VIDEO from Dubai showing Mahan Air, Qatar Airways aircraft. U.S. intelligence officials intercepted three suspicious packages in September that they think were a dry run for Friday’s mail bomb scheme, a U.S. official said Monday. Authorities think the October 29, 2010 attempt was to bring down the aircraft over an U.S. city.
Suspected al-Qaida plotters behind a mail bomb scare last week performed a “dry run” in September, sending similar packages with books, papers, CDs and other household items rather than explosives from Yemen to Chicago to time how long they would take to be delivered.
The September packages were intercepted because return addresses were linked to al-Qaida in Yemen — the same group suspected in the cargo bombs found Oct. 29, 2010.