NBC News and news services
updated 11/5/2010 1:48:06 AM ET 2010-11-05T05:48:06

American and British officials moved quickly Thursday to downplay the French foreign minister's comment that one of two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week was disarmed just 17 minutes before it was set to go off.

The issue of timing is central to the investigation because it could indicate whether terrorists hoped to blow up the planes over U.S. airspace or whether they simply wanted to take down the planes regardless of their location.

"One of the packages was defused only 17 minutes before the moment that it was set to explode," French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told state-run France-2 television. He made no other comment on the Yemen mail bomb plot in the interview and was not available afterward.

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One law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday that the U.S. cannot confirm the 17-minute timer claim by the French minister.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the question of when the bombs found in Britain and the United Arab Emirates were to go off was still under investigation and there was no information confirming such a close call.

U.S. State Department counterterror coordinator Daniel Benjamin also questioned the French minister's comments.

"This is not our understanding of the situation. Our understanding is the investigators are still looking at the fusing and the timing of a possible detonation so I can't confirm that right now," he told reporters in Rotterdam.

A government official in Britain said the device found there was still undergoing forensic tests and it had not been determined how close it was to being detonated. A security source in the United Arab Emirates said Hortefeux's remark did not describe the bomb found in that country.

"If this was a reference to the device found in the Federal Express (Fedex) site in Dubai, then it is not correct," a security source in the United Arab Emirates who is familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

Both were not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hortefeux did not say where he got the information about the timing, although U.S. and European intelligence officials have been exchanging information on the plot. The French Interior Ministry would not elaborate on Hortefeux's comment.

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Video: Dry run may have preceded al-Qaida bomb plot (on this page)






The packages were addressed to two Chicago-area synagogues. Because the addresses were out of date and a name on one package was that of a 12th century knight who fought in the Crusades — wars waged by Christians largely against Muslims — officials do not believe the synagogues were the targets.

On Thursday, Britain began requiring tighter screenings for some air cargo passing through the U.K. because of the recent mail bomb plot, an official said.

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Cargo originating from some cities in India, Qatar, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Maldives, Sudan and Libya will have to be re-screened after arriving in Britain before being loaded onto onward flights, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said.

Currently such flights do not need to be screened in the U.K.

Hammond spoke to reporters after meeting with representatives from the aviation and freight industries.

He said they also discussed a proposed system of grading countries sending air cargo to the U.K. according to perceived risk.

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press and NBC News.

Video: Dry run may have preceded al-Qaida bomb plot

  1. Transcript of: Dry run may have preceded al-Qaida bomb plot

    BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: That terrorist plot involving cargo bombs from Yemen just keeps getting more troubling the more they learn. The FBI is now investigating what might have been a dry run and whether al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen sent packages to the US to see how long it would take. Our justice correspondent, Pete Williams , has been covering this, has an update for us tonight. Pete , good evening.

    PETE WILLIAMS reporting: Right, Brian . Intelligence officials say this could have been an attempt to explore the logistics of international shipping. A month and a half ago in mid September, suspected al-Qaeda members in Yemen sent three packages to Chicago . Nothing hazardous was found when the boxes were checked en route and allowed to continue. They contained mostly books and papers. Nothing like the computer printers that hid explosives in the two packages sent last week. In Europe police are chasing a separate spate of package bombs, mostly in Greece , where they've made two arrests. Two bombs went off outside the Russian and Swiss embassies . Two others were found and destroyed at the Athens airport . And in Germany , police disarmed a bomb sent from Greece to the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel . Nobody's been hurt. The police suspect a radical anti-government group, but it's raising more questions about

    cargo screening. Brian: All troubling stuff, you're right, Pete . Pete Williams in Washington ,