Man Attempts to Set Off Explosives on Plane

kgambit said:

I'll wait until someone more reliable than Peter King confirms that the Nigerian was indeed on a terrorist watch list. I find it a bit surprising that someone with "significant terrorist connections" is NOT on the "no-fly" list.

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"His name was in a database indicating significant terrorist connections," King said.

King said the suspect boarded a flight from Nigeria and traveled to Amsterdam, where he transferred onto a flight headed toward Detroit.

The New York lawmaker, a top lawmaker on Homeland Security, suggested that the U.S. had maintained previous concerns about Nigerian air security, prompting the U.S. to provide some security assistance to that government.

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The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect's underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News.
Investigators say the suspect had more than 80 grams of PETN, a compound related to nitro-glycerin used by the military. The so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, had only about 50 grams kin his failed attempt in 2001 to blow up a U.S.-bound jet. Yesterday's bomb failed because the detonator may have been too small or was not in "proper contact" with the explosive material, investigators told ABC News.
Investigators say the suspect, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian student whose birthday was last Tuesday, has provided detailed information about his recruitment and training for what was supposed to be a Christmas Day suicide attack.

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Extra pat-downs before boarding. No getting up for the last hour of the flight. More bomb-sniffing dogs. Airports worldwide tightened security a day after a passenger tried to light some kind of explosive on a flight into Detroit.
The Transportation Security Administration wouldn't say exactly what it was doing differently on Saturday. It didn't need to.
Passengers getting off both U.S. domestic flights and those arriving from overseas reported being told that they couldn't get out of their seat for the last hour of their flight. Air Canada also said that during the last hour passengers won't be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps.

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Little was different at the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, where the man's trip originated. Soldiers impassively stared at those passing into the departure terminal Saturday. Others sat and talked among themselves, loaded rifles tossed over their shoulders

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Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man…
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. "The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'"
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.

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Amsel said:

Yeah, because you wouldn't want to label a guy like that as a terrorist accidently. It wouldn't be fair.

I am definantly not surpised that a suspected terrorist was able to board a plane. Beauracracies are not the most adept at much of anything.

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kgambit said:

Nice way to twist my words there. I never claimed that this nut job (the terrorist) was being treated unfairly.

My comment was simply related to Peter King's claim that this terrorist had "significant terrorist connections" and whether there is any truth to King's claim.

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Amsel said:

I see, and appologize for any misunderstanding on my part.

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His father, Umaru, is the former economics minister of Nigeria. He retired earlier this month as the chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria but is still on the boards of several of Nigeria's biggest firms, including Jaiz International, a holding company for the Islamic Bank. The 70-year-old, who was also educated in London, holds the Commander of the Order of the Niger as well as the Italian Order of Merit.

Dr Mutallab said he was planning to meet with police in Nigeria last night after realising his son had joined the notorious roster of al-Qa'ida terrorists, and is said to have warned the US authorities about his son's extreme views six months ago.

Police in London were continuing to collaborate with the American-led investigation into the would-be bomber last night. Scotland Yard detectives were searching his flat and two others in the same mansion block in Marylebone, central London. They later cordoned off the street lined with Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Mercedes cars. They were also understood to be searching the building's basement.

Abdulmutallab was reportedly on a security watch list, but those who studied with him expressed shock that the person who seemed so quiet and unassuming – a devout Muslim but not radical – apparently came close to perpetrating a Christmas Day massacre.

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Abdulmutallab was on a terrorism watch list, but not on a no-fly list. Said Clarke, "So once again, we have the U.S. government, as in the case of the Fort Hood attacks, knowing about someone, knowing that they were suspicious, but that information didn't get to the right people in time."

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Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly.

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