Germany Bans Yemen Flights, U.K. Curbs Freight After Plot
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri
Casper Star Tribune via Bloomberg
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri appears in this screen grab from the Casper Star Tribune.
Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri appears in this screen grab from the Casper Star Tribune. Source: Casper Star Tribune via Bloomberg
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Michael O'Leary, chief executive officer of Ryanair Holdings Plc, talks about the security regime for airline passengers after the discovery of explosives aboard air-cargo services last week. O'Leary also discusses the outlook for the discount airline's full-year earnings. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Rick Nelson, director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, talks about cargo-screening efforts to protect against terrorism following the discovery of explosive devices shipped to the U.S. from Yemen aboard freight aircraft. Nelson talks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Michael McCann, president of McCann Protective Services LLC, talks about efforts to protect the package-shipping industry from terrorism, following the discovery of bombs shipped from Yemen aboard freight aircraft. McCann talks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
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)
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Will Geddes, chief executive officer of International Corporate Protection, talks about security regulation on commercial and cargo airlines following the discovery of two bombs in the U.K. and Dubai. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Monica Bertran reports on the security of the container shipping industry following the discovery of explosives aboard freight aircraft last week. (Source: Bloomberg)
John Brennan
Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg
“The indications are right now, based on the forensics analysis, that it’s an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together,” John Brennan , President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, said yesterday.
“The indications are right now, based on the forensics analysis, that it’s an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together,” John Brennan , President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, said yesterday. Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/Bloomberg
Cargo Bombs Linked to Past Plots
Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images
Emirates and UPS cargo planes sit on the tarmac of Dubai airport on October 31.
Emirates and UPS cargo planes sit on the tarmac of Dubai airport on October 31. Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images
Germany and the U.K. restricted package deliveries from Yemen as the U.S. tried to strengthen the Middle East country’s screening system after bombs were taken aboard flights last week.
Germany began barring Yemenia Airways flights from landing at its airports this weekend, Transport Ministry spokesman Ingo Strater said yesterday.
In London, Home Secretary Theresa May said the U.K. will prohibit unaccompanied air freight from both Yemen and Somalia and stop some printer cartridges from going on flights.
“The threat from the Arabian Peninsula and from Yemen in particular has grown,” UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement in Parliament yesterday. “It is clear that we must take every possible step to work with our partners in the Arab world to cut out the terrorist cancer that lurks in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Government officials announced the precautions as U.S., Yemeni and European investigators worked to uncover more details of a terrorist plot that revolved around two bombs concealed in printer cartridges found in packages that originated in Yemen. U.S. authorities have said they suspect a master bomb-maker from al-Qaeda made the explosives.
In a statement released to the state-run Saba news agency, an unnamed Yemeni official criticized the German ban on flights as an “exaggerated” response that hurts the country’s anti- terrorism efforts.
Explosive Devices
The packages with the bombs were found last week in the U.K. and Dubai, bound for synagogues in Chicago, triggering an examination of three United Parcel Service Inc. planes Oct. 29 and confiscation of a FedEx Corp. parcel. Both companies halted services from Yemen.
The attempted cargo bombings seem to be the work of al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist organization that took credit for the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane hijackings in the U.S., John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, said on Oct. 31.
Qatar Airways said on Oct. 31 that it carried the bomb discovered in Dubai on two different flights. Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker today told reporters in Hanoi that another airline may have carried the package, citing a shipment document from FedEx.
Qatar Flight?
“There’s a possibility that this package actually wasn’t carried by Qatar Airways,” he said. The original information was “immature and not properly researched,” he said.
U.S. and U.K. officials have said they suspect the bombs were designed to explode on the airplanes.
The authorities avoided a human and economic disaster, said Representative Jane Harman, chairwoman of the U.S. House subcommittee on homeland security and intelligence.
“If we had one or two Lockerbie-style explosions, it would certainly have chilled some air travel for a period,” Harman, a California Democrat, said in an interview.
The 1988 detonation of a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has sent “a team of experts” to Sana’a to help bolster the country’s package-screening operation, John Pistole, the agency’s administrator, said on CBS’s “Early Show” yesterday.
Yemen Cargo Halt
Pistole also extended for another week a temporary halt on all cargo coming out of Yemen to the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told MSNBC yesterday.
Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who was co-author of a law requiring the screening of all cargo on passenger planes, said he’ll introduce a similar measure for all packages on cargo planes.
In Asia, South Korea has tightened security checks on cargo originating from Yemen and other countries considered to be dangerous, said Sohn Moon Gap, a customs official. Japan told airlines to follow U.S. regulations and block any U.S.-bound freight from Yemen, said Mitsugu Sato, an official in the Civil Aviation Bureau at the nation’s transport ministry.
Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department and the Singapore Police Force didn’t immediately respond to questions from Bloomberg News.
Intelligence Update
The U.K.’s Cameron held a meeting of his government’s emergency planning committee, Cobra, to focus on Yemen, aviation security and the latest intelligence update.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere canceled a trip to Israel and instead traveled yesterday to the Cologne/Bonn airport, through which one of the bombs transited, to discuss security issues.
Authorities are focusing on Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the al-Qaeda bomb-maker behind plots to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day and to kill the prince spearheading Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism effort, said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named because the investigation isn’t complete.
The bombs could have caused considerable damage, a German government official said yesterday on the condition that he not be identified. One package contained 400 grams of PETN, the same type of explosive used to target the Northwest Airlines flight, while the other contained 300 grams, the official said.
Detonate by Mobile Phone
One of the two intercepted packages was set to be detonated by a mobile phone and the other by a timer, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
The Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index dropped 1.7 percent today. The Bloomberg EMEA Airlines Index fell 0.7 percent yesterday.
Investigators have to presume other devices may still be out there, Brennan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Oct. 31.
The tip about the bombs on the two cargo planes came from Jabr al-Faifi, a former al-Qaeda member, the BBC reported yesterday, citing U.K. officials.
Yemeni sources told the al-Masdar news website yesterday that they doubted al-Faifi was the tipster because he had turned himself in two weeks ago and wasn’t in a position to know the specifics of the bomb plot.
Al-Faifi was released from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2006, said Mark Ballesteros, a Defense Department spokesman.
Yemeni security forces on Oct. 31 released a woman, Hanan al-Samawi, who was arrested with her mother on suspicion of attempting to send two parcel bombs.
Woman Released
Hundreds of students rallied at Sana’a University yesterday to celebrate the return of their schoolmate.
“I am innocent and there is no evidence that proves my conviction,” al-Samawi said in an interview.
Fourteen al-Qaeda militants surrendered in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, the country’s Defense Ministry said yesterday on its website. The ministry didn’t say whether those who surrendered were linked to the parcel bombs plot.
Al-Qaeda’s organization in Yemen has stepped up violence since June, killing dozens of security personnel in a series of raids in southern cities. The impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation is also battling separatists in the north.
Representative Peter King of New York, ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee and a frequent administration critic, praised U.S. officials.
“They did what needed to be done with the actionable intelligence they received and also shared information with our allies and with local law enforcement,” he said in a statement.
Harman said just as important as good intelligence is support for the Yemeni government’s efforts to get more international financial aid.
In August, the International Monetary Fund approved a three-year, $370 million loan for Yemen aimed at cutting the deficit and reducing poverty.
Money “could help a lot in reducing the number of Yemenis and foreigners who are enticed there for terror training and to pick up these bombs,” Harman said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net; Mohammed Hatem Hasan Ali in Sana’a at mhasanali@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net.
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page