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Obama Vows to 'Destroy' al Qaeda in Yemen After Bomb Discovery

1 year ago
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David Wood
David Wood
Chief Military Correspondent
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President Obama on Friday vowed to "destroy'' al Qaeda in Yemen after two explosive devices were found aboard U.S.-bound cargo jets.

The apparent destinations for the two explosive packages, which authorities disabled, were two Jewish synagogues in Chicago, although the president did not specify which ones. At a White House news conference, Obama called the plot a "credible terrorist attack against our country" and vowed that counterintelligence agencies would "take whatever steps are necessary" to prevent an attack.

U.S. intelligence learned late Thursday that explosives may have been planted among the tons of cargo on U.S.-bound cargo jets flying from Yemen. Agents working with British intelligence and others quickly found one device on an airliner at Britain's East Midlands airport, and another on a cargo jet parked at the Dubai airport. Officials declined to say how they learned of the plot.
Each package was roughly the size of a bread box and contained "explosive materials ... in a form that was designed to try to carry out some type of attack,'' said John Brennan, White House counter-terrorism chief, who spoke after the president. "They were intended "to do harm.''

Brennan and other officials stressed that the investigation has not yet determined whether the planted devices were part of a probe to test western counter-terrorism defenses or an actual attempted attack. Nor do officials know if there are other explosive packages hidden aboard jetliners. "We don't want to presume that we know the bounds of this plot,'' he said.
No suspects have been arrested, but the White House implicated al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), centered in Yemen. The president noted that the Department of Homeland Security had increased screening of planes carrying cargo from Yemen at the Newark, N.J. and Philadelphia airports, and that it would also assume additional protective measures "for as long as it takes."

"Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Yemeni government to disrupt plotting by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and to destroy this al Qaeda affiliate," the president said.

But it may be easier said than done.

Just as the United States has had trouble going after or even finding al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the terrorist franchise in Yemen presents a difficult target. The organization is comprised of several hundred operatives spread across the barren mountains and desert scrubland of Yemen, a desperately poor country with a weak government and a military, like that of Pakistan, that has had some ties with terrorist organizations.
Yet in both Pakistan and Yemen, the government is prickly about having a foreign power killing citizens on its own soil. Both Yemen and Pakistan have at times forbidden U.S. attacks with drones or strike aircraft. Senior U.S. officials have chafed at the restrictions put on U.S. air strikes by the Yemeni government, and generally have let the Yemeni military take the lead in attacks on suspected AQAP camps.
Both countries have aggressively resisted allowing American ground forces to operate in their countries, although there are several dozen Special Forces soldiers working as trainers in both Pakistan and Yemen. But without the relentless threat and pressure of ground or air strikes, U.S. officials have said, AQAP has grown from a minor gang of thugs into the primary threat against the United States.
It is "the most active operational franchise right now of al Qaeda,'' Brennan said. The United States has seen "a steady improvement'' in cooperation from the Yemeni government, but he added pointedly: "It needs to improve more.''

The most recent known U.S. strike on AQAP came last December, days before Umar Abdul Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who had spent time in Yemen, tried to detonate a bomb given to him by AQAP agents as he flew on a jetliner toward Detroit. Like others, including the Fort Hood shooter, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, and the would-be Times Square bomber, Abdulmutallab was a devotee of the American-born and -educated radical cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who is in hiding in Yemen.

According to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Brennan first alerted President Obama of the threat Thursday at 10:35 p.m. Throughout the night, Brennan was in contact with directors from the spectrum of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, CIA, FBI, National Security Administration, Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.

Both President Obama and Brennan highlighted the coordination of international efforts to intercept the packages, saying the U.S. was able to call on "friends and allies," including the British government. He noted that the "community kicked into gear" and that "the system worked very, very well."

Brennan said there did not seem to be any link with this incident and the recent threat of terrorist attacks in several European cities. President Obama does not intend on altering his planned travel this weekend but he did underscore the "necessity of remaining vigilant."

The incident set off a flurry of activity and false reports at airports Friday. Agents rifled through cargo at several East Coast airports without finding anything unusual. And Canadian F-18 and U.S. F-15 jets, scrambled by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, intercepted an Emirates airliner from Dubai and escorted it across the East Coast and into New York's John F. Kennedy Airport Friday for reasons that weren't immediately clear. The jetliner landed without incident.

Politics Daily White House Correspondent Alex Wagner contributed to this report.
Filed Under: Terror, Obama Administration, International, Military, White House, Afghanistan
Tagged: al qaeda arabian peninsula, anwar al-awlaki, cargo terrorist bombs, obama yemen, Yemen bomb plot
More articles from David Wood »

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17 Comments

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Anna

And the President was directly in touch with the state department. Rumors of former rivals being "enemies" are highly fictionalized and overstated.

November 11 2010 at 9:49 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
johnlinzer

it seems like Obama was trying to give them healthcare

November 02 2010 at 8:51 PM Report abuse +15 rate up rate down Reply
Jack

What an idiot! Obamas Administration is a laughing stock! We catch Shazad red handed right before the explosion, an explosion that could have killed hundreds of my friends and neighbors in Times Square and injured hundreds more, Shazad comes into court before a Federal Judge, he says he did it and he was glad and he would do it again and what happens? The Federal Judge gives this animal that I have to pay taxes to support, Life In Prison! Of course Al-Queda sent over the bombs, its a kiss to Obama for not hanging that scum! Now Obama says hes going to destroy Al-Queda! What a joke, who does he think hes talking to? 2 more years baby and your gone!

November 02 2010 at 1:06 AM Report abuse +11 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Jack's comment
jjmaninblack

well Jack...what would you do... turn him loose?? just how wonderful a life in prison do you think this scum bag is going to have??... for the rest of his life. Personally, I would have shipped him off to a Turkish prison.. ours are too comfortable.

November 02 2010 at 8:38 AM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
cfbsouthernbelle

I totally agree. 2 more years and he will be gone for sure. And thank God he is the worst president we have ever had. I'm so looking forward to vote him out.

November 22 2010 at 1:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
thomashopp1

What if certain U.S. government officials were in collusion with terrorists? Not to harm Americans, but to influence elections. I published just this sort of thing in my short story, The Re-Election Plot. Maybe something of that nature is happening here. -Thomas Hopp, author of the Peyton McKean Mysteries

November 01 2010 at 11:35 AM Report abuse +6 rate up rate down Reply
Paul

Please note;TOL "COMMENT MODERATION ENABLED" TOL .I have had a comment totally excluded because it was not complimentary to the terrorists but also included my family's eternal and deep thanks to our heros in the military.Now to this subject;Naturally PAK. and Yemen dont want us in there because me might kill some bad guys ! They have been really tough on al queda by shooting at empty camps a little.You see if the prob. is eliminated they wont have a good reason to ask for millions of dollars for AID,deja vue !! '

October 31 2010 at 9:34 PM Report abuse +11 rate up rate down Reply
vonptrrn

But did he raise our very special Terror Alert??? I think I remember that there was another American President pissed off at them when the USS Cole was bombed... at least that did lead to some changes...shoot first and ask questions later.. Who remembers the little boats in the Arabian Gulf a few years ago.... -"we have bomb and we going to blow you up?" -meanwhile there was a bigger group of them attacking the offshore rigs in Qatar at the same time.. Why can't we all just get along...you do your thing on your side of the world and stay away from us ... okay?

October 30 2010 at 11:02 PM Report abuse +9 rate up rate down Reply
NKW

If he can do as good a job destroying Al Qaeda as he has our own country... have at it.

October 30 2010 at 8:40 PM Report abuse +20 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to NKW's comment
jjmaninblack

NKW.. are you rewriting history... it was the republicans who got us into this mess.. or do just watch FOX... If you really want to know what happened.. go back ten years.. and start reading forward...bye the time it got to Obama, we had an $8 trillion deficit.. this was after the Bush administration came rolling in on a $1 trillion surplus.. If nobody had done anything, we'd have 30% unemployment.. you probably being one of them..so you could have more time to read up on history.

November 02 2010 at 8:42 AM Report abuse -9 rate up rate down Reply
catalogsplus

Obama said it himself, so now can we hold him to it this time or will Bush be blamed for Obama growing failures, again?

October 30 2010 at 8:04 PM Report abuse +24 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to catalogsplus's comment
wolfsonnydiane

well lets hold Bush accountable for his failures hear is just a few of Bush's failures 1 failed to keep us safe [911]2 spent our surplus and 5,6 trillion dollars.3 failed to get BIN LADEN 4 Started 2 wars failed to win either left them for Obama to win 5 failed to grow our economy or create jobs in fact when he lefty office wew were loosing 700 thousand jobs a month6 failed to properly enforce regulations on banking industry resulting in the greastest loss in the stock market since the great depresson requireing a 700 billion bail out by americans to prevent a greater than great depression and also helped in the massive foreclousure mes we are eperincing today.Just wanted tyo clear up you amnesia for you

October 30 2010 at 9:39 PM Report abuse -6 rate up rate down Reply
lukylip98

The Presidental Dude is sounding more like Bush. Obama vowed to destroy al Qaeda in Yemen---is that now or after we are done in Iraq, Afganistan and Pakistan?

October 30 2010 at 6:36 PM Report abuse +13 rate up rate down Reply
witteyjb

More properganda! Take a look at the bomb! An old computer mother board, new mini hard drive & half a VHS tape player deck! The white powder is as big as my little finger & looks like explosive flour. Will they stop at nothing to win this election next Tuesday? If thats a bomb, my name is goofy!

October 30 2010 at 2:00 PM Report abuse +26 rate up rate down Reply

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