http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bombs-flight-fridays-false-alarm-not-fal se
Bombs in flight -- Friday's false alarm not false Published 1 November 2010 Friday's emergency activity concerned with finding explosive devices initially reported as a false alarm -- early reports indicated no explosives were found; this proved to be wrong in subsequent reports, live devices containing PETN were found in the U.K. and Dubai; in the instance of the Dubai device, the bomb package had been flown on two passenger flights http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/standard/ upsbomb-1.jpg Suspicious package contained "maipulated" cartridge // Source: cnn.com Much has been learned in the 72 hours since initial reports of bombs on United Parcel Service cargo planes. We now know that there were two devices containing the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) found aboard UPS flights at the U.K.'s East Midlands airport and in Dubai. The U.K. plane had been searched by authorities, and cleared when officials in Dubai contacted them and gave them information on how the bombs were concealed. The explosives were packed into toner cartridges of the type used in printers and copy machines, and were rigged with timing devices to control detonation. Both bombs originated in Yemen. One was flown to Germany, then on to the U.K. The second traveled to Doha, Qatar aboard a passenger flight, then was transferred to another passenger aircraft for the trip to Dubai, where it was discovered. Yemen had arrested a female student, but released her after concluding her identity was stolen, and she was not the person who signed the shipping manifest. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence analysts had concluded that the bombmaker was a 28-year-old Saudi named Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, whose brother was killed in last year's attack on the Saudi Arabian counterterrorism chief. Many questions surrounding these events have been answered, with many more still to be resolved. But one of the most vexing is the length of time and the extent that incorrect information was circulated. Late Friday afternoon, news media channels and outlets began filling with news of explosive devices being placed on United Parcel Service cargo aircraft. Reports were broadcast of UPS planes being moved to isolated sections of airports for the search of cargo. New York's JFK, along with Philadelphia, Newark Liberty and the Portland, Maine, International airports saw UPS cargo planes searched and ultimately cleared. This news was transmitted, along with apparently contradictory reports of devices found that did not contain explosives. As HSNW reported <http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/false-alarm-us-uk-airports> in a Friday afternoon bulletin, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, along with most network broadcast media were informing readers and listeners that there were "dummy" devices found, but they did not contain any explosive materials. The discussion turned to the construction and configuration of the devices, photographs of the devices were published, and speculation grew as to why terrorists would bother with such a stunt. This became the message, until 4:15 PM Eastern, when President Obama held a press conference to discuss the day's events. It was during that press conference that the first confirmation that the devices did, in fact, contain explosives. Up until that time, the discussion revolved around printer toner cartridges with wires, circuit boards and no explosives. It is now widely known that there were two devices found, that did in fact contain the explosive PETN, and that they originated in Yemen. PETN is the same explosive material used in the failed Christmas, 2009 "underwear" bombing attempt. That attempt also had its genesis in Yemen. There are many questions that are yet to be answered by the investigations into these events, but there is also a question for the news media as well. That question is how it was possible for so many information outlets to have such a central piece of information - the presence of explosives - wrong. One possible explanation may be in the sequence of events as they unfolded Friday. Associated Press reports <http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101031/D9J6T6O00.html> Germany's Interior Minister Thomas DeMaiziere said that the German National Police had received a tip that a suspicious package was on a freight flight from Yemen to a UPS hub at Germany's Cologne-Bonn airport. By the time, however, the police obtained the information, the plane had departed for the U.K. German intelligence then advised their British counterparts, and when the flight arrived at East Midlands airport, it was sequestered, a cordon was placed around it, and it was searched. Nothing was found, and the flight was cleared and placed back into the traffic's flow. At the same time that U.K. officials were conducting their search, officials in Dubai were searching the cargo of a passenger flight from Doha, Qatar. The Dubai officials discovered the bomb, and contacted British officials, who immediately sequestered the aircraft and again searched the plane. This time, armed with information from Dubai as to how the explosive was packed and concealed to prevent detection by X-ray scanning, British investigators were able to locate and remove the device from the aircraft. The British-found device had traveled on cargo flights only, but the bomb found by Dubai officials had actually been carried on two different passenger flights. The first was from Yemen into Doha, where the package was transferred to another passenger aircraft and flown into Dubai. There is conflicting information as to the control and detonation of the bombs. Some reports describe it as having a sophisticated trigger capable of detonating at altitude, or after a specified amount of time. Other information indicates that the frequent routing changes would make such triggering useless, since there is no way for the bombers to know when or where the aircraft would be in the air at any given moment. We will undoubtedly find out more in the days ahead. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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