Apparent Explosives Prompt Air Cargo Terror Alert

Law enforcement officials acting on what President Obama called "a credible terror threat," found package shipments with suspected explosives in air cargo networks bound for the United States.

Obama, in a late afternoon televised statement, said the packages had been shipped from Yemen "do apparently contain explosive material." He said the packages were addressed to "places of Jewish worship" in the Chicago area.

Video: President Obama warns of credible terrorist threat

The president promised "additional cargo security steps," but did not specify any actions.

One of the packages was found in the UPS system at the East Midlands Airport in the UK and other was at a FedEx facility in Dubai. Authorities also isolated and searched three UPS freighters that landed in Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., early Friday, because they also carried cargo that originated in Yemen. U.S. fighter jets also escorted an Emirates passenger aircraft to New York's John F. Kennedy International Aircraft because that plane had cargo from Yemen.

Terror alert news from JOC:
UK Halts Direct Yemen Flights
FedEx Finds Suspect Package, Halts Yemen Shipments.

John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security, told reporters late Friday the UPS aircraft were stopped because "they were in fact carrying cargo coming in from Yemen." UPS officials said the planes were later cleared and allowed to fly onto the UPS hub in Louisville, Ky.

Numerous reports had said authorities believed the threat originated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and that terrorists may have been testing air cargo defenses as part of a plot to send bombs into the country.