LGBT Synagogue Targeted by Yemen Bomb Plotters

One of the Chicago American synagogues targeted in the printer cartridge bomb attempt is a tiny Jewish congregation made up mostly of GLBTs.

The printer cartridges were reportedly filled with PETN, a powerful plastic explosive. The devices were discovered aboard planes in Britain and Dubai, and are thought to be the work of the Yemeni branch of terrorist group al-Qaida. PETN was the same substance used by convicted terrorist Richard Reid in the December, 2001 "shoe bomber" attempt to destroy a commercial airliner bound for Miami.

One of the packages containing the explosive devices was addressed to Chicago's Congregation Or Chadash, a congregation of about 100 LGBT Jews, reported sSVN Wire Services on Nov. 1. The group is so small that it does not have its own building, and uses the synagogue of Emmanuel Congregation for its meetings.

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 31 that an al-Quaida bomb maker named Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri was suspected of having created the devices. Authorities were unsure whether the devices were viable; they were also not certain that the synagogues were the targets. The planes carrying the devices may have been the intended targets.

"We're a very small congregation, and can't believe our reputation reaches all the way to Yemen," the congregation's rabbi, Larry Edwards, told local NBC affiliate, NBC5.

"I thought 'Wow, I didn't know we had such visibility,' " said Congregation or Chadash member Marvin Levin, who went on to add, "I don't know that we want such visibility."

Emanuel Congregation's Rabbi Michael Zedek told the media that he received a call about the explosive devices, and the caller "said, 'I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that your congregation was not one (of the targets); the bad news is that Or Chadash was.' "

Al-Quaida, which is led by Osama bin Laden, is the terrorist groups behind the attacks on 9/11. The group is religiously motivated, dedicated to "the rule of God on Earth."