U.K. official: Aircraft was likely target of attack

(CNN) -- A suspicious package discovered at the United Kingdom's East Midlands airport contained "viable explosives," and could have brought down an aircraft upon detonation, British Home Secretary Theresa May said Saturday.

The preliminary U.K. investigation indicates that the target may have been an aircraft, May said, but authorities do not believe the perpetrators would have known the location of the device when they detonated it.

May added that there is no indication of any other attack on British soil, and the threat level in the United Kingdom remains unchanged and at severe threat level.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told CNN Saturday that the plan to send explosives on a flight to the United States has the "hallmarks of al Qaeda,"

"We know that the perpetrators of this -- and it has the hallmarks of al Qaeda, the AQAP -- they are constantly trying things to test our system," she said, referring to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The suspected terror plot involved two suspicious packages found abroad, addressed to Jewish organizations in the United States, that contained considerable amounts of explosive material.

The devices were designed to be detonated by a cell phone, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

President Barack Obama confirmed that the packages -- intercepted in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates -- originated in Yemen, the stronghold of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"We also know that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ... continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies," he said during a press briefing on the incident Friday.

"Initial examination of those packages has determined they do apparently contain explosive material," Obama said.

The devices were "professionally" loaded and connected using an electric circuit to a mobile phone chip tucked in a printer, Dubai police told WAM, the official news agency for the United Arab Emirates.

They were packed in toner cartridges and designed to be detonated by a cell phone, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

Police said they were tipped off about the possibility of an explosive device in postal packages onboard a FedEx flight from Yemen headed to Dubai.

The Saudi government provided U.S. officials with tracking numbers of the two packages, enabling quick tracing to the United Kingdom and Dubai, a source told CNN.

"What happened is you have great information sharing from the Saudis," Napolitano said Saturday. "We were immediately able to work across the globe to get these packages segregated."

Pressed by CNN's T.J. Holmes on whether the United States would have known about the plot had it not been for the Saudis, she said, "We certainly got the heads-up from the Saudis."

"I don't want to go into other intelligence," she said. "That would be inappropriate. I don't play the 'what if' game. What if the Saudis hadn't told us? We share information. We share information like this across the globe. The ability for passengers to travel safely is a global issue and all countries of the world need to be involved here."

Mohammed Albasha, a Yemen Embassy spokesman in Washington, said no UPS or FedEx flights take off or land in Yemen. He said his government is investigating, but it was too early to speculate or reach any conclusions.

Yemen is cooperating with regional and international partners, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the spokesman said.

A Yemeni government official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said Saturday that police would close UPS and FedEx offices in the country as part of the investigation. Packages bound to the United States from Yemen "are being inspected and scrutinized as part of the investigation," the official said.

He said workers at local UPS and FedEx offices were questioned, as were other cargo workers.

The package found at East Midlands Airport contained a "manipulated" toner cartridge and had white powder on it as well as wires and a circuit board, a law enforcement source said Friday. A similar package set to be shipped on a FedEx cargo plane was discovered in Dubai, officials there said.

The source close to the investigation said the type of material found in the devices was PETN, a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. Six grams of PETN are enough to blow a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft.

PETN was allegedly one of the components of the bomb concealed by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to set off an explosion aboard a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.

Abdul Mutallab is alleged to have been carrying 80 grams of PETN in that botched attack -- also believed to be the workings of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

By comparison, the source said the two devices found Friday contained multiple times more PETN.

Both packages bore addresses in the United States, "specifically two places of Jewish worship in Chicago," Obama said.

The packages led to increased searches of cargo planes and trucks in several U.S. cities, said law enforcement sources with detailed knowledge of the investigation.

White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said that "the materials that were found and the device that was discovered were intended to do harm."

The Transportation Security Administration on Friday stopped all packages originating from Yemen, and shipping companies UPS, FedEx and DHL all said they were complying with the order. May said Saturday that all cargo into or through the United Kingdom originating in Yemen was halted as well.

Counterterrorism officials are taking the threat "very seriously," Obama said. The Department of Homeland Security said it has taken measures to intensify security.

"We have put in place enhanced protections for cargo and passengers emanating from Yemen and making sure we identify all packages coming from there," Napolitano said Saturday. She stressed that officials are acting out of "an abundance of caution."

By the CNN Wire Staff

via http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/30/security.concern/index.html?hpt=T1

(BREAKING NEWS) TSA moves planes after reports of suspicious cargo

Planes were moved out of an abundance of caution, TSA says.

(CNN) -- Authorities were responding to reports of suspicious items on cargo flights that landed Friday in Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Planes "were moved to a remote location ... out of an abundance of caution," the Transportation Security Administration said.
In Philadelphia, the fire department's hazardous material units were responding to an incident involving two aircraft -- a UPS plane and a 757 jet with no one aboard, officials said.
Three people aboard one of the planes were scanned with negative results, the Philadelphia Fire Department said.

The type of material that may be involved is not known, officials said.

By the CNN Wire Staff

Via http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/29/security.concern/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

Bin Laden tape is real, French say

                                                               Bin Laden warns France to get out of Afghanistan

Paris, France (CNN) -- A tape of a man claiming to be Osama Bin Laden threatening France appears to be authentic, the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Bin Laden warned France to get its troops out of Afghanistan and not to oppress Muslims at home in a tape broadcast by the Al-Jazeera network Wednesday.

"If you want to tyrannize and think that it is your right to ban the free women from wearing the burqa, isn't it our right to expel your occupying forces, your men from our lands by striking them by the neck?" the speaker demands, in reference to recently passed French legislation barring women from covering their faces in public.

"This message only confirms the reality of the terrorist threat against which the French authorities have taken and continue to take appropriate measures," the ministry said in a statement Thursday.

"French authorities are fully mobilized to secure the release of seven hostages kidnapped in Niger on September 16. These statements by Bin Laden will not affect our assessment of the situation of our hostages and obviously will, therefore, not erode our efforts to secure their release. France will continue to fight against terrorism alongside its partners," the ministry said.



Five French nationals were kidnapped last month along with a person from Togo and one from Madagascar. A photograph of them was posted September 30 on a website linked to al Qaeda.

French authorities are treating the Bin Laden message "very, very seriously," CNN counterterror analyst Paul Cruickshank said.

An opposition lawmaker Wednesday urged "contempt towards these terrorists.

"All of this is derisory, contemptible. We must take this message for what it is but we must stand together in France, all French, whatever the circumstances and whatever our differences," said Francois Loncle, a Socialist Party member of the foreign relations committee of the National Assembly said on RTL radio.

The demands of the speaker on the tape are clear.

"The only way to safeguard your nation and maintain your security is to lift all your injustice and its extensions off our people and most importantly to withdraw your forces from Bush's despicable war in Afghanistan," the speaker says.

The tape is audio only. The speaker does not appear. CNN was not able to confirm that it is really Osama Bin Laden, the head of al Qaeda.

But fake Bin Laden tapes have never been broadcast, U.S. intelligence experts say.

"As you kill us, you will be killed. As you imprison us, you will be imprisoned, and as you threaten our security, we will threaten your security and the initiator of the injustice is the true aggressor," the speaker says.

The France's terror alert level is red, the second highest, authorities say. It did not change immediately in response to the new tape.

Paris has been on edge lately, with the Eiffel Tower having been evacuated twice.

Al Qaeda has issued a series of threats against France in the past, and French citizens have been killed by groups in Africa claiming affiliation with Bin Laden's group.

Bin Laden is still providing strategic direction to al Qaeda from a base somewhere in Pakistan, Cruickshank said.

"He is still involved in actual plotting... signing off on (an) operation, Western intelligence authorities believe," he said.

But there have been only two successful attacks on the West since September 11, 2001, he pointed out.

Commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, were bombed in March, 2004, killing 191 people. Public transport in London, England, was bombed in July, 2005, killing 52, plus four suicide bombers.

France has 3,750 troops in Afghanistan, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

French lawmakers approved a ban on full-face veils in September, citing security concerns and saying they violated women's human rights. The ban is scheduled to come into effect in the spring.

By the CNN Wire Staff

Via http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/28/france.bin.laden/index.html?npt=NP1

Aid sits as Cholera spreads in Haiti

I visited one of the largest warehouses in Port-au-Prince yesterday. It is a large structure behind a big blue gate and a handful of security guards. I went to get a better understanding of how lifesaving supplies are distributed in the middle of a cholera outbreak. Outside, workers from aid organizations were also waiting to take supplies to patients in St. Marks, the epicenter of the outbreak.

It quickly became clear that it was going to be a long day. One of the workers told me she had been waiting for several hours to pick up the supplies despite the fact that she had all the necessary paperwork and authorizations. No one was available to help her. After sitting there frustrated nearly the whole day, she eventually left empty-handed, telling me this wasn’t at all unusual. “Typical Third World red tape,” she added.

I eventually made my way into the warehouse, where I expected to see the shelves bare from the recent demand for supplies to treat thousands of patients with cholera. Instead, the warehouse was almost full, with boxes of lifesaving IV fluids sitting there since July, as evidenced by their packaging slips. I asked to speak to someone in charge of the warehouse, and was told I would need to wait a few more hours. I waited.

Three hours later, I met the health management adviser. “We are doing the best we can,” he started. “Look, we saved thousands of lives with supplies,” he added. That was true, yet it still was baffling to me that so many simple lifesaving supplies were in a warehouse in Haiti, had been there for months, and were still sitting there, while hundreds of people died. “ We were blindsided,” he admitted. “No one expected a cholera outbreak.”

There hadn’t been a case of cholera in Haiti for many decades and it is still not clear why one is happening now. “But, still, the supplies are sitting there in tens of thousands of boxes. Why didn’t you distribute them?” I asked. “We have to plan ahead,” he said. “We can’t simply send all of our supplies to one area. What if Port-au-Prince was hit tomorrow?”

And, therein lies one of the big challenges with aid distribution. Trying to meet the immediate need in a disaster while also anticipating future demands. I have seen it happen over and over again in Haiti since the earthquake. It is a bitter irony. People die for lack of lifesaving supplies, even though the supplies were right there in front of them.

Of course, in this case, the supplies in question were not expensive medicines or difficult to transport technology. In this case, it was simple and cheap. It was rehydration packets and IV fluids. In the year 2010, there are still people on their hands and knees begging for clean water.

By Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

Via http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/28/blindsided-in-the-third-world/?hpt=T1

Man charged with plotting to bomb D.C.-area Metrorail stations

Washington (CNN) -- A Virginia man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly attempting to help others he thought were members of al Qaeda in planning multiple bombings at Metrorail stations in the Washington area, the Department of Justice said.

Farooque Ahmed, 34, appeared briefly later Wednesday before federal Magistrate John Anderson at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The court will appoint an attorney for Ahmed, and he was ordered to remain in custody until a detention hearing Friday, said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Ahmed on Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

"In announcing this arrest, officials emphasized that at no time was the public in danger during this investigation and that the FBI was aware of Ahmed's activities from before the alleged attempt began and closely monitored his activities until his arrest," the statement said. "The public should be assured that there was no threat against Metrorail or the general public in the Washington, D.C., area."



Metrorail is the name of the subway system that serves the greater Washington area, including suburbs in northern Virginia and south-central Maryland.

Ahmed is charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility and attempting to provide material support "to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties" at the Washington-area stations, authorities said. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the arrest is "another important example" of work by the FBI, all levels of law enforcement and the national security team "to keep our country safe."

"At no point was the public in any danger," Gibbs said.

In a statement, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said, "This arrest reinforces the need for continued vigilance by Metro and its customers."

Carr said Ahmed was dressed in casual clothes and had a long beard at the court appearance, where he appeared reserved and "addressed the judge respectfully."

Ahmed was arrested at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday at a hotel in Herndon, Virginia, according to Carr.
Ahmed attempted to assist others "whom he believed to be members of al Qaeda" from April through Monday in planning multiple bombings at the stations, according to the indictment.

Federal authorities declined to provide further information on the identities of the purported al Qaeda members who allegedly were in contact with Ahmed.

On April 18, Ahmed allegedly drove to a hotel in Dulles, Virginia, and met with a courier who he thought was affiliated with a terrorist organization, the indictment said. That person "provided Ahmed with a document that provided potential locations at which future meetings could be arranged," the Justice Department said, citing the indictment.

On May 15, Ahmed allegedly agreed to "watch and photograph" a Washington hotel as well as a Metrorail station in Arlington, Virginia, "to obtain information about their security and busiest periods," the department said.

Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, "allegedly participated in surveillance and recorded video images of Metrorail stations in Arlington, Virginia, on four occasions," the statement said.
On or about July 19, in a Sterling, Virginia, hotel room, Ahmed allegedly gave a memory stick containing video images of the station to "an individual whom Ahmed believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda," according to the indictment. That same day, he allegedly agreed to assess the security of two other Metrorail stations in Arlington as possible locations of terrorist attacks, the Justice Department statement said.

And in a Herndon hotel room on September 28, Ahmed allegedly handed over a USB drive containing images of two Arlington Metrorail stations to a person he thought was affiliated with al Qaeda, authorities said. He also allegedly provided diagrams he drew of three Arlington Metrorail stations and provided suggestions as to where explosives should be placed on trains at the stations "to kill the most people" in simultaneous attacks planned for 2011, the Justice Department said.

"Today's case underscores the need for continued vigilance against terrorist threats and demonstrates how the government can neutralize such threats before they come to fruition, said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. "Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a coordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans."

By the CNN Wire Staff
Via http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/27/virginia.plot.arrest/index.html?hpt=T1

Verizon CEO throws wet blanket on iPhone rumors

Though rumors about the possibility of Apple launching a CDMA-compatible iPhone on Verizon have been picking up steam lately—our own sources have told us that an LTE-capable iPhone has been in testing in Boston for several months—Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg suggested Thursday that it might not be coming in January as many had hoped.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, Seidenberg made no mention of an iPhone model being made to work on Verizon's current EVDO/CDMA network. Instead, he "hoped" that Apple would consider making an iPhone to work with its nascent LTE 4G network.

"We would love to carry [the iPhone] when we get there, but we have to earn it," Seidenberg told investors. "I think 4G will accelerate the process, and any other decisions Apple makes would be fine with us. Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program."

Those comments may be bad news to the significant percentage of current iPhone users locked to AT&T in the US who would likely switch to Verizon if given the chance. Our own reader survey earlier this year also suggested that there are plenty of existing Verizon customers who would be interested in an iPhone that worked on the largest US network. Though Verizon has been very successful with a strong lineup of Android-powered smartphones from Motorola and HTC, pent-up demand for a CDMA-compatible iPhone definitely exists.

However, other evidence suggests that a CDMA-compatible iPhone is in the works, even if Seidenberg isn't willing to work with Apple to bring it to his network. Component suppliers have hinted that Apple is prepping to build at least 3 million CDMA iPhones in December, which would track with a manufacturing ramp-up for a rumored January launch.

As mentioned above, we've heard through the grapevine that an LTE/CDMA iPhone has been in testing on Verizon's network in the Boston area, and that the rumored January launch was contingent on Verizon meeting its stated goal of launching its LTE network in 30 major markets by year's end. If Verizon isn't on track to meet that goal, it may have resulted in Apple changing its mind. Still, a CDMA-compatible iPhone could launch on other networks, including Sprint in the US, and China Mobile and SK Telecom in Asia.

Whatever the problem is between Verizon and Apple, though, customers certainly don't care—they just want the popular device to work on their preferred network. It would be beneficial to both Verizon and Apple to work out a deal, and work it out soon, while demand is still high.

By Chris Foresman
Via http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/09/verizon-ceo-throws-wet-blanket-on-iphone-rumors.ars

Democrat David Cicilline, mayor of Providence, is ahead in polls for Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline is the openly gay mayor of Providence
• Cicilline is running to fill Rep. Patrick Kennedy's seat in the 1st Congressional District
• If elected, he would become the fourth openly gay member in the House (if others are re-elected)

Washington (CNN) -- In a year when Democrats are widely considered politically handicapped, openly gay House candidate David Cicilline has bucked the trend in his race to represent Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District.

Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, is up by double digits in the polls, holds a fundraising advantage against his competitor, Republican John Loughlin II, and has received a slew of endorsements.

And he has the help from the Democratic big guns. On Monday, President Obama stumped in the state for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lending support for Cicilline, among others.
If elected, Cicilline, 49, would be one of four openly gay members of Congress -- joining the ranks of Democratic Reps. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jared Polis of Colorado (assuming they win their re-election bids).

Robin Brand, deputy executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, said her nonpartisan political action committee decided to endorse the mayor mainly because of his leadership track record.

 

"He had been a successful state legislator, successful mayor and really came out of the starting gate as the front-runner in this race," Brand said. "He is a really strong campaigner."
But he still has work to do, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
The report deems the district "Lean Democrat." It previously changed its ranking in September from "Likely Democrat" to "Lean Democrat" after Cicilline was forced to acknowledge that the city had "improperly given him pay raises as mayor between 2006 and 2009."

It's a point that Loughlin was able to capitalize on.

"David Cicilline illegally collected more than $20,000 in salary that he was not entitled to -- and he only gave it back because he got caught," Loughlin said at a press conference last week. "If we can't trust him to watch our money in city hall, how can we trust him to watch our money in Washington?"

Cook Political Report points out that while Loughlin has begun to rip into Cicilline's record as mayor, "Cicilline still enters the homestretch in reasonably good shape. ... Loughlin doesn't have a ton of money left, and Cicilline is ahead anywhere from one to two dozen points in public polling."

Brand said that Cicilline's record on gay and lesbian issues is hardly a reason why he may appeal to a large swath of Democratic voters in the district, a seat now held by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, who isn't seeking re-election.

Cicilline's "focus has been on the issues that people care about right now, which is economic development and jobs," she said. "He has a strong reputation for building Providence's economy and I think that focus for him has really been what has propelled him to the front of this race and put him in a really strong position to win this seat on November 2."

The state's largest newspaper -- The Providence Journal -- is also supporting him.

The paper's endorsement reads: "Mr. Cicilline has been an honest, energetic and often innovative mayor. ... He has cleansed city government of much of its reputation for corruption and hired capable people. ... He has brought a level of fiscal discipline (including in relations with the city's far too powerful public-employee unions) that has not been seen in the city for many decades."

Perhaps the most likely reason that Cicilline can win, Brand added, is that voters are less likely now to care about a candidate's sexuality because of the economic problems facing the country.

Mr. Cicilline has been an honest, energetic and often innovative mayor.
--The Providence Journal endorsement

 

"Ultimately, voters vote for candidates who are going to help improve their lives. It doesn't matter if you're gay or lesbian," she said. "If you've demonstrated that you've helped improve people's lives on the issues they care about, our research shows that being openly gay or lesbian is really secondary to that."

And that's certainly the case for Laure Rondeau, an elderly Catholic woman in Providence, who told NPR that sexuality doesn't play a factor in her vote.

"[Sexual orientation] doesn't bother me at all,'' Rondeau said in the interview. "He's been a good mayor of Providence, and I think he'd do well in Congress.''

In many ways, his sexuality may be a plus to some voters angry at Washington's backroom deals and candidates deemed distant, out of touch and dishonest, Brand said.

"It's clear that it may not be easy to run as openly gay or lesbian, but they are being open and honest about who they are," she said. "Voters really respect that, and I think that, in some ways, can really be an advantage especially in times like this."

Across the country, another openly gay House candidate -- backed by the Victory Fund -- is hoping to ride that same wave.

Steve Pougnet, 47, the Democratic mayor of Palm Springs, California, is running against Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack in the state's 45th Congressional District.

While the incumbent's poll numbers are high and fundraising dollars continue to pour in, political observers note that she faces a challenge this year from Pougnet -- a well-liked politician who has a husband and two children.

The Cook Political Report rates the district "Likely Republican."

"Bono Mack remains strong here because she is one of the most moderate members of the California delegation," according to Cook's analysis. "Now, they finally have a credible candidate in Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, who is receiving the kind of national support that past nominees have not enjoyed."

The report goes on to say that Pougnet remains a "heavy underdog" because of the GOP lawmaker's moderate voting record. (She was one of eight Republicans to vote for Democrats' "cap and trade" energy bill.)

At least 112 dead, more than 500 missing after Indonesia quake