scientific laboratory outside london. this is being handled here in britain by the counterterrorism police, part of the metropolitan police here in london. they handle all of the big counterterrorism issues in britain and the message that we re getting from british authorities is how much they re cooperating with the united states even according to one british intelligence source telling us they know the identity of the person who sent these packages because they can say for certain that he has known connections with terrorism. larry? larry: is it true that the two intercepted packages contain petn, is that what they re supposed to have? that s what we understand, larry. just to give you an idea of how damaging petn can be, a small amount, about 6 grams, enough to fit in the end of my pen here can blow a hole in a piece of metal twice the thickness of an aircraft fuselage.
good evening. we welcome our international viewers to continuing coverage of this breaking news story. suspicious packages found in at least two locations bound for the united states contained explosive materials. u.s. officials believe al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is behind the incident. both packages originated in yemen. ultimate destination two synagogues in chicago. the heads-up came from saudi arabia, which gave the united states the tracking numbers of the packages. here s what president obama had to say about all this. last night and earlier today our intelligence and law enforcement professionals working with our friends and allies identified two suspicious packages bound for the united states, specifically two places of jewish worship in chicago.
we ve seen this sort of thing play out before. let s not forget the president has a busy schedule this weekend. i ll get up early tomorrow to go with him to three different states. two of the cities will be chicago and philadelphia, they were cities under a higher state of alert today because of this but the white house is saying he s not planning to change any of those travel plans right now, larry. larry: ed henry, our senior white house correspondent at the white house. let s go to london. nic robertson, cnn senior international correspondent. nic, what s the latest from across the sea? well, we re hearing from the british home secretary saying that high level security meetings have been held here in britain and she s talked with her u.s. counterpart, homeland security chief janet napolitano and the suspect package is undergoing examination even now at a metropolitan police scientific laboratory outside london.
performed on the cement used to seal bp s oil well before it exploded. cargo planes might have been used to send suspicious packages from yemen to the united states. an initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material. oh, dear. well the whole world was on high alert this week after a slew of terror threats and despite all the commotion, the chairman of british airway, martin braughton, could that name sound any more british? he thinks. the idea of 14 passengers to remove their shoes, belts and dignity is a waste of time. does it really make us safer or leave me stumbling around lag ward with a 5:00 head shadow and my pants around my ankles? i went lunch crashing to ask you what you think. can i crash your lunch? what do you think about the security right now, the way it is? too much, is it too little?
well, in this instance it appears so. you know, when we think about what didn t happen in new york when the bomb didn t go off and what didn t happen on christmas day in detroit, in that instance i think we were lucky. in this instance it seems like information sharing and action upon that information worked very effectively. as some of your reporters commented earlier, if they truly believe and if the intelligence says there are another 13 packages out there, then you wonder how complete the intelligence was because at this juncture they were available to intervene and secure a couple of them but apparently there s at least a dozen or more out there. again, the intelligence may vary in terms of authenticity. the number may not be correct. it s good news. at the end of the day what s the source? who s the individual? right now i m sure there s frenzied activity in many jurisdictions in many countries within the intelligence and law enforcement community. so far this is a sign that wh