Terror and Toner Cartridges

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Explosives Found in Parcels Meant for U.S. Delivery,” shows that the U.S. is still vulnerable to the plans of Al Qaeda.

The latest plot, hiding PETN explosive in printer toner cartridges, then sending them by parcel post to synagogues in Chicago, was fortunately foiled, but only after a hint from Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services. The explosives were sent by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a branch of Al Qaeda based in Yemen.

Yemen has been an active source of terror plots lately; the country also served as a base for the Christmas Day bombing plot, and serves as the home base for an influential American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who has emerged as a charismatic leader, perhaps second in influence only to Osama bin-Laden.

Fortunately, the two packages with the explosive toner were intercepted in Great Britain and Dubai before they could do any harm, but there were also a series of scary possibilities that turned out to be false alarms.

All this terrorist activity comes as the U.S. elections head towards the home stretch, and it is impossible to determine what effect, if any, they might have. I suspect the only real problem will rebound against the Democrats because this time is crucial for them to turn the Republican tide, and all the air time has suddenly been sucked away for an unrelated matter.