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A US official has told the BBC that suspect packages from Yemen were intercepted in September, in what may have been a dry run for last week's foiled parcel bomb plot.
The shipments from Yemen to Chicago are reported to have contained literature and other materials, but no explosives.
The idea was to test how long it would take for the packages to reach their destination, US officials suspect.
Last week, two parcel bombs were found on cargo planes in the UK and Dubai.
The parcels - with powerful PETN explosives hidden inside printer toner cartridges - were shipped from Yemen's capital Sanaa through UPS and another US cargo firm, FedEx.
Both packages - which have now been made safe - were addressed to synagogues in the US city of Chicago.
Investigators have linked the "dry run" and last weekend's bombs to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In other developments:
* Several countries have tightened air security measures, with the UK and Netherlands banning incoming cargo flights from Yemen and Nigeria - home to a man who tried to detonate a bomb in an aircraft over the US on Christmas Day - introducing explosive screening for some outbound freight
* Germany has taken it further, banning both cargo and passenger flights from Yemen
* Yemen has reacted angrily to the security measures taken by European countries, accusing them of "resorting to decisions which can only be likened to collective punishment" and reserving particular ire for the German measures
* The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which is holding an airline security conference in Frankfurt, has warned against governments "making knee-jerk reactions" to last week's bomb plot which it said could harm the air travel industry.
Originally posted by kiwifoot
AND IF IT IS A DRY RUN, HOW COME THE AUTHORITIES SAY THE "BOMBS" WERE "VIABLE" ie they were live. How is that a dry run!?
A US official has told the BBC that suspect packages from Yemen were intercepted in September, in what may have been a dry run for last week's foiled parcel bomb plot.
Originally posted by UnderstandingWisdom
Investigators have linked the "dry run" and last weekend's bombs to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
So this weekends False Flag wasn't the initial 'dry-run' people were talking about..
Originally posted by kiwifoot
(Cheers for pointing that out, I always hassle folk for just reading the title!! Practice what I preach!!)
Originally posted by UnderstandingWisdom
reply to post by kiwifoot
Originally posted by kiwifoot
(Cheers for pointing that out, I always hassle folk for just reading the title!! Practice what I preach!!)
where is my star then... Only joking (not really...or am I?)edit on 2/11/10 by UnderstandingWisdom because: typo
Originally posted by kiwifoot
Seriously, what is a dry run, it's an attempt to familiarise yourself with the mission, work out any problems, get to know the route.
Originally posted by kiwifoot
Whether it was this time or the one in September makes no odds. It's rubbish IMO!