Woman Arrested in Terror Plot
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Wolf. And good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. You're in THE CNN NEWSROOM. We begin with breaking news of an arrest in the plot to send explosive packages into the U.S. aboard cargo planes. Here's what we know right now: a woman was arrested today by Yemeni authorities in the capital of Sana'a. Her alleged role is not yet known, but one of her relatives is being questioned. U.S. law enforcement says all suspected packages from Yemen have been accounted for and do not pose a threat. FedEx and UPS offices in Yemen have been closed until further notice. CNN's national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, is tracking the investigation for us from New York. But, first, we want to go to CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. He is in London tonight. Nic, tell us what authorities are learning about these devices.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning something quite interesting from authorities here in the U.K. The British Prime Minister David Cameron, said that he believes that these bombs were designed to be detonated on board the aircraft, not where they were addressed to, the synagogues in Chicago. So, British authorities seem quite convinced from what they've learned from the package, they have looked at here that this was an attempt to bring down these cargo aircraft. We've also learned that it was a very powerful type of explosive, PETN. One expert believes there could have been as much as seven pounds of this explosive packed into one of these -- packed into one of the bombs. And if you think about it, about six grams, that's one five hundredth of seven pounds, more or less, fits into the end of my pen. And that alone is enough to blow a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft. So, very clearly, plenty of explosives, a massive amount designed -- according to the British -- to bring down the aircraft, Don.</s>LEMON: So, that's how they were to be used. But the fact that these devices, Nic, did not go off, how useful are the components to tracking down the people responsible?</s>ROBERTSON: Very useful. I mean, one of the things that's under way right now is a chemical analysis of this explosive, PETN. It's very stable. It's a white powder. But there will be different residues in it, depending who made it, and how they made it, is it very pure, does it have substances in it that would make it unstable or weak. And when that kind of chemical analysis can be done, it can be compared with the explosives that the underpants bomber used when he tried to bring down a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day last year. It's the same type of explosive, PETN. Again, we're learning that the cell phones that were designed to -- an integrated, wired to these bombs to detonate the bombs, for a crude wiring. That also gives information about these bomb makers. But the bomb making expert that I talked to said that what he sees here is the bomb makers are getting more sophisticated over time, Don.</s>LEMON: CNN's international correspondent, Nic Robertson, in London tonight -- Nic, thank you. We go now to our Susan Candiotti in the investigation. We know there was an arrest in Yemen. So, Susan, tell us the very latest about that and the investigation.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we got word of that arrest, Don, early today. According to Yemeni government officials over there, a house was surrounded. And, in fact, later, they arrested a woman inside that house, that authorities there say they believe is connected to a plot to send a hidden bomb in packages to the United States -- as you know, at least two of those packages were intercepted both in England and in Dubai. Also, in Yemen, they arrested another woman who was a relative of the one who is already in custody. That second woman is being questioned at this hour but not yet has she been placed under arrest, according to authorities. In addition to that, as you indicated, both FedEx and UPS have stopped their agents located in Yemen from accepting any packages. And the United States Postal Service in this country has also temporarily stopped receiving any incoming mail from Yemen -- Don.</s>LEMON: OK. So who are -- who do investigators on this side of the pond as we say believe is responsible?</s>CANDIOTTI: Well, that's the question, of course. First of all, we have confirmed that one of the possible targets was a synagogue in the Chicago area. In fact, we spoke with one of the leaders there, the president of that synagogue. The name of it is Or Chadash. And that woman, the president of that organization says that the synagogue, mainly its congregation is made up of Chicago's gay community. It's very small, though -- only about 100 members of that congregation. And she says she has no idea why they were targeted. Naturally, they were surprised and, of course, they're worried, and they are paying extra attention to security there.</s>LEMON: Susan, how many packages are we talking about again? And are they all accounted for?</s>CANDIOTTI: Well, it's unclear how many packages. We've heard various numbers, in the area of 13, possibly more or less. But we do know that authorities say that they have accounted for all the packages that they were looking for. It remains unclear whether any others are out there. But again, authorities are saying they do believe that they have found everything that we were looking for. Don, I'm not sure, do we have the sound ready? I think we do, with the president of that synagogue that we spoke with earlier.</s>LILI KORNBULUM, CO-PRESIDENT, CONGREGATION OF OR CHADASH (via telephone): Quite frankly, we're always on fairly heightened alert for a variety of reasons, and I'm sure most congregations would be able to empathize with. So, we do always have security when we have congregational events. However, last night, the Chicago police were in much higher visibility, and we were on a much higher alert for people we didn't know or anybody who might be carrying backpacks, packages and that sort of thing.</s>CANDIOTTI: And, Don, U.S. authorities have said that the packages that were sent to the United States were addressed to two synagogues in the Chicago area. And again, they have not revealed publicly which they are, but this woman has confirmed that authorities, that they were notified through another party there in Chicago that they were one of the targets.</s>LEMON: A continuing investigation -- thank you, Susan. We're going to turn now to politics, and the political farce or political force is the question? The joke was on Washington today as two funnymen took over the National Mall with just three days left until the elections. Jon Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show," and Stephen Colbert, drew a massive crowd for their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Stewart is considered left-leaning. But he built this as a moderate anecdote to the shouting and the slogans of rallies past. Towards the end, he put away this smirk though (ph) for a moment of sincerity.</s>JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": We live now in hard times, not end times.</s>STEWART: And we can have animus and not be enemies.</s>STEWART: But unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country's 24-hour-politico-pundit-perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems. But its existence makes solving them that much harder.</s>LEMON: A number of guests joined Stewart and Colbert on stage like The Roots, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and Ozzy Osbourne. This comes two months after another popular TV host, Glenn Beck, held his Restoring Honor rally in that same spot. As we've been saying, three days until Election Day, and did you know, unless there's a huge upset, there won't be an African-American senator in the next Congress? That's where our president came from. And next, we'll take a look at that and some of the other burning questions to be answered on Tuesday with our all-star political panel. That's coming up in just a bit here. And don't just sit there. We want you to be part of the conversation tonight. Send us a message on Twitter or Facebook. Check out our blogs, CNN.com/Don. Or look us out on Foursquare.