CARGO BOMB PLOT:Senior counter-terrorism officials in the UK warned yesterday that al-Qaeda has exposed a blind spot in international aviation security by successfully smuggling bombs onto commercial cargo planes bound for the US.
One official said the bomb inside a computer printer discovered at East Midlands airport, central England, on Friday, en route from Yemen to Chicago, was “one of the most sophisticated we’ve seen . . . The naked eye won’t pick it up, experienced bomb officers did not see it, X-ray screening is highly unlikely to catch it.”
Saudi Arabian intelligence was tipped off by an informant leading to the discovery of the devices at East Midlands airport and Dubai airport. A special team of secret service officers was activated as soon as the Saudi Arabian authorities tipped off US and UK intelligence agencies.
The home affairs minister, Theresa May, said yesterday the devices could have exploded over the UK or the US as it emerged that the bomb found in the UK was first missed by investigators and was only picked up during a second check.
“The package was examined and declared safe,” said a Metropolitan police spokesman. “It was subsequently re-examined as a precaution.”
In a further development which added to concern over the ease with which the explosive material used in the devices – Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN – can be passed through all kinds of airport security, Qatar Airways said the bomb found in Dubai had travelled on two separate passenger aircraft without being picked up.
The airline said the devices could not be picked up by X-ray screening or sniffer dogs.
The same explosive was used in the device smuggled aboard a flight to the US on Christmas Day last year, the so-called underpants bomb which only partially ignited.
John Brennan, the Obama administration’s counter-terrorism adviser, said the explosives “bear all of the hallmarks” of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the organisation responsible for the Christmas Day failed attempt.
Mr Brennan said the latest bombs were “very sophisticated”.
“It’s very similar in terms of the types of materials and the construction to some other devices that we have seen,” Mr Brennan said. He added that he agreed with British officials that the bombs were intended to bring down planes in flight, even though they were addressed to synagogues in Chicago.
American officials are conceding that although the bombs were tracked down after a tip-off from Saudi intelligence, the fact that a loss of life was averted was down to a certain amount of luck, he said.
Qatar Airways said the bomb discovered in Dubai on its way to Chicago with FedEx had been put on a passenger flight from the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to Doha in Qatar before being transferred to another plane to Dubai.
The company said it was not its responsibility to scan the cargo.
“Furthermore, the explosives discovered were of a sophisticated nature whereby they could not be detected by X-ray or trained sniffer dogs. The explosives were only discovered after an intelligence tip off,” said a spokesman for the company.
Meanwhile Yemeni authorities yesterday released Hanan al-Samawi, the student suspected of delivering the parcels to FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) offices. The focus of the international hunt was last night focused on Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, believed to be the bomb-maker, who is considered to be one of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula most radical adherents.
American suspicion has also focused on a radical American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, the only US citizen known to be on the CIA’s assassination list. Awlaki is believed to have provided the working knowledge used to assist several attempted attacks in the US bombers. – (Guardian service)