Yemen Packages on UPS, FedEx Jets Show `Massive' Air-Cargo Security Hole
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Hamilton, managing director of Early Bird Capital, Robert Hardy, a national security specialist at Geostrat Business Intelligence, and Satish Jindel, president of S.J. Consulting Group, talk about security measures for passenger and cargo aircraft, and the interception of two packages containing explosives that were shipped from Yemen and directed to Jewish institutions in Chicago. President Barack Obama said the packages represent a “credible terrorist threat” against the U.S. The discovery, made by authorities in the U.K. and Dubai, triggered an examination of air-cargo flights in the U.S. today. Hamilton, Hardy and Jindel speak with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks about security measures for passenger and cargo aircraft, and the interception of two packages containing explosives that were shipped from Yemen and directed to Jewish institutions in Chicago. President Barack Obama said the packages represent a “credible terrorist threat” against the U.S. The discovery, made by authorities in the U.K. and Dubai, triggered an examination of air-cargo flights in the U.S. today. Chertoff speaks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
Explosives found in air-freight shipments from Yemen spotlight a dangerous hole in U.S. screening efforts and may spur the government to change how air cargo is handled, security specialists said.
Discovery of the packages in the U.K. and Dubai, both bound for synagogues in Chicago, triggered an examination of three United Parcel Service Inc. planes yesterday and confiscation of a FedEx Corp. parcel. Both companies halted service from Yemen.
While new U.S. rules implemented in August require screening of all cargo in the bellies of passenger airliners, goods on air freighters aren’t subject to those checks. UPS is the world’s largest package-delivery company, and Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx runs the biggest cargo airline.
“You cannot possibly inspect every last package that is sent across the globe,” said Christopher Boucek, an analyst specializing in al-Qaeda and the Middle East at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “That is an inherent, massive weakness.”
The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday it was ratcheting up checks for people and cargo. Passengers should expect an “unpredictable mix” of measures, including canine teams and searches, and freight scrutiny will be tightened, the agency said.
UPS and FedEx said yesterday that they are cooperating with authorities and declined to comment on whether or how they will change procedures in response to the incidents.
The companies handle goods ranging from electronics parts to legal documents to consumer goods such as sweaters and books ordered over the Internet, making them economic bellwethers. Together, they own or lease 1,170 aircraft, according to the companies’ most recent annual reports.
20 Million Pieces
Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, estimated that Atlanta-based UPS and FedEx move about 20 million pieces a day.
“It is many, many times more than all the bags transported by the passenger airlines,” Jindel said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
Explosive-detection machinery costs millions of dollars, and attempting to scan all packages simply won’t work, said Hans Weber, owner of San Diego-based aviation consultant Tecop International Inc.
“In this case, the cure could economically kill cargo transportation by air,” Weber said.
Security systems already in place may have helped authorities discover the packages at the center of the latest probe, he said.
Yemen’s Role
Yemen figured into the U.S. inquiry of the last major security threat on a U.S. jetliner, the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Delta Air Lines Inc. plane on Dec. 25. President Barack Obama told reporters in January that evidence indicates that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was trained and equipped by a Yemeni group affiliated with al-Qaeda.
This month, a Virginia man was arrested in what he thought was an al-Qaeda plot to bomb Washington-area subway stations, the Justice Department said. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, is being held without bail.
Boucek, the Carnegie analyst, said sending explosives via air-cargo carriers suggested that terrorists were exploring a new avenue of attack.
“Since Christmas, they have done a lot of thinking about what worked, what didn’t and what they could do differently next time,” he said. “What scares me is that they used two different carriers and multiple packages to find out which one might get through and what the response would be.”
Cargo carriers have been using so-called trusted shipper programs for years, which rely on known customers to declare potentially hazardous or dangerous materials and to package them properly.
There are “always going to be weaknesses” in any security system, said Richard Bloom, director of terrorism and security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
“There is no such thing as a perfect security standard,” he said. “You’re always going to find vulnerabilities. The trick is to be up on the latest threat so it’s more and more difficult for terrorists to do.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mary Jane Credeur in Atlanta at mcredeur@bloomberg.net; Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at edufner@bloomberg.net
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