Al Qaeda Fails Again in Attempted Cargo Plane Attacks

This week-end, the media were all atwitter over two bombs found in parcels shipped out of Yemen. The details are fuzzy yet, or the governments involved are putting out deliberate disinformation. However, what is clear is that the two packages contained laser printers that had their toner cartridges filled with pentaerythritol tetranitrate [PETN], the same explosive used in Underwear Bomber's failed Christmas Day attack last year. Once again, Al Qaeda appears to be staffed by rank amateurs who, fortunately for the civilized world, can't make bombs that actually explode.

Cargo transportation is less well-screened than passenger travel, and it represents a major weak spot in security. The US government itself has noted that 95% of the containers that come into US ports don't get inspected. Al Qaeda's fascination with aviation means that the terrorists have failed to exploit that weakness so far. However, the two bombs shipped by UPS and FedEx suggest that Al Qaeda is beginning to get creative in its murder attempts.

The authorities can't seem to agree at this stage (or don't want to tell the public) whether the bombs were designed to blow up on delivery to a pair of Chicago synagogues or whether they were supposed to blow up while still in the planes. If the latter, the Keystone Kops quality to Al Qaeda's activities in recent years continues. If the former, it raises questions of why Chicago (President Obama's hometown)? Why those particular synagogues (Or Chadash, a North Side congregation of about 100 members, serves gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews)? Why not more bombs?

The civilized world is operating on the premise that there are other bombs in the delivery networks. It would be the height of imprudence to believe otherwise. Moreover, Yemen seems to be under an air freight embargo until better security is arranged. Nevertheless, one can't help but think that Al Qaeda is lousy at blowing up airplanes despite several attempts.

On TV yesterday, deputy national security adviser John Brennan called the bombs "very sophisticated," and he noted, "They were self-contained. They were able to be detonated at a time of the terrorists' choosing." If so, why did the terrorists allow these bombs to fly around the Middle East and all the way to the Midlands of the UK and still not set them off? Ineptitude is the only logical answer.

Compare these antics to the effective terrorism in Baghdad during the same period. A team of insurgents hit an Assyrian Christian church just as services were beginning and church goers were held hostage. The Iraq-Namese army eventually stormed the church. The death toll was 42 worshippers, 7 soldiers, and the attackers. Shipping bombs that don't go off or failing to explode a car bomb in Times Square are hardly comparable acts. One hopes that Al Qaeda stays focused on ineptly attacking airplanes because American churches are no more secure than those in Baghdad.

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