Israel Matzav

Friday, November 05, 2010

Report: Bomb not intended to reach Chicago synagogues

Here's a claim that one of the bombs shipped by UPS from Yemen was only 17 minutes from exploding - and therefore could not have been intended for a Chicago area synagogue.

According to French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, one of the two mail bombs addressed to Chicago synagogues, intercepted last week by authorities in the UK and UAE, was caught just in the nick of time.

Tipped off by Saudi Arabian intelligence agents, investigators pulled the bombs from cargo planes at airports in England and the United Arab Emirates.

Sappers managed to disarm the device only 17 minutes before it was set to go off, according to Hortefeux, who refused to release further details in an interview on state-run France-2 television. He also would not reveal the source of the information on the timing.

Although the packages were addressed to two Chicago synagogues, the addresses were out of date – and the names on the packages included a reference to the Crusades, fought between the Christians and Muslims.

As a result, officials are now saying they do not believe the synagogues were the intended targets.

And for those of you saying - like I did - but weren't these bombs meant to be exploded by cell phones....

Because the communication cards were removed, and the cell phones could not receive calls, U.S. officials have said it was likely that terrorists intended the alarm or timer functions to operate as detonators.

Hmmm.

UPDATE 2:18 PM

The US says it's unable to confirm that one of the bombs was 17 minutes from exploding.

Labels: Chicago, package bomb, UPS, Yemen

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

With these people in charge, all Americans should feel secure

Someone who wishes

to remain anonymous forwarded to me an email received from a Jewish organization whose name I won't mention with information about a conference call being held later in the week by the Secure Community Network (SCN), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Incredibly, the email came with a button to view it in a web browser (whose URL I will not post) and with a button for forwarding it.

The email announces an important call for key Jewish leaders concerning the UPS incident. It's meant for leaders of Jewish community organizations to hear reports and ask questions from senior homeland security officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies. On the call, the Department of Homeland Security will also discuss resources, tools and security considerations for improving awareness and security. They ask that each organization to limit its participation to a maximum of (2) participants per organization. (I redacted that in the hope of making it a little more difficult to find on Google.

What the.... I wonder how many al-Qaeda representatives will be on this call.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Department of Homeland Security, Jewish communal organizations, Secure Community Network, security officials, UPS