It is my personal opinion, from the nature of the bombs, this was a trial run.

Each bomb was unique to its method of detonation.  While arresting responsible parties in Yemen is important, there probably was an element in the USA that was to detonate the bombs.

Click title to link for video. 

The two devices were deliberately built to be different and detonated to find out which method was more effective.  This is just my opinion and nothing more.

I also believe once al Qaeda knew which device worked better they would be using more of them in large number. 

More than likely the American and Anwar were planning to make a mass mailing of the devices.

I have a really poor wireless connection at the moment.

But, at any rate, there were two dypes of bombs sent.  One with a cell phone device and one with a timer.  The bomb on the UPS flight was being tracked for arrival.  If that was the device with the cell phone detonator there would have to be someone at the receiving end to detonate it when it was inside the synagogue.

The timer would have been delivered in time, supposedly with enough time to allow it to detonate inside the synagogue without being discovered.  It seem very obvious to me these were two separate methods to 'experiment' to find which device was more successful in achieving its goal.

Once the Yemen cell knew which device was more succesful a larger scale attack in any part of the world they wanted to terrorize.  Quite possibly after it was determined the USA was the focus of the bombing the cell could send bombs in other area of the world, including places like Saudi Arabia whom helpted with this discovery, to carry out atrocities in large number to sincerely disrupt global balance.  Stop and think of what would happen if there were bombs sent to government offices globally designed to detonate at the same time.  Or in synagogues all over the world.

I believe there was a better way of discovreing the extent of the plan by replacing the bombs with 'dummy' bombs that weighed the same and looked identical and placing them back in the delivery circulation with the same tracking numbers.  If there was a more extensive plot to trigger a cell in the USA to detonate the bomb it ? might ? have been possible to discover the entity that would have accomplished the cell phone detonation.

Just a thought.  Now, either Anwar and the American are poor and could only configure two bombs for the plot or this was a trial run with others in production for a larger operation. 

It is the way I see it.  I sincerely dont' believe this was a two bomb stunt for an uptick before an election or at the time of an election.  It would interesting to know if any polling would be taking place at either of the syngogues.  I believe the Yemeni cell is ambitious and not necessarily a simply disgruntled Yemeni woman.  The woman has to have a connection back to Anwar al Awlaki.