Failed Airline Bombing

[RPK]

White House: Failed Airline Bombing Was Attempted Act of Terrorism - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com


A male passenger on an international flight bound for Detroit Friday tried to blow up the plane with an explosive device in an incident that the White House is labeling an attempted act of terrorism.

Several people were hurt on the plane, which had Delta markings, but was listed as Northwest Flight 253. One person, possibly the suspect, was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center at Ann Arbor, hospital spokeswoman Tracy Justice said.

The suspect, who ABC reported suffered second-degree burns, told federal investigators he was connected to Al Qaeda, though authorities are questioning the veracity of that statement, Fox News confirmed. A federal situational awareness bulletin noted that the explosive was acquired in Yemen with instructions as to when it should be used, ABC said.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) identified the suspect as 23-year-old Abdul Mudallah of Nigeria, and King said Mudallah "definitely has connections" to Al Qaeda.

King said Mudallah was not on any terrorism watchlist.

"This could have been catastrophic," said King, speaking to "FOX Report" Friday night. "We were lucky on this one."

White House officials confirmed Friday that the attack was an attempted act of terrorism.

"He appears to have had some kind of incendiary device he tried to ignite," said one of the U.S. officials.

Authorities initially believed the passenger had set off firecrackers that caused some minor injuries. The suspect reportedly suffered second-degree burns in the failed attempt to ignite the device.

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott said the passenger was subdued immediately. She had no details on the injuries. Delta and Northwest have merged.

An FBI spokeswoman in Detroit said the incident is being investigated. It came just as the flight, an Airbus 330 carrying 278 passengers, was arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam.

Passenger Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said the incident occurred during the plane's descent. Jafri said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and said he saw a glow, and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."

"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," he said.

Rich Griffith, a passenger from Pontiac, said he was seated too far in the back to see what had happened. But he said he didn't mind being detained on the plane for several hours. "It's frustrating if you don't want to keep your country safe," he said. "We can't have what's going on everywhere else happening here."

President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. It said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.

J.P. Karas, 55, of Wyandotte, Mich., said he was driving down a road near the airport and saw a Delta jet at the end of the runway, surrounded by police cars, an ambulance, a bus and some TV trucks.

"I don't ever recall seeing a plane on that runway ever before and I pass by there frequently," he said.

Karas said it was difficult to tell what was going on, but it looked like the front wheel was off the runway.

The Homeland Security Department said passengers may see additional screening measures on domestic and international flights because of the incident.

"We encourage those with future travel plans to stay in touch with their airline and to visit TSA | Transportation Security Administration | U.S. Department of Homeland Security for updates," the department said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has been briefed on the incident and is closely monitoring the situation.

The department encouraged travelers to be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement officials.

 

[qsaark]

As per what I am hearing here on the US media, the alleged person tried to burn some 'powdery' material he had on his leg (tied perhaps). In the process, the person got some severe burns, atleast two other passengers also received minor burns. How an Airbus can be exploded midair using some burning powdery material? only Americans can explain. No bombs could be found after the plane was thoroughly searched by a remotely controlled robot.

Note: Mods may want to alter the sensational title (hallmark of Fox News) of the thread as there were no bombs onboard.

 

[Bushy]

qsaark,

I am not going to say foxnews.com is the best site for news or anything as such, but I cannot help notice that your judgment on the same is borne of your bias.

There are numerous chemicals that can be put in the form of talcum powder and such powdery material (enough to rub on your hands) is more than enough to bring an Airbus or Boeing down.

And such chemicals are not hard to obtain (1 kg of Ricin can be made by simple cold-pressing Castor beans and filtering the waste with 4ph water at home in a matter of hours - not an explosive really, but will bring the plane down the moment it seeps into the c0ckpit). That man could be carrying anything from simple powder to some highly toxic material. Please wait for the verdict come out.

As for your comment, perhaps you failed to read the view of foxnews.com in its opening statement: "A male passenger on an international flight bound for Detroit Friday tried to blow up the plane with an explosive device in an incident that the White House is labeling an attempted act of terrorism."

Here, the foxnews.com is saying that it is convinced the passenger tried to blow up the plane, but still the onus of proving him to be a terrorist lies on the White House (hope you can notice the usage of the word 'labeling' up there).

Please don't be so quick to brand a brand-name. Thank you.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Nigerian arrested in failed plane attack claims links to al-Qaeda

washingtonpost.com

By Michael Leahy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Nigerian man, claiming to be linked to al-Qaeda, allegedly tried to set off an incendiary device aboard a transatlantic airplane Friday as it descended toward Detroit's airport in what the White House called an attempted act of terrorism.

The man was quickly subdued, according to an airline spokeswoman, and Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam landed safely around noon Friday, with several of the 278 passengers receiving minor injuries in the incident. The suspect was being treated at a hospital for burns he suffered while igniting the device, the Transportation Security Administration said.

The suspect is 23-year-old Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, a federal official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. ABC News and NBC News reported that Abdulmutallab attends University College London, where he studied engineering.

Although not on the TSA's "no-fly" list, Abdulmutallab's name appears to be included in the government's records of terrorism suspects, according to a preliminary review, authorities said.

Abdulmutallab has told federal investigators that he had ties to al-Qaeda and traveled to Yemen to collect the incendiary device and instructions on how to use it, according to a federal counterterrorism official briefed on the case. But authorities have yet to verify the claim, and they expect to conduct several more interviews before they determine whether he is credible, the official said.

Federal authorities have been told that Abdulmutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a syringe to mix some chemicals with the powder while on the airplane, one official said. Officials described the device as incendiary rather than explosive, pending tests by forensics experts at the FBI. Incendiary devices generally deliver less of an impact than explosive devices.

 

[TruthSeeker]

"ABC News reported that 23-year-old Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab attends University College London, where he studied engineering."

Well, I guess he is not a chemical engineer! It sounds like he was supposed to set off the device at some high altitude to cause a hot fire, if not an explosion, that would sufficiently damage the plane to bring it down. Probably it took the entire flight across the Atlantic to work up the courage to do it and then he produced a dud. He'll join Richard Reed in the Hall of Fame for dumb jihadis ......

 

[Bushy]

"ABC News reported that 23-year-old Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab attends University College London, where he studied engineering."

Well, I guess he is not a chemical engineer! It sounds like he was supposed to set off the device at some high altitude to cause a hot fire, if not an explosion, that would sufficiently damage the plane to bring it down. Probably it took the entire flight across the Atlantic to work up the courage to do it and then he produced a dud. He'll join Richard Reed in the Hall of Fame for dumb jihadis ......

His failure is more of a blot on University College's curricula.

 

[ajpirzada]

was it really an explosive device? or some powder?
i wonder how was he allowed to board with an explosive device. quite impossible

 

[Rank]

Another new propaganda like 9/11 hahahhahah thats what US Art

 

[TaimiKhan]

Well something had to be done to remind the US public that all is not well and AQ is still a threat, and the WoT is still to go for years to come as see such things can still happen.

 

[deathfromabove]

Well something had to be done to remind the US public that all is not well and AQ is still a threat, and the WoT is still to go for years to come as see such things can still happen.

Exactly. Rousing lost public support.

 

[keldorn]

He's a terrorism suspect, but not on the no-fly list?! Some counter-terrorism official's heads need to roll for this one.

 

[x_man]

Well on one hand Al Qaida is allegedly responsible of massive ops like 9/11 where 20 odd hijackers got hold of 4 jets and managed to bring 4 buildings down by 3 jets with a precision unheard of. ….And now on the other hand, same AQ sends a lone wanker with a pinch of powder to bring another aircraft down…Doesn’t make sense at all!!! Is AQ short of manpower or ideas or powder??? IMO the guy is a lone operator and perhaps the AQ connection is an overstatement.

Howevr, a very serious question is that what the hell this guy was thinking? Why would anyone in his right mind bring some firecracker or flammable powder on the aircraft? Of course he had some evil intentions and thank God that everyone was safe and the guy was stupid enough to fail.

Of course, few xenophobes will try to get the maximum political mileage from this but we need to understand that the media's role in these incidents is always to massively talk up the potential for carnage.

 

[S-2]

"...on the other hand, same AQ sends a lone wanker with a pinch of powder to bring another aircraft down..."

Payoff is high and the investment low if A.Q. sponsored. How do any of us know how often these below-the-radar one-off attempts have been pre-empted before boarding or in some other fashion?

I would expect A.Q. to be operating at a variety of levels. Using relatively simple operations like this might be intended to saturate in the hopes of slipping one through. Looks like it worked somewhere...

...again. It looks like the outcome was fortuitous...again too.

They lose little but gain big and everytime that they pull the lever, that one-armed bandit could hit a jackpot.

That's the problem with security. It only has to have a bad day once for things to go to sh!t.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Suspect’s Father Told U.S. of Son’s Extremism

By ERIC SCHMITT and ERIC LIPTON
Published: December 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Nigerian man accused of trying to ignite an incendiary device aboard a trans-Atlantic jetliner on Friday came to the attention of American officials at least “several weeks ago,” but the initial information was not specific enough to raise alarms that he could potentially carry out a terrorist attack, a senior Obama administration official said on Saturday.

The investigative file was opened after the father of the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, warned officials at the United States Embassy in Nigeria of his son’s increasingly extremist religious views, the official said.

“The information was passed into the system, but the expression of radical extremist views were very nonspecific,” said the senior administration official, who has been briefed on the inquiry but spoke on condition of anonymity because it is continuing. “We were evaluating him, but the information we had was not a lot to go on.”

The incident prompted a significant change to airline security. International passengers will not be allowed to move about aircraft during the last hour of a flight, and there will be extra screening of baggage at airports.

Mr. Abdulmutallab was charged on Saturday with attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device on an aircraft, the Justice Department announced. He was scheduled to make a court appearance late Saturday.

In an affidavit filed in support of the criminal charges, the authorities said that Mr. Abdulmutallab had attempted to ignite the device, which was attached to his body, resulting “in a fire and what appears to have been an explosion.” According to a preliminary analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, a highly explosive substance.

It was unclear whether Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was entered into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, which includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist organization. That list is maintained by the United States National Counterterrorism Center. It includes about 550,000 names.

Those people, however, are not necessarily placed on the federal government’s so-called no-fly list, which prohibits persons entering the United States because of known or suspected terrorists links. Mr. Abdulmutallab was not on that list, federal officials say.

Mr. Abdulmutallab — who is being treated for severe burns at the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor — was carried off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher, his trousers sheared off. He is cooperating with law enforcement authorities, officials said.

Federal officials say that while they have ruled out any links to Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa, which includes Nigeria, they were closely examining Mr. Abdulmutallab’s claims that he was guided by Qaeda leaders in Yemen. In a statement issued on Saturday, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington said: “We have yet to receive official information on the incident. If and when the would-be bomber’s alleged link to Yemen is officially identified, authorities will take immediate action.”

Mr. Abdulmutallab was issued a regular visitor’s visa by the United States Embassy in London in June 2008, according to the senior administration official. There was no “derogatory information available” on him at the time he applied, and he was granted a two-year visa, which is still valid, the official said.

Mr. Abdulmutallab grew up in a rarefied slice of Nigeria, the son of an affluent banker. He attended one of the West Africa’s best schools, the British School of Lomé in Togo. After high school, he went to Britain and enrolled at the University College London to study engineering.

University College London, in a statement, said that a student named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had enrolled in mechanical engineering courses between September 2005 and June 2008. But it cautioned that it could not confirm that this was the same individual apprehended in Detroit. In London, Scotland Yard was conducting searches of apartments around the college.

His father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, until recently had served as chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria, and his mother’s family is originally from Yemen, according to news accounts in Nigerian newspapers.

Investigators are now examining how Mr. Abdulmutallab, at age 23, apparently rebelled against this privileged upbringing to pursue an extremist goal. It was while still in high school that Mr. Abdulmutallab began preaching to fellow students about Islam, according to a report in ThisDay, a Nigerian newspaper.

ThisDay reported that more recently, Mr. Abdulmutallab had moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and told his family that he no longer wanted to associate with them.

Dora Akunyili, a Nigerian government spokeswoman, told ThisDay that the Nigerian government also would assisting in the investigation of the incident.

Mr. Mutallab, in an interview with the BBC, said that he was not sure where his son had been before to the incident, and added that he was now cooperating with investigators.

“I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that,” Mr. Mutallab told the BBC.

A senior American counterterrorism official confirmed that American and allied authorities are looking closely into Mr. Abdulmutallab’s possible connections to radical elements in Yemen, including extremist figures on Jihadist Web sites like Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric linked to Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings last month. Investigators are trying to determine whether Mr. Awlaki may have motivated Mr. Abdulmutallab.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27terror.html

 

[Roby]

Nigerian charged in plane plot, faces life term



WASHINGTON: A young Nigerian was Wednesday charged with attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction aboard a US plane, as under-fire security chiefs vowed to revamp intelligence services, AFP reported.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was indicted by a grand jury on six counts arising from a botched Christmas Day plot to blow up a Northwest airliner packed with 279 passengers and 11 crew as it approached Detroit, Michigan.

Michigan district court documents accused him of “carrying a concealed bomb” inside his clothing on board Flight 253 from Amsterdam.

“The bomb consisted of a device containing Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) and other ingredients,” the charge sheet said, adding that both substances were highly explosive.

“The bomb was designed to allow defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, and to thereby cause an explosion aboard Flight 253,” the documents added.

If convicted of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, the young Nigerian faces life imprisonment, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Other charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years, while two charges of possession of a firearm carry a mandatory 30 years in prison.

“This investigation is fast-paced, global and ongoing, and it has already yielded valuable intelligence that we will follow wherever it leads,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in the statement.

He vowed that “anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool — military or judicial — available to our government.”

President Barack Obama Tuesday sharply rebuked intelligence and security services for missing a series of “red flags” which could have unmasked the plot earlier.

“It is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged,” Obama said after gathering agency chiefs and national security aides at a high-stakes White House meeting.

“That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it,” he said in an unusual public dressing-down of the intelligence services.

Obama was even more explicit during the meeting in the secure White House Situation Room, an official said.

“This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, quoted Obama as saying.

Red-faced top officials admitted mistakes had been made and vowed to do better to confront an evolving threat from terror groups. An Al-Qaeda cell in Yemen, where Abdulmutallab spent some time in 2009, has claimed to be behind the plot.

“We know, based on this incident and certainly the direction we’ve all received from the president, we have to learn these lessons and make it better,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said.

“It’s not a perfect system,” he admitted.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair was even blunter in a statement, saying: “The intelligence community received the president’s message today — we got it, and we are moving forward to meet the new challenges.”

Reports have said there were a series of clues that should have raised the alarm, including a warning from Abdulmutallab’s father, a prominent Nigerian banker, who told the US embassy he was concerned about his son.

The White House will Thursday release an unclassified version of a report into the intelligence failures.

“I think you’ll see tomorrow that this is a failure that touches across the full waterfront of our intelligence agencies,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The Christmas Day incident has triggered a series of new security measures at airports around the world, and US officials have already added dozens of names to no-fly lists.

The measures also include new restrictions for passengers coming from 14 countries, including Nigeria and Yemen.

But Blair acknowledged intelligence services had to become more nimble in reacting to new methods being developed by terror groups such as Al-Qaeda, which hijacked planes to destroy New York’s Twin Towers in 2001.

“We can and we must outthink, outwork and defeat the enemy’s new ideas. The intelligence community will do that as directed by the president, working closely with our nation’s entire national security team,” Blair said.

“The threat has evolved, and we need to anticipate new kinds of attacks and improve our ability to stay ahead of them and protect America.”