Terrorist groups have managed to find a loophole in security procedures of airborne cargo and planted mail bombs bound for the US from Yemen, which were discovered due to a Saudi tipoff.

Despite the great efforts put into thwarting terrorist plots on airplanes in Western countries, security experts warn than some countries do not place sufficient importance on aircraft security and agree that intelligence is a crucial element in preventing terrorist attacks.

Plot Thickens Mail bomb in Dubai sent on 2 passenger planes Associated Press Spokesman for Qatar Airways says one of two powerful bombs mailed from Yemen to Chicago-area synagogues traveled on two airplanes within Middle East. In Washington, president's counterterrorism advisor says authorities 'have to presume' there might be more potential explosive packages Mail bomb in Dubai sent on 2 passenger planes

"In order to deal with this issue, one must first define it as an outright threat," says Shmuel Sasson, former El Al Security director and a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center's Counter-Terrorism Institute. "From the moment a threat receives the proper recognition, the way to finding a solution or means to a solution is very short and the process becomes doable."

Sasson believes that thwarting attempts to plant explosives inside cargo planes should be easier than in cases involving passenger planes. "Israel has been familiar with this threat for years and is coping with it. We can't say 'it will never happen to us' but we have experience handling these situations and to us it's nothing new."

Sasson says that according to Israeli procedure, security personnel track the origin of all Israel-bound cargo and the stations it passed until landing at the Ben Gurion Airport. "We make sure that at no time will any cargo remain exposed and unattended. It's a long, hard tracking procedure with the time element being of the utmost importance."





Heightened security checks in France (Photo: AP)

Yoram Schweitzer, former head of the IDF International Terrorism wing, estimates that luck played a major role in the favorable outcome of the recent mail bomb affair and noted that a similar situation may happen again in the future to less fortunate outcomes. "Such accurate, quality and focused intelligence as provided by the Saudis – to the cargo number level – is uncommon," he explains.

"Unknown to us, in many instances security forces act according to general alerts and manage to thwart threats with the help of technical means."

Unlike Sasson, Schweitzer believes that cargo planes, and not passenger planes are more likely to be targeted. "In cargo planes, security checks are far more restricted. To make a comprehensive scan of all cargo is not easy and intelligence continues to be a crucial element in cases pertaining to aircrafts from countries which do not take safety measures according to the Western standard."