A young woman described as a medical student has been arrestedat her home in Sana'a, along with her mother, in connection with the parcel bombs found on planes bound for the United States.

She was identified by US officials through a SIM card found in one of the devices, according to the German press agency, dpa. Yemeni officials are telling a slightly different story: that she was identified from a phone number left with the cargo company.

Whether she was knowingly involved is another matter. Her lawyer, quoted in a BBC report, says she is not known to be connected with religious or political groups.

The bomb-makers would presumably have been smart enough to ensure that nothing in the devices that could be easily traced to themselves, and it would not be surprising if the SIM card turns out to have been lost or stolen. 

In the meantime, it looks as though the sending of packages by air from Yemen to Europe and the US will be halted until tighter security measures are in place. 

The incident has also raised questions about the crash of a UPS Boeing 747 cargo plane in Dubai on September 3. The aircraft had taken off from Dubai 45 minutes earlier and was attempting to return after the pilot reported smoke on board. The cause of the crash has not yet been finally determined, though an initial report 
suggested lithium batteries had caused a fire.

It has been widely reported that the parcel bombs were discovered as the result of a tip-off from Saudi intelligence. It is well known – as the Waq al-Waq blog points out – that Saudi intelligence is operating in Yemen (and it is probably able to do so more effectively than western agencies). But I do slightly wonder if the praise heaped on the Saudis for their tip-off might be disinformation, intended to panic the bomb-makers into believing they have an infiltrator in their midst.

I don't know how closely air freight manifests are monitored, but I would imagine pretty closely these days, and the basic description of at least one of the packages ought to have rung alarm bells.

In theory a toner cartridge is quite a good disguise for a bomb, because normal cartridges contain electronic circuitry as well as a space for explosives. But the usual route for electronic equipment is into Yemen rather than out if it. Why would an individual in Yemen go to the expense of air-freighting a toner cartridge from Yemen to the United States? It's hard to think of sensible reasons, and that should have prompted further investigation.

More improbably still, why would a Yemeni in Sana'a want to send it to a synagogue in Chicago? I know there are still a few hundred Jews left in Yemen but, even so, the whole idea is preposterous.

This leads to another rather puzzling part of the story as it is known so far. If the packages were meant to explode in flight, as some reports say, why risk arousing suspicion by putting an obviously Jewish address on them? 

Incidentally, it is reported this morning that one of the synagogues concerned is host to a gay and lesbian congregation.

UPDATE, 2 November: It now appears that the packages were not clearly addressed to synagogues as news reports had initially suggested. 

According to an article in the New York Times on November 2: "An American official said that the addresses on the packages were outdated addresses for Jewish institutions in Chicago. But in place of the names of the institutions, the packages bore the names of historical figures from the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, the official said. The addresses are one reason that investigators now believe the plan may have been to blow up the planes, since there were no longer synagogues at the Chicago locations."