WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, received a briefing this afternoon from John Pistole, Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and former Deputy Director of the FBI, about suspicious packages containing explosives that were shipped from Yemen to the United States.
Following the briefing, Senator Collins’ released this statement:
"Federal officials acted quickly to thwart this latest terrorist plot emanating from Yemen where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has established a strong foothold," Sen. Collins said.
"The use of commercial cargo carriers demonstrates the continuing determination of terrorists to exploit any vulnerabilities in our security systems. The positive test of two of these suspicious packages for explosives confirms the danger posed by this most recent attempted terrorist attack."
"I have urged Mr. Pistole to strengthen our screening of cargo and to prevent any packages originating in Yemen from entering the United States without thorough screening. He assured me that additional security measures have been put in place to identify any additional suspicious packages emanating from Yemen, including an immediate ground halt on air cargo coming to the United States from Yemen and the deployment of additional inspectors to Yemen."