Bombing plot foiled? – Updated. New: Explosives found

(Scroll down for updates)

They’re still trying to kill us:

Authorities were investigating “potentially suspicious items” on Friday on cargo planes that landed at airports in Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, the Transportation Security Administration said.

“Out of an abundance of caution the planes were moved to a remote location where they are being met by law enforcement officials and swept,” the TSA said in a statement.

They’re also checking a UPS truck in New York, on which they may have found a bomb.

This may be partly why the terrorist chatter has picked up over the last few weeks.

Updates as they become available.

UPDATE: More from CNN

Airports in some of the United States were on high alert Friday after investigators found a suspicious package on a plane in the United Kingdom the night before, a law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation said.

The suspicious package, which contained a “manipulated” toner cartridge, tested negative for explosive material, the source said, but it led to heightened inspection of arriving cargo flights in Newark, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a UPS truck in New York.

Police also were investigating a suspicious package at the distribution center of an airport in East Midlands, in the United Kingdom, an airport spokesman said. Authorities said they could not immediately connect that investigation to the ones unfolding in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Authorities seemed most focused on inspecting cargo planes.

Investigators were examining two UPS planes that landed at Philadelphia International Airport and another at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, said Mike Mongeot, a UPS spokesman.

Authorities are focusing on flights coming from Yemen into the United States, according to the source.

Note: Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who has called for jihad attacks against the US, is hiding in Yemen.

UPDATE 2:Β  Explosives were found in Dubai on a plane headed for the US:

A suspicious device discovered in an air cargo shipment in Dubai that was headed for the U.S. contained explosive materials, an official UAE security source said Friday.

It was the first confirmation that any of the suspicious packages reported Friday contained explosives.

The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said late Friday the “explosive device” was found in the last 24 hours in a courier company’s regional hub and originated in a shipment from Yemen.

This looks like a carefully thought-out plan to use several “delivery paths,” some true and some false, in the hope that one or more gets through. Let’s hope we’ve found them all.

UPDATE 3: Synagogues may have been the target. Allahpundit wonders if al Qaeda has switched to mail bombs because getting a person into the US has become too difficult. I doubt it. More like they’re trying every avenue of attack, figuring one will work.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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