave the United States tracking numbers of the two packages, allowing for quick tracing to the United Kingdom and Dubai.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-California, called the potential plot "a new novel thing -- and that is using FedEx and UPS planes to perhaps bring in something that might be explosive."
UPS announced Friday that it is "immediately suspending service out of Yemen until further notice," citing the security concerns.
A spokesman for FedEx, which does not have operations in Yemen, said the shipping company is enforcing an embargo on packages coming from the country "for the foreseeable future."
Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that there is now a halt in the United States on all packages originating from Yemen.
Collins said she is very concerned about holes in the system to screen cargo coming into the United States, and told CNN that had a credible intelligence source not warned about the suspicious packages, they may not have been detected with standard security procedures.
Collins, who was briefed by Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole, said intelligence officials do not know yet if this was part of a larger plot, but she does believe al Qaeda is "continuing to test for vulnerabilities in our security system, and it appears we do have vulnerabilities in our system for transporting cargo."
After the packages were found Thursday night and Friday morning, authorities were tracking about 13 other packages shipped from Yemen in the same time frame, a law enforcement source said. Some of them had been found, and an investigation of those had not indicated that they are a threat, the source said.
A Yemeni diplomat in Washington said that his government has opened a full-scale investigation into the incident but that it was too early to speculate or reach any conclusions.
Counterterrorism officials are taking the threat "very seriously," Obama said.
The Department of Homeland Security said it "had taken a number of steps to enhance security," including "heightened cargo screening and additional security at airports."
Some Jewish religious leaders in Chicago were alerted to the potential threat Friday, said Linda Haase, spokeswoman for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
"We were notified about this earlier this morning," she said. "We are taking appropriate precautions, and we are advising local synagogues to do the same."
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California, said that if synagogues were indeed the intended recipients of the packages, "this is just another indication of the dangerous world we live in where Jews are the principle target."
In the United Kingdom, police were investigating the suspicious package at a freight distribution center at East Midlands Airport, about 100 miles north of London, said airport spokesman Russell Craig. U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May said the package, which originated in Yemen and was addressed to a U.S. destination, was discovered during a search of a cargo flight. The package is being examined, she said.
May sought to assure Britons that "safety and security of the UK" is her top priority.
"We are urgently considering what steps need to be put in place regarding security of freight originating from Yemen," she said. "For security reasons, there are currently no direct flights from Yemen to the UK."
She added that "at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that any location in the UK was being targeted."
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities seemed most focused on inspecting cargo planes.
Investigators examined two UPS planes that landed at Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania and another at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, said Mike Mangeot, a UPS spokesman. Authorities later gave the "all-clear" at both airports, the Transportation Security Administration said.
The TSA said authorities acted "out of an abundance of caution."
CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Susan Candiotti, Caroline Paterson, Per Nyberg, Alan Duke, Steve Kastenbaum, Fran Townsend, Mike Ahlers, Carol Cratty, Chris Lawrence, Elise Labott, Pam Benson and Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.
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