Yemen’s ‘Dry’ Run

Nov 4, 2010 by James

It appears that officials were wrong in saying that Al Qaeda’s plot to ship explosives from Yemen to the United States was a “dry run.” One of the packages destined for the US was defused in France just 17 minutes before it was set to detonate. The French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, provided no other details in an interview on France’s state-run France-2 television, or say where he got the information about the timing. The packages that were found within the United States were examined by the FBI and also appeared to be running off of a cell phone timer. Authorities said that the SIM cards were removed from the phone, meaning they can not receive or make calls, so using the timer was the only option. It is unclear how close the bombs in the U.S. were to detonation.

The packages have the same characteristics of the failed Christmas day bombing last year on a Detroit bound aircraft. Intelligence officials have focused on the Yemeni al-Qaeda faction’s top bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. Yemen has recently become a haven for terrorists and while Yemen talks about policing them; they are not. According to a German police official the amount of explosives present in the devices was about 400 grams; more than enough to severely damage or destroy that aluminum tube you’re flying in.

Whats funny to me is that the United States would have been knee deep in a slaughter if it was not for Saudi Arabian intelligence. Saudi Arabia provided all of the intel on the planned attacks and even gave the U.S. the UPS tracking numbers for the packages. I also want to point out that this would not have been prevented by TSA’s crotch grabbing rub pat down procedures. I think we can ask for our privacy back now and start funding Saudi Arabian intelligence. While nothing terrible happened from all of this it surly could have and you know TSA is going to run with this. Say goodbye to your ink pens as they could harbor explosives ya know.

What we should take away from this is Homeland Security is a joke. Since 9/11 we have poured billions of dollars into the organization and in the end we have to get all of our intelligence from Saudi Arabia. This was a very large and planned attack that should have been picked up by one of our 1,000 agencies who now focus on terrorism. In the end though TSA, Homeland, FBI and the CIA won’t do anything proactive they will just make it harder for you to get your UPS package and easier for TSA to feel your package.

Source: Huffington Post