"Profiling" Packages key to security

Packages Must Be "Profiled," Just Like Passengers -Yaakov Katz

Profiling of cargo, shippers and a package's planned destination are key in uncovering terrorist plots involving air cargo, according to Pini Schiff, one of the founders of Ben-Gurion Airport's security division.

Israel, a world leader in aviation security, began investing resources in inspecting cargo and passengers back in the 1970s, after experiencing a number of hijackings and aviation-related attacks.

(Jerusalem Post)

U.S. Synagogues on Alert -Yitzhak Benhorin

U.S. synagogues and Jewish facilities were ordered to be extra cautious and thoroughly check any items received by mail, following the discovery of explosives bound for Jewish facilities in Chicago. Chicago police beefed up security around all the city's synagogues.

(Ynet News)

Package Bombs Linked to Al-Qaeda -Peter Finn & Mary Beth Sheridan

Investigators examining explosives found in packages intercepted in Britain and Dubai suspect the material points not only to the role of an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen but to Saudi bomb-maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, 28.  Asiri is also believed to have built the underwear bomb that a Nigerian man trained in Yemen attempted to detonate last Christmas Day on a commercial aircraft approaching Detroit.

A British minister said that the bomb found in Britain, in a package destined for a Chicago synagogue, was "viable" and could have brought down the UPS plane that was carrying it. U.S. officials said the packages were intercepted following a tip from intelligence officials in Saudi Arabia. 

(Washington Post)

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UPDATES:

Al-Qaeda in Yemen Becoming More Lethal -Robert Baer

The bombs found on airplanes in Dubai and Britain show a higher degree of professionalism than we've ever seen come out of al-Qaeda. If al-Qaeda indeed made them, they've teamed up with true professionals.

PETN, the explosive found in these two bombs, is the preferred explosive of professional bombmakers. It's particularly lethal, but more importantly it's malleable and can be disguised as all kinds of things.
(TIME)


The Foiled Yemeni Bomb Plot and Anti-Semitism - Lee Smith

Had a mosque been targeted, we can be sure that the president, rightly, would have denounced not only the act but the idea that it had singled out a particular section of the American people.
(Tablet)
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