The Underwear Bomber
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Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
<font size="4">
A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria,
who said he was acting on al-Qaida's instruc-
tions, set off an explosive device Friday in a
failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was
landing in Detroit.</font size>
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<font size="4">
Associated Press Sources:
Al-Qaida Link in Failed Plane AttackA Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria,
who said he was acting on al-Qaida's instruc-
tions, set off an explosive device Friday in a
failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was
landing in Detroit.</font size>
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Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
Suspect Charged in Bombing Attempt
A Federal judge arraigned a Nigerian man Sunday at U-M Hospital in Ann Arbor. He's recovering there from burns suffered when he allegedly tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day at Metro Airport.
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his charges in a conference room on Saturday at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for burns.
Agents brought Abdulmutallab into the room in a wheelchair. He had a blanket over his lap and wore a green hospital robe.
The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."
The government accuses him of bringing an explosive device onto Flight 253, but as the plane neared Detroit's airport, it sparked a fire instead of an explosion.
According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed it contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.
The government alleged that Abdulmutallab told passengers that his stomach was upset, then pulled a blanket over himself. Passengers then heard popping noises.
Abdulmutallab, who had a valid U.S. visa, was in a terrorism database but not on a no-fly list. He lived in a posh London neighborhood, but a law enforcement official said the suspect acknowledged he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.
President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, was briefed about developments in the attack. National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough was holed up in a secure hotel room in Hawaii to receive briefings, and other traveling presidential aides were kept shut away to monitor new information.
Abdulmutallab appeared on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said a U.S. official who received a briefing. Containing some 550,000 names, the database includes people with known or suspected ties to a terrorist organization. However, it is not a list that would prohibit a person from boarding a U.S.-bound airplane.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Abdulmutallab was not on the no-fly list.
In Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the man's father, told The Associated Press, "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."
The father was chairman of First Bank of Nigeria from 1999 through this month. The banker said his son is a former university student in London but had left Britain to travel abroad.
London's Metropolitan Police also were working with U.S. officials, said a spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.
A search was conducted Saturday at an apartment building in a posh West London neighborhood where the suspect is said to have lived.
University College London issued a statement saying a student named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied mechanical engineering there between September 2005 and June 2008. But the college said it wasn't certain the student was the same person who was on the plane.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/latest_video/Suspect_Charged_With_Blowing_Up_Plane
Father of Detroit would-be bomber warned US
U.S. government officials tell The Associated Press that the Nigerian man charged with trying to destroy a jetliner came to the attention of U.S. intelligence in November when his father went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to express his concerns about his son.
A congressional official said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, popped up in U.S. intelligence reports about four weeks ago as having a connection to both al-Qaida and Yemen.
Another government official said Abdulmutallab's father went to the embassy in Abuja with his concerns, but did not have any specific information that would put him on the "no-fly list" or on the list for additional security checks at the airport.
Neither was the information sufficient to revoke his visa to visit the United States. His visa had been granted June 2008 and was valid through June 2010. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither was authorized to speak to the media.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20091226/US.Airliner.Attack.Intelligence/
A Federal judge arraigned a Nigerian man Sunday at U-M Hospital in Ann Arbor. He's recovering there from burns suffered when he allegedly tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day at Metro Airport.
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his charges in a conference room on Saturday at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for burns.
Agents brought Abdulmutallab into the room in a wheelchair. He had a blanket over his lap and wore a green hospital robe.
The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."
The government accuses him of bringing an explosive device onto Flight 253, but as the plane neared Detroit's airport, it sparked a fire instead of an explosion.
According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed it contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.
The government alleged that Abdulmutallab told passengers that his stomach was upset, then pulled a blanket over himself. Passengers then heard popping noises.
Abdulmutallab, who had a valid U.S. visa, was in a terrorism database but not on a no-fly list. He lived in a posh London neighborhood, but a law enforcement official said the suspect acknowledged he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.
President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, was briefed about developments in the attack. National Security Council chief of staff Denis McDonough was holed up in a secure hotel room in Hawaii to receive briefings, and other traveling presidential aides were kept shut away to monitor new information.
Abdulmutallab appeared on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said a U.S. official who received a briefing. Containing some 550,000 names, the database includes people with known or suspected ties to a terrorist organization. However, it is not a list that would prohibit a person from boarding a U.S.-bound airplane.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Abdulmutallab was not on the no-fly list.
In Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the man's father, told The Associated Press, "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."
The father was chairman of First Bank of Nigeria from 1999 through this month. The banker said his son is a former university student in London but had left Britain to travel abroad.
London's Metropolitan Police also were working with U.S. officials, said a spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.
A search was conducted Saturday at an apartment building in a posh West London neighborhood where the suspect is said to have lived.
University College London issued a statement saying a student named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied mechanical engineering there between September 2005 and June 2008. But the college said it wasn't certain the student was the same person who was on the plane.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/latest_video/Suspect_Charged_With_Blowing_Up_Plane
Father of Detroit would-be bomber warned US
U.S. government officials tell The Associated Press that the Nigerian man charged with trying to destroy a jetliner came to the attention of U.S. intelligence in November when his father went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to express his concerns about his son.
A congressional official said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, popped up in U.S. intelligence reports about four weeks ago as having a connection to both al-Qaida and Yemen.
Another government official said Abdulmutallab's father went to the embassy in Abuja with his concerns, but did not have any specific information that would put him on the "no-fly list" or on the list for additional security checks at the airport.
Neither was the information sufficient to revoke his visa to visit the United States. His visa had been granted June 2008 and was valid through June 2010. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither was authorized to speak to the media.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20091226/US.Airliner.Attack.Intelligence/
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Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
<font size="3">
The suspect:
23yr-old Mutallab. Courtesy of www.Saharareporters.com </font size>
http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/Article.aspx?id=2357
<font size="3">
The suspect:
http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/Article.aspx?id=2357
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
F r o m T h e S a h a r a R e p o r t e r s
<font size="4">Northwest Airlines bomber is son of
prominent Nigerian, banker Dr. Muttallab</font size>
Exclusive photo: Farouk Abdul Muttallab
Farouk Abdul Muttallab
The Sahara Reporters
By Saharareporters, New York
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Saharareporters has identified the family of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the 23 year old would–be bomber of Northwest Airline flight 253, who was arrested yesterday in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of the recently retired Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab.The Al-Qaida-linked Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is an engineering student at University College London. Saharareporters sources have revealed that prior to his sojourn in the UK, Farouk had studied at the prestigious British School of Lome, Togo. Where he passed his International Bacchalaureates Diploma before moving to UCL.
The Muttalabs hail from Katsina Township in the home state of Nigeria’s sickly leader, Umaru Musa Yar’adua, where Dr. Muttalab was born in 1939.
Dr. Muttallab, who is currently the chairman of First Islamic bank, JBI, in Nigeria, sits on the board of that bank with Dr. Rilwan Lukman, the Minister of Petroleum resources. He has two wives.
The younger Muttallab lives in a £4 million pounds apartment in Central London, although he is only a student. The apartment, Flat 16, no 2 Mansfield Street in London, W1G9NE is registered to a US company and has been raided by UK security agents today.
Family sources that declined to be named told Saharareporters that in 2008, Farouk has left the London school and frequented Yemen. He told his friends and relatives that he wanted to study Arabic, a decision that came after he reportedly met Islamic radical elements in London.
http://www.saharareporters.com/inde...-12-26-15-27-42&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
<font size="5">
Obama orders probe of security
gaps that let suspect on plane</font size>
New security procedures led to delays for U.S.-bound passengers at Toronto's
Pearson Airport on Sunday. | Canadian Press / AP
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into possible U.S. security gaps that enabled a Nigerian man of known extremist leanings to keep his U.S. visa, smuggle explosives aboard a Christmas Day passenger flight and ignite them, the White House said Sunday.
Within hours of the White House attempt to calm the public, a new incident Sunday involving another Nigerian on the same daily flight from Amsterdam led to another emergency landing in Detroit, heightening anxiety amid the year's busiest travel period.
<font size="5">
Obama orders probe of security
gaps that let suspect on plane</font size>
New security procedures led to delays for U.S.-bound passengers at Toronto's
Pearson Airport on Sunday. | Canadian Press / AP
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into possible U.S. security gaps that enabled a Nigerian man of known extremist leanings to keep his U.S. visa, smuggle explosives aboard a Christmas Day passenger flight and ignite them, the White House said Sunday.
Within hours of the White House attempt to calm the public, a new incident Sunday involving another Nigerian on the same daily flight from Amsterdam led to another emergency landing in Detroit, heightening anxiety amid the year's busiest travel period.
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
`
Dora Akunyili, Nigeria Information
Minister
Nigeria Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday. Akunyili said airline bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab "sneaked" into Nigeria on Dec. 24 and left the same day to board a flight to Detroit via Amsterdam. She did not elaborate or say from where Abdulmutallab entered Nigeria.
`
`
Dora Akunyili, Nigeria Information
Minister
Nigeria Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday. Akunyili said airline bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab "sneaked" into Nigeria on Dec. 24 and left the same day to board a flight to Detroit via Amsterdam. She did not elaborate or say from where Abdulmutallab entered Nigeria.
`
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
<font size="5">
Qaeda group claims U.S. jet
plot, vows more attacks</font size>
<font size="3">SANAA (Reuters) - A regional wing of al Qaeda said it was behind the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger plane, which was meant to avenge U.S. attacks on the group in Yemen, according to a web statement posted on Monday.</font size>
Full Story.
<font size="5">
Qaeda group claims U.S. jet
plot, vows more attacks</font size>
<font size="3">SANAA (Reuters) - A regional wing of al Qaeda said it was behind the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger plane, which was meant to avenge U.S. attacks on the group in Yemen, according to a web statement posted on Monday.</font size>
Full Story.
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A metro Detroit couple who found themselves on-board Northwest Flight 253 believe the 23-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to destroy the jetliner didn't act alone.
Lori and Kurt Haskell were on their way back safari in Uganda on Christmas Day when Kurt overheard a conversation between two men and a ticketing agent in Amsterdam. "We were playing cards by the boarding gate when I saw two men that looked odd to be together," Haskell said during FOX 2 News Morning.
Haskell says he saw an older, wealthier-looking man who appeared to be of Indian descent at the ticket counter helping a man who would turn out be Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Abdulmutallab did not speak at the counter, but Haskell claims the older man said, "This man needs to get on the plane and he doesn't have a passport." After the ticket agent said the teen needed a passport to board, the Indian man said, "He's from Sudan. We do this all time."
At that point, Haskell says the two were escorted down a hallway to speak with a ticketing manager.
"That was the last that I saw of the Indian man," said Haskell. "And the black man we didn't see again until he tried to blow up our plane."
Abdulmutallab, who spent time in Yemen, was eventually able to sneak an explosive device aboard the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be thwarted by the device's apparent failure to work as designed, and aggressive action by other passengers.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/new...rs-claim-nigerian-terrorist-did_not-act-alone
Flight 253 Passengers Claim Accused Nigerian Terrorist Didn't Act Alone
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A metro Detroit couple who found themselves on-board Northwest Flight 253 believe the 23-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to destroy the jetliner didn't act alone.
Lori and Kurt Haskell were on their way back safari in Uganda on Christmas Day when Kurt overheard a conversation between two men and a ticketing agent in Amsterdam. "We were playing cards by the boarding gate when I saw two men that looked odd to be together," Haskell said during FOX 2 News Morning.
Haskell says he saw an older, wealthier-looking man who appeared to be of Indian descent at the ticket counter helping a man who would turn out be Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Abdulmutallab did not speak at the counter, but Haskell claims the older man said, "This man needs to get on the plane and he doesn't have a passport." After the ticket agent said the teen needed a passport to board, the Indian man said, "He's from Sudan. We do this all time."
At that point, Haskell says the two were escorted down a hallway to speak with a ticketing manager.
"That was the last that I saw of the Indian man," said Haskell. "And the black man we didn't see again until he tried to blow up our plane."
Abdulmutallab, who spent time in Yemen, was eventually able to sneak an explosive device aboard the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, only to be thwarted by the device's apparent failure to work as designed, and aggressive action by other passengers.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/new...rs-claim-nigerian-terrorist-did_not-act-alone
Obama Vows to Use Power to Thwart Terrorists
Obama Vows to Use Power to Thwart Terrorists
HONOLULU (AP) - President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe and said the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was "a serious reminder" of the need to continually adapt security measures against changing terrorist threats.
But even as Obama spoke, word came that a State Department warning had failed to trigger an effort to revoke the alleged attacker's visa. And officials in Yemen confirmed that the would-be bomber had been living in that country, where terrorist elements quickly sought to take credit for his actions.
The incident prompted stiffer airport boarding measures and authorities warned holiday travelers to expect extra delays as they return home this week and beyond.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, charged with trying to destroy an aircraft, is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Mich. A court hearing that had been scheduled for Monday to determine whether the government can get DNA from him was postponed until Jan. 8. No reason was given.
Calling Abdulmutallab's action an "attempted act of terrorism" Obama vowed to "do everything that we can to keep America safe" and declared: "The United States will more than simply strengthen our defenses. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us."
Members of Congress, meanwhile, questioned how a man flagged as a possible terrorist managed to board a commercial flight into the United States carrying powerful explosives and nearly bring down the jetliner. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Monday that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he chairs would hold hearings in January.
Meanwhile, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack as retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaida operatives this month in the lawless country that is fast becoming a key front in the war on terror. The second one was a day before Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.
Yemen has long been an al-Qaida stomping ground. But officials fear that deepening instability in the Middle Eastern nation may be giving new opportunity for the terror group to establish a base to train and plan for attacks on the West.
A statement posted on the Internet by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group and used explosives manufactured by al-Qaida members.
Solving one mystery of Abdulmutallab's pre-Detroit path, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said Monday that he was in Yemen from August until early December. He had received a visa to study Arabic in a school in San'a. Citing immigration authorities, the statement said Abdulmutallab had previously studied at the school, indicating it was not his first trip to Yemen.
Obama, on vacation in his birthplace of Hawaii, acknowledged the attack showed the need to increase the United States' defenses. He detailed the pair of reviews that he has ordered to determine whether changes are needed in either the watchlist system or airport screening procedures.
"This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face," he said. "It's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident."
Obama's remarks Monday were the first heard from him on the Christmas Day scare three days earlier.
Officials said that was deliberate -- an effort by the White House to balance the need for the president to show concern but also to not unduly elevate a botched incident and thereby encourage other would-be attackers.
Back in Washington, federal officials met to review their layered system of watchlists and other procedures to examine how to avoid the type of lapses that led to the attack.
Abdulmutallab's family in Nigeria released a statement that that his father had reached out to Nigerian security agencies two months ago. The statement says the father then approached foreign security agencies for "their assistance to find and return him home."
U.S. officials say that is how Abdulmutallab came to the attention of American intelligence, just last month, when the father, prominent Nigerian banker Alhaji Umar Mutallab, reported his concerns to the American Embassy in Abuja. A senior U.S. official said the father was worried that his son was in Yemen and "had fallen under the influence of religious extremists." The father did not mention any specific threat.
These concerns landed him among the about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. Other, smaller lists trigger additional airport screening or other restrictions, but intelligence officials said there wasn't enough information to move him into those categories.
Another apparent lapse concerns Abdulmutallab's visa.
Britain had refused to grant him a student visa in May, but there was no apparent effort to revoke his U.S. tourist visa, issued in June 2008 and good for multiple entries over two years.
The embassy visit by Abdulmatallab's father triggered a Nov. 20 State Department cable from Lagos to all U.S. diplomatic missions and department headquarters in Washington. It was also shared with the interagency National Counter Terrorism Center, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
The NCTC, which has responsibility if any visas are to be pulled over terrorism concerns, then reviewed the information and found it was "insufficient to determine whether his visa should be revoked," Kelly said.
Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary in the Bush administration, questioned why Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't revoked. It's a "serious indicator" when a parent goes to authorities to discuss concerns about his child and it "certainly would cause me to ask questions," said Chertoff in an interview.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed, backtracking from a statement Sunday in which she said it worked.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., joined the GOP critics of that statement. "They just don't get it," said Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "The system didn't 'work' here." Hoekstra, who is running to become his state's governor, included his criticism in a campaign e-mail that asked supporters for donations.
The White House said Obama's low-key response was carefully calibrated.
The plane had been on the ground in Detroit for two hours on Friday before officials first informed Obama. Advisers said they wanted to make sure they had complete and accurate information before going to the president but, even so, Obama's first briefing with national security and homeland security advisers lasted less than 15 minutes. Obama's motorcade was rolling toward the gym minutes afterward.
Two days later, when another flight from Amsterdam to Detroit came under suspicion, it was about 90 minutes after it landed before Obama was informed of what had been a false alarm.
Throughout the weekend, Obama has mixed vacation activities with crisis monitoring. He played golf on Saturday with friends and was playing basketball with aides when that second flight landed in Detroit on Sunday. He went from there to a beach and a gourmet restaurant dinner in the evening.
On Monday, he did not address the public until after a workout and a tennis game with his wife -- and went golfing immediately afterward.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/dpg-obama-terrorist-attack-lwf-200912281262032528202
Obama Vows to Use Power to Thwart Terrorists
HONOLULU (AP) - President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe and said the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was "a serious reminder" of the need to continually adapt security measures against changing terrorist threats.
But even as Obama spoke, word came that a State Department warning had failed to trigger an effort to revoke the alleged attacker's visa. And officials in Yemen confirmed that the would-be bomber had been living in that country, where terrorist elements quickly sought to take credit for his actions.
The incident prompted stiffer airport boarding measures and authorities warned holiday travelers to expect extra delays as they return home this week and beyond.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, charged with trying to destroy an aircraft, is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Mich. A court hearing that had been scheduled for Monday to determine whether the government can get DNA from him was postponed until Jan. 8. No reason was given.
Calling Abdulmutallab's action an "attempted act of terrorism" Obama vowed to "do everything that we can to keep America safe" and declared: "The United States will more than simply strengthen our defenses. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us."
Members of Congress, meanwhile, questioned how a man flagged as a possible terrorist managed to board a commercial flight into the United States carrying powerful explosives and nearly bring down the jetliner. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Monday that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he chairs would hold hearings in January.
Meanwhile, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack as retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaida operatives this month in the lawless country that is fast becoming a key front in the war on terror. The second one was a day before Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.
Yemen has long been an al-Qaida stomping ground. But officials fear that deepening instability in the Middle Eastern nation may be giving new opportunity for the terror group to establish a base to train and plan for attacks on the West.
A statement posted on the Internet by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group and used explosives manufactured by al-Qaida members.
Solving one mystery of Abdulmutallab's pre-Detroit path, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said Monday that he was in Yemen from August until early December. He had received a visa to study Arabic in a school in San'a. Citing immigration authorities, the statement said Abdulmutallab had previously studied at the school, indicating it was not his first trip to Yemen.
Obama, on vacation in his birthplace of Hawaii, acknowledged the attack showed the need to increase the United States' defenses. He detailed the pair of reviews that he has ordered to determine whether changes are needed in either the watchlist system or airport screening procedures.
"This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face," he said. "It's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident."
Obama's remarks Monday were the first heard from him on the Christmas Day scare three days earlier.
Officials said that was deliberate -- an effort by the White House to balance the need for the president to show concern but also to not unduly elevate a botched incident and thereby encourage other would-be attackers.
Back in Washington, federal officials met to review their layered system of watchlists and other procedures to examine how to avoid the type of lapses that led to the attack.
Abdulmutallab's family in Nigeria released a statement that that his father had reached out to Nigerian security agencies two months ago. The statement says the father then approached foreign security agencies for "their assistance to find and return him home."
U.S. officials say that is how Abdulmutallab came to the attention of American intelligence, just last month, when the father, prominent Nigerian banker Alhaji Umar Mutallab, reported his concerns to the American Embassy in Abuja. A senior U.S. official said the father was worried that his son was in Yemen and "had fallen under the influence of religious extremists." The father did not mention any specific threat.
These concerns landed him among the about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. Other, smaller lists trigger additional airport screening or other restrictions, but intelligence officials said there wasn't enough information to move him into those categories.
Another apparent lapse concerns Abdulmutallab's visa.
Britain had refused to grant him a student visa in May, but there was no apparent effort to revoke his U.S. tourist visa, issued in June 2008 and good for multiple entries over two years.
The embassy visit by Abdulmatallab's father triggered a Nov. 20 State Department cable from Lagos to all U.S. diplomatic missions and department headquarters in Washington. It was also shared with the interagency National Counter Terrorism Center, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
The NCTC, which has responsibility if any visas are to be pulled over terrorism concerns, then reviewed the information and found it was "insufficient to determine whether his visa should be revoked," Kelly said.
Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary in the Bush administration, questioned why Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't revoked. It's a "serious indicator" when a parent goes to authorities to discuss concerns about his child and it "certainly would cause me to ask questions," said Chertoff in an interview.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed, backtracking from a statement Sunday in which she said it worked.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., joined the GOP critics of that statement. "They just don't get it," said Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "The system didn't 'work' here." Hoekstra, who is running to become his state's governor, included his criticism in a campaign e-mail that asked supporters for donations.
The White House said Obama's low-key response was carefully calibrated.
The plane had been on the ground in Detroit for two hours on Friday before officials first informed Obama. Advisers said they wanted to make sure they had complete and accurate information before going to the president but, even so, Obama's first briefing with national security and homeland security advisers lasted less than 15 minutes. Obama's motorcade was rolling toward the gym minutes afterward.
Two days later, when another flight from Amsterdam to Detroit came under suspicion, it was about 90 minutes after it landed before Obama was informed of what had been a false alarm.
Throughout the weekend, Obama has mixed vacation activities with crisis monitoring. He played golf on Saturday with friends and was playing basketball with aides when that second flight landed in Detroit on Sunday. He went from there to a beach and a gourmet restaurant dinner in the evening.
On Monday, he did not address the public until after a workout and a tennis game with his wife -- and went golfing immediately afterward.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/dpg-obama-terrorist-attack-lwf-200912281262032528202
Re: Obama Vows to Use Power to Thwart Terrorists
It is a good thing his visa wasn't revoked, Al Qaida would have sent another person or a group to blow up planes who would have done it right.
They sent this idiot who didn't know what he was doing; his failure exposed a weakness in passenger screening that can be fixed.
If the plane was blown up, it would have taken months to figure out what happen.
It is a good thing his visa wasn't revoked, Al Qaida would have sent another person or a group to blow up planes who would have done it right.
They sent this idiot who didn't know what he was doing; his failure exposed a weakness in passenger screening that can be fixed.
If the plane was blown up, it would have taken months to figure out what happen.
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
False flag operation.
False flag operation.
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
I was waiting to see if anyone was gonna say it.
Problem - Reaction Solution!
False flag operation.
I was waiting to see if anyone was gonna say it.Problem - Reaction Solution!
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
(1) Which are you two referring to: (A) Farouk Abdul Muttallab as a lone wolf is a fabrication; or the story just above where "Passengers Claim Accused Nigerian Terrorist Didn't Act Alone" is a fabrication ? ? ?
(2) The headline in the "Didn't Act Alone" story certainly doesn't match the few facts reported within the article and seems a bit far fetched to me.
HOWEVER, do either of you two conspiracists have any "Facts" to back up your unsupported false flag theory in this incident that could shed some light upon us mere sheep ? ? ?
QueEx
False flag operation.
Problem - Reaction Solution!
(1) Which are you two referring to: (A) Farouk Abdul Muttallab as a lone wolf is a fabrication; or the story just above where "Passengers Claim Accused Nigerian Terrorist Didn't Act Alone" is a fabrication ? ? ?
(2) The headline in the "Didn't Act Alone" story certainly doesn't match the few facts reported within the article and seems a bit far fetched to me.
HOWEVER, do either of you two conspiracists have any "Facts" to back up your unsupported false flag theory in this incident that could shed some light upon us mere sheep ? ? ?
QueEx
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
ok QueEx, here's what I've seen thus far. We all know Kurt Haskell claimed there was a another person who assisted the "draws bomber" get on the plane. Kurt has a blog he posts on and some news has come out in the last couple days. It's a long, but detailed article, from his blog page:
http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/truth-about-flight-253-has-been.html
Edited January 29, 2009
***Please note that in the article that follows, I am not claiming that the U.S. Government knew Mutallab had a bomb or intended to hurt anyone on Flight 253 when the U.S. Government let him board.
THE SHARP DRESSED MAN WHO AIDED MUTALLAB ONTO FLIGHT 253 WAS A U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENT.
Since our flight landed on Christmas Day, Lori and I have been doing everything in our power to uncover the truth about why we were almost blown up in the air over Detroit. The truth is now finally out after the publication of the following Detroit News article:
http://detnews.com/article/20100127...isa-to-avoid-tipping-off-larger-investigation
Let me quote from the article:
Now it all becomes apparent. Let me detail everything we know about the "Sharp Dressed Man" (SDM).
1. While being held in Customs on Christmas Day, I first told the story of the SDM.
2. My story has never changed.
3. The FBI visited my office on December 29, 2009, and showed me a series of approximately 10 photographs. None were of the SDM. I asked the FBI if they brought the Amsterdam security video to help me identify the SDM, but they acted as though my request was ridiculous. The FBI asked me what accent the SDM spoke in and I indicated that he had an American accent similar to my own. I further indicated that he wore a tan suit without a tie, was Indian looking, around age 50, 6'0" tall and 250-260 lbs. I further indicated that I did not believe that he was an airline employee and that he was not on our flight.
4. During the first week of January, 2010, Dutch Military Police and the FBI indicated that over "200 Hours" of Amsterdam airport security video had been reviewed and it "Shows Nothing".
5. The mainstream media picked up the "Shows nothing" story, which slanders my story. After visiting my office twice for a flight 253 special, Dateline NBC and Chris Hanson indicated that my story was "Unsubstantiated rumor dispelled as myth" and our story did not air during the tv special.
6. On January 2, 2010, I receive a call from a flight 253 passenger who indicated to me that it may be in my best interest to stop talking publicly about the SDM because he believes I am "wrong" in what I saw. He did not make any claim that he saw the SDM boarding gate incident at all. This call was made out of the blue after he made a "revelation" of this event on January 1, 2010. I later discover that this caller has ties to the U.S. Government.
7. On January 20, 2010, current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Michael E. Leiter, made a startling admission. Leiter indicated that: "I will tell you, that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another."
8. On January 22, 2010, CongressDaily reported that intelligence officials "have acknowledged the government knowingly allows foreigners whose names are on terrorist watch lists to enter the country in order to track their movement and activities."
CongressDaily also reported, citing an unnamed "intelligence official" that Michael E. Leiter's statement on January 20, 2010, reflected government policy and told the publication, "in certain situations it's to our advantage to be able to track individuals who might be on a terrorist watch list because you can learn something from their activities and their contacts."
9. On January 22, 2010, ABC News published an article that showed a change of position in the government's official story. Please see the following blog post for more information:
http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/initially-discounted.html
The U.S. government provided no explanation for the reason my story was initially discounted.
10. The SDM could not be from Al Qaeda. When speaking at the counter in Amsterdam, the SDM said the following "He is from Sudan, we do this all the time". Who is "we"? If it is Al Qaeda, you surely don't make such a statement to an airport security official.
11. The SDM could not be from airport security. The SDM did not dress in any security uniform and did not appear to have any security badge. The SDM did not speak with a Dutch accent. The SDM dressed in a suit coat and pants. If the SDM was a higher up security official, he would not have to convince the ticket agent to let Mutallab on the plane without a valid passport. Instead, he would just order her to do it.
12. Could the SDM have been a U.S. Government official? He dressed in a suit and not a security uniform. Check. He indicated we do this all the time. Could "we" be the U.S. Government? Check. He spoke Enlish with an American accent. Check. Would he need to convince the ticket agent that this was a normal procedure to allow boarding without a passport? Check. Would he have the ability to obtain such clearance? Check. Could he enter this security area even though he wasn't a passenger? Check. Would the ticket agent likely refer this request to a manager? Check. Would the U.S. Government not want this information public and try to hide it? Check.
13. The Amsterdam security video has not been released. A much more minor airport security violation occurred at the Newark New Jersey airport several days after the flight 253 incident. That video was released shortly thereafter.
14. Senators Levin and Stabenow, as well as Congressman Dingle, all refuse to discuss the matter with me.
With the information we already knew and the admission from the above referenced Detroit News article, we have evidence and claims made by government officials that the U.S. Government wanted Mutallab to proceed into the U.S. in order to obtain information on other terrorists involved with him. Once we take this statement and add it to my eyewitness account of a "Sharp Dressed Man" escorting Mutallab through the boarding process and allowing him to board without a valid passport we can make the connection that the "Sharp Dressed Man" was a U.S. Government official/agent.
The reasoning behind the following events now becomes very clear:
1. The reason Mutallab got through security despite the numerous warnings for months before our flight.
2. The reason why there have been so many lies from the U.S. Government attempting to discredit my eyewitness account.
3. The reason why the Amsterdam airport security video is being hidden from the public.
4. The reason why the government is proposing a "Failed to Connect the Dots" account of the failure. The truth is too damning.
5. The reason why Mr. Wolf of the Obama administration indicated on the Keith Olberman Show that the White House was investigating a possible "intentional act" from within the U.S. Government as the reason for the Christmas Day attack.
6. The explanation for the cameraman and why he hasn't been identified (Obviously, he was another U.S. Government agent) whose job was to film Mutallab for some governmental purpose.
7. The reason for the lax security after landing, which can be attributed to foreknowledge of the possible suspects involved.
8. The reason for the failure to search or secure the plane and passengers after landing, which can also be attributed to foreknowledge of the possible suspects involved.
9. The corporate media's attempt to bury my eyewitness account.
10. Carl Levin's, Debbie Stabenow's and John Dingle's intentional avoidance of my story and failure to return my calls/emails.
11. Janet Napolitano's statement that "The System Worked". From her point of view it probably did as this WAS PART OF THE SYSTEM!
ok QueEx, here's what I've seen thus far. We all know Kurt Haskell claimed there was a another person who assisted the "draws bomber" get on the plane. Kurt has a blog he posts on and some news has come out in the last couple days. It's a long, but detailed article, from his blog page:
http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/truth-about-flight-253-has-been.html
Edited January 29, 2009
***Please note that in the article that follows, I am not claiming that the U.S. Government knew Mutallab had a bomb or intended to hurt anyone on Flight 253 when the U.S. Government let him board.
THE SHARP DRESSED MAN WHO AIDED MUTALLAB ONTO FLIGHT 253 WAS A U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENT.
Since our flight landed on Christmas Day, Lori and I have been doing everything in our power to uncover the truth about why we were almost blown up in the air over Detroit. The truth is now finally out after the publication of the following Detroit News article:
http://detnews.com/article/20100127...isa-to-avoid-tipping-off-larger-investigation
Let me quote from the article:
Now it all becomes apparent. Let me detail everything we know about the "Sharp Dressed Man" (SDM).
1. While being held in Customs on Christmas Day, I first told the story of the SDM.
2. My story has never changed.
3. The FBI visited my office on December 29, 2009, and showed me a series of approximately 10 photographs. None were of the SDM. I asked the FBI if they brought the Amsterdam security video to help me identify the SDM, but they acted as though my request was ridiculous. The FBI asked me what accent the SDM spoke in and I indicated that he had an American accent similar to my own. I further indicated that he wore a tan suit without a tie, was Indian looking, around age 50, 6'0" tall and 250-260 lbs. I further indicated that I did not believe that he was an airline employee and that he was not on our flight.
4. During the first week of January, 2010, Dutch Military Police and the FBI indicated that over "200 Hours" of Amsterdam airport security video had been reviewed and it "Shows Nothing".
5. The mainstream media picked up the "Shows nothing" story, which slanders my story. After visiting my office twice for a flight 253 special, Dateline NBC and Chris Hanson indicated that my story was "Unsubstantiated rumor dispelled as myth" and our story did not air during the tv special.
6. On January 2, 2010, I receive a call from a flight 253 passenger who indicated to me that it may be in my best interest to stop talking publicly about the SDM because he believes I am "wrong" in what I saw. He did not make any claim that he saw the SDM boarding gate incident at all. This call was made out of the blue after he made a "revelation" of this event on January 1, 2010. I later discover that this caller has ties to the U.S. Government.
7. On January 20, 2010, current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Michael E. Leiter, made a startling admission. Leiter indicated that: "I will tell you, that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another."
8. On January 22, 2010, CongressDaily reported that intelligence officials "have acknowledged the government knowingly allows foreigners whose names are on terrorist watch lists to enter the country in order to track their movement and activities."
CongressDaily also reported, citing an unnamed "intelligence official" that Michael E. Leiter's statement on January 20, 2010, reflected government policy and told the publication, "in certain situations it's to our advantage to be able to track individuals who might be on a terrorist watch list because you can learn something from their activities and their contacts."
9. On January 22, 2010, ABC News published an article that showed a change of position in the government's official story. Please see the following blog post for more information:
http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/initially-discounted.html
The U.S. government provided no explanation for the reason my story was initially discounted.
10. The SDM could not be from Al Qaeda. When speaking at the counter in Amsterdam, the SDM said the following "He is from Sudan, we do this all the time". Who is "we"? If it is Al Qaeda, you surely don't make such a statement to an airport security official.
11. The SDM could not be from airport security. The SDM did not dress in any security uniform and did not appear to have any security badge. The SDM did not speak with a Dutch accent. The SDM dressed in a suit coat and pants. If the SDM was a higher up security official, he would not have to convince the ticket agent to let Mutallab on the plane without a valid passport. Instead, he would just order her to do it.
12. Could the SDM have been a U.S. Government official? He dressed in a suit and not a security uniform. Check. He indicated we do this all the time. Could "we" be the U.S. Government? Check. He spoke Enlish with an American accent. Check. Would he need to convince the ticket agent that this was a normal procedure to allow boarding without a passport? Check. Would he have the ability to obtain such clearance? Check. Could he enter this security area even though he wasn't a passenger? Check. Would the ticket agent likely refer this request to a manager? Check. Would the U.S. Government not want this information public and try to hide it? Check.
13. The Amsterdam security video has not been released. A much more minor airport security violation occurred at the Newark New Jersey airport several days after the flight 253 incident. That video was released shortly thereafter.
14. Senators Levin and Stabenow, as well as Congressman Dingle, all refuse to discuss the matter with me.
With the information we already knew and the admission from the above referenced Detroit News article, we have evidence and claims made by government officials that the U.S. Government wanted Mutallab to proceed into the U.S. in order to obtain information on other terrorists involved with him. Once we take this statement and add it to my eyewitness account of a "Sharp Dressed Man" escorting Mutallab through the boarding process and allowing him to board without a valid passport we can make the connection that the "Sharp Dressed Man" was a U.S. Government official/agent.
The reasoning behind the following events now becomes very clear:
1. The reason Mutallab got through security despite the numerous warnings for months before our flight.
2. The reason why there have been so many lies from the U.S. Government attempting to discredit my eyewitness account.
3. The reason why the Amsterdam airport security video is being hidden from the public.
4. The reason why the government is proposing a "Failed to Connect the Dots" account of the failure. The truth is too damning.
5. The reason why Mr. Wolf of the Obama administration indicated on the Keith Olberman Show that the White House was investigating a possible "intentional act" from within the U.S. Government as the reason for the Christmas Day attack.
6. The explanation for the cameraman and why he hasn't been identified (Obviously, he was another U.S. Government agent) whose job was to film Mutallab for some governmental purpose.
7. The reason for the lax security after landing, which can be attributed to foreknowledge of the possible suspects involved.
8. The reason for the failure to search or secure the plane and passengers after landing, which can also be attributed to foreknowledge of the possible suspects involved.
9. The corporate media's attempt to bury my eyewitness account.
10. Carl Levin's, Debbie Stabenow's and John Dingle's intentional avoidance of my story and failure to return my calls/emails.
11. Janet Napolitano's statement that "The System Worked". From her point of view it probably did as this WAS PART OF THE SYSTEM!
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
False flag operation.
Problem - Reaction Solution!
Wiki said:
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
The underwear bomber father warned the embassy in Nigeria about his son. The underwear bomber bought a one way ticket to the USA in cashis this not big hint or what. We have Americans who have similar names of people on the no fly list and get harrassed every time they head to airport and this guy does not get harassed . Keep thinking the goverment is going to protect you and keep you safe look at their the War on Drugs (More drugs on the streets of America), War on Poverty(More Poverty), and now the War on Terrorism( even after 9/11 simpple shit as his father lets the embassy in Nigeria know about his son this guy gets on a plane to the US)....LOL
The underwear bomber father warned the embassy in Nigeria about his son. The underwear bomber bought a one way ticket to the USA in cash
is this not big hint or what. We have Americans who have similar names of people on the no fly list and get harrassed every time they head to airport and this guy does not get harassed . Keep thinking the goverment is going to protect you and keep you safe look at their the War on Drugs (More drugs on the streets of America), War on Poverty(More Poverty), and now the War on Terrorism( even after 9/11 simpple shit as his father lets the embassy in Nigeria know about his son this guy gets on a plane to the US)....LOL
Last edited:
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
The sky became cloudy and dark;
tiny droplets of water were misting in the air; and
mothers hurried their young inside.
It was about to rain.
<font size="3">No. The house next door was on fire; and the firemen were doing their thing.</font size>
So, what does what you said have to do with False Flag ? ? ?
Be Specific.
The underwear bomber father warned the embassy in Nigeria about his son. The underwear bomber bought a one way ticket to the USA in cash
The sky became cloudy and dark;
tiny droplets of water were misting in the air; and
mothers hurried their young inside.
It was about to rain.
<font size="3">No. The house next door was on fire; and the firemen were doing their thing.</font size>
So, what does what you said have to do with False Flag ? ? ?
Be Specific.
Re: Passenger Attempts to bring down Jetliner
Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber
By Alex Lantier
3 February 2010
A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian student, whom US officials suspected of being affiliated with the Yemeni terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attempted to set off a bomb on Northwest Flight 253 into Detroit on Christmas Day. Revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa would have prevented him from boarding the airplane.
The hearing was reported in a brief article posted January 27 on the web site of the Detroit News, headlined, “Terror Suspect Kept Visa to Avoid Tipping Off Larger Investigation.”
The revelation that US intelligence agencies made a deliberate decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board the commercial flight, without any special airport screening, has been buried in the media. As of this writing, nearly a week after the hearing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published no articles on the subject. Nor have the broadcast or cable media reported on it.
This is despite—or perhaps more accurately, because of—the fact that this information exposes the official government story of the near-disaster to be a lie. President Obama, who has joined with top US intelligence, FBI and Homeland Security officials to insist that Abdulmutallab was inadvertently allowed to board the plane carrying explosives because of a failure to “connect the dots,” has from the start been deceiving the American people.
The official line strained credulity from the outset, given reports of multiple advance warnings that the Nigerian student was linked to terrorists in Yemen who were planning attacks on the US.
As was widely reported within hours of the failed bombing attempt, Abdulmutallab’s father—a former Nigerian government minister and prominent banker—went to the US embassy in Abuja in November to warn that his son was involved with radical Islamists in Yemen and had broken off contact with his family. The family said they had given US officials extensive information about their son in the expectation that they would “find and return him home.”
In his prepared statement to the House Committee on Homeland Security on January 27, State Department Under-Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said: “In the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, on the day following his father’s November 19 visit to the Embassy, we sent a cable to the Washington intelligence and law enforcement community through proper channels (the Visas Viper system) that ‘Information at post suggests [Farouk] may be involved in Yemeni-based extremists.’”
Kennedy confirmed that all US intelligence agencies received warnings that Abdulmutallab was training with terrorists in Yemen. He noted that the initial diplomatic cable from Abuja misspelled Abdulmutallab’s name. However, Kennedy continued, “At the same time, the Consular Section entered Abdulmutallab into the Consular Lookout and Support System database known as CLASS… The CLASS entry resulted in a lookout using the correct spelling that was shared automatically with the primary lookout system used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and accessible to other agencies.”
Under questioning by the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Kennedy explained why the State Department might not revoke the US visa of a suspected terrorist: “We will revoke the visa of any individual who is a threat to the United States, but we do take one preliminary step. We ask our law enforcement and intelligence community partners, ‘Do you have eyes on this person and do you want us to let this person proceed under your surveillance so that you may potentially break a larger plot?’”
He added: “And one of the members [of the intelligence community]—and we’d be glad to give you that out of [open session]—in private—said, ‘Please, do not revoke this visa. We have eyes on this person. We are following this person who has the visa for the purpose of trying to roll up an entire network, not just stop one person.’”
Under questioning by Rep. Dan Lungren, Kennedy confirmed that Abdulmutallab’s case was one in which US intelligence officials had interceded to block a visa revocation.
In prepared remarks at the same hearing, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter stated: “Within the intelligence community we had strategic intelligence that Al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP—the terrorist group in Yemen with which Abdulmutallab was in contact] had the intention of taking action against the United States prior to the failed attack on December 25th, but we did not direct more resources against AQAP, nor insist that watch-listing criteria be adjusted prior to the event.” He added that US intelligence analysts “did not push [Abdulmutallab] onto the terrorist watch-list.”
This inaction came despite the fact that US intelligence agencies were well aware of the threat posed by AQAP. According to Leiter: “The Intelligence Community highlighted the growing threat to US and Western interests in the region posed by AQAP, whose precursor elements attacked our embassy in [the Yemeni capital] Sana’a [in September 2008]. Our analysis focused on AQAP’s plans to strike US targets in Yemen, but it also noted—increasingly in the fall of 2009—the possibility of targeting the United States.”
Amazingly, the US government did not declare AQAP a terrorist group until January 19, 2010, even though it was referred to by that name in 2009. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley stated that declaring AQAP a terrorist group would “prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration-related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP.” Thus, for nearly a month after the attempted bombing, US officials were not required to implement a range of measures against AQAP, including “an asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo,” according to Crowley.
At the January 27 hearing, Leiter said that there had been “multiple” points of failure in the US government’s response to warnings of the impending attack. However, all three government officials testifying—Kennedy, Leiter and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Jane Lute—said no disciplinary action would be taken.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was invited to the hearing and was in Washington at the time, refused to attend. She did not notify committee members beforehand. Napolitano was widely criticized for claiming on December 27 that the “system worked” prior to, during and after the attempted bombing.
Official testimony now records that US intelligence agencies deliberately let Abdulmutallab board Flight 253, putting the lives of hundreds of passengers at risk, in the course of an as yet undisclosed intelligence operation. Whether US agencies were unaware of Abdulmutallab’s plans, or consciously decided to allow an attack to proceed, remains unclear.
In this context, it should be noted that the reason for US inaction given at the hearing—that US intelligence did not want to alert Al Qaeda that it was watching Abdulmutallab—does not hold water. As congressmen noted during the hearing, US Customs and Border Protection had prepared to interrogate Abdulmutallab upon arrival in Detroit, as he was on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database. This would be counterproductive if US agencies were mounting a concerted effort to hide their interest in Abdulmutallab.
There are a number of possible explanations for the decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board Northwest Flight 253. One possibility is that it was bound up with efforts by elements within the US intelligence apparatus to politically destabilize the Obama administration.
To seriously investigate the possible motivations behind the government’s actions, the question must be asked: What would have been the consequences of a successful attack? Hysterical media coverage would have provided fodder for the most right-wing factions in the ruling class to demand war against Yemen or other Muslim countries. At home, there would have been calls for a mass dragnet like that after the September 11 attacks, and immense political pressure for a new battery of police-state laws.
Even having failed, the attack was used as a pretext for expanding US military operations in Yemen, adding further security restrictions at airports, and expanding the “no-fly” passenger list and other databases by agencies unaccountable to the American people.
The testimony at the January 27 hearing also blows apart the line promulgated by the establishment media, which universally echoed the administration’s hackneyed phrase to explain the Flight 253 incident—a “failure to connect the dots” on the part of US intelligence agencies. This, of course, is the same phrase used in the official cover-up of the 9/11 attacks.
Thus, in a January 2 editorial entitled “Why Didn’t They See It?” the New York Times wrote: “No doubt sorting through heaps of information and determining what is urgent or even worthy of follow-up is daunting. Still, it is incredible, and frightening, that the government cannot do at least as good a job at swiftly updating and correlating information as Google.”
The Times itself, in a subsequent article published January 18, reported the results of its own investigation, based on interviews with senior White House and intelligence officials. The newspaper revealed more “missed clues,” including the fact that intelligence authorities learned in early November from a communications intercept of Al Qaeda followers in Yemen that a man named “Umar Farouk” had volunteered for a coming operation. Despite such evidence of an official cover-up, the Times maintained the line that the near-disaster was the result of mistakes, omissions and an inability to “connect the dots.”
It is now possible to answer the New York Times editorial of January 2: They did “see it,” and the Times’ incredulous and cynical attempt to explain the Flight 253 attack as the result of mere incompetence was part of a campaign of disinformation. This is a campaign in which, by its silence on the January 27 hearing, the Times continues to participate.
The Congressional hearing vindicates the analysis of the World Socialist Web Site, which exposed the highly dubious character of the official story, pointed to the possibility of US government involvement, and demanded that officials involved in handling Abdulmutallab’s case be named and investigated.
In a December 31 column (“The Northwest Flight 253 intelligence failure: Negligence or conspiracy?”) the World Socialist Web Site wrote: “The general outlines of the Northwest bombing attempt and the 9/11 attacks are startlingly similar. One might even say that what is involved is a modus operandi. In both cases, those alleged to have carried out the actions had been the subject of US intelligence investigations and surveillance and had been allowed to enter the country and board flights under conditions that would normally have set off multiple security alarms.
“Both then and now, the government and the media expect the public to accept that all that was involved was mistakes. But why should anyone assume that the failure to act on the extensive intelligence leading to Abdulmutallab involved merely ‘innocent’ mistakes—and not something far more sinister?”
In the January 18 New York Times article cited above, the newspaper also noted that Obama personally met on December 22 with CIA, FBI, and DHS officials because Obama was “worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas holiday.” In another meeting the same day, the Times reported, Obama’s homeland security advisor John Brennan held talks on Yemen, “where a stream of disturbing intelligence had suggested that Qaeda operatives were preparing for some action, perhaps a strike on an American target on Christmas day.”
Nevertheless, Obama gave a December 28 internet and radio address in which he falsely described Abdulmutallab as an “isolated extremist.”
He also declared: “A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism, and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable... We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.”
Over a month after Obama made these claims, it is clear that US intelligence agencies were deeply involved and the White House is overseeing a massive cover-up.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/f253-f03.shtml
Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber
By Alex Lantier
3 February 2010
A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian student, whom US officials suspected of being affiliated with the Yemeni terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attempted to set off a bomb on Northwest Flight 253 into Detroit on Christmas Day. Revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa would have prevented him from boarding the airplane.
The hearing was reported in a brief article posted January 27 on the web site of the Detroit News, headlined, “Terror Suspect Kept Visa to Avoid Tipping Off Larger Investigation.”
The revelation that US intelligence agencies made a deliberate decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board the commercial flight, without any special airport screening, has been buried in the media. As of this writing, nearly a week after the hearing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published no articles on the subject. Nor have the broadcast or cable media reported on it.
This is despite—or perhaps more accurately, because of—the fact that this information exposes the official government story of the near-disaster to be a lie. President Obama, who has joined with top US intelligence, FBI and Homeland Security officials to insist that Abdulmutallab was inadvertently allowed to board the plane carrying explosives because of a failure to “connect the dots,” has from the start been deceiving the American people.
The official line strained credulity from the outset, given reports of multiple advance warnings that the Nigerian student was linked to terrorists in Yemen who were planning attacks on the US.
As was widely reported within hours of the failed bombing attempt, Abdulmutallab’s father—a former Nigerian government minister and prominent banker—went to the US embassy in Abuja in November to warn that his son was involved with radical Islamists in Yemen and had broken off contact with his family. The family said they had given US officials extensive information about their son in the expectation that they would “find and return him home.”
In his prepared statement to the House Committee on Homeland Security on January 27, State Department Under-Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said: “In the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, on the day following his father’s November 19 visit to the Embassy, we sent a cable to the Washington intelligence and law enforcement community through proper channels (the Visas Viper system) that ‘Information at post suggests [Farouk] may be involved in Yemeni-based extremists.’”
Kennedy confirmed that all US intelligence agencies received warnings that Abdulmutallab was training with terrorists in Yemen. He noted that the initial diplomatic cable from Abuja misspelled Abdulmutallab’s name. However, Kennedy continued, “At the same time, the Consular Section entered Abdulmutallab into the Consular Lookout and Support System database known as CLASS… The CLASS entry resulted in a lookout using the correct spelling that was shared automatically with the primary lookout system used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and accessible to other agencies.”
Under questioning by the committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Kennedy explained why the State Department might not revoke the US visa of a suspected terrorist: “We will revoke the visa of any individual who is a threat to the United States, but we do take one preliminary step. We ask our law enforcement and intelligence community partners, ‘Do you have eyes on this person and do you want us to let this person proceed under your surveillance so that you may potentially break a larger plot?’”
He added: “And one of the members [of the intelligence community]—and we’d be glad to give you that out of [open session]—in private—said, ‘Please, do not revoke this visa. We have eyes on this person. We are following this person who has the visa for the purpose of trying to roll up an entire network, not just stop one person.’”
Under questioning by Rep. Dan Lungren, Kennedy confirmed that Abdulmutallab’s case was one in which US intelligence officials had interceded to block a visa revocation.
In prepared remarks at the same hearing, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter stated: “Within the intelligence community we had strategic intelligence that Al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP—the terrorist group in Yemen with which Abdulmutallab was in contact] had the intention of taking action against the United States prior to the failed attack on December 25th, but we did not direct more resources against AQAP, nor insist that watch-listing criteria be adjusted prior to the event.” He added that US intelligence analysts “did not push [Abdulmutallab] onto the terrorist watch-list.”
This inaction came despite the fact that US intelligence agencies were well aware of the threat posed by AQAP. According to Leiter: “The Intelligence Community highlighted the growing threat to US and Western interests in the region posed by AQAP, whose precursor elements attacked our embassy in [the Yemeni capital] Sana’a [in September 2008]. Our analysis focused on AQAP’s plans to strike US targets in Yemen, but it also noted—increasingly in the fall of 2009—the possibility of targeting the United States.”
Amazingly, the US government did not declare AQAP a terrorist group until January 19, 2010, even though it was referred to by that name in 2009. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley stated that declaring AQAP a terrorist group would “prohibit provision of material support and arms to AQAP and also include immigration-related restrictions that will help stem the flow of finances to AQAP.” Thus, for nearly a month after the attempted bombing, US officials were not required to implement a range of measures against AQAP, including “an asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo,” according to Crowley.
At the January 27 hearing, Leiter said that there had been “multiple” points of failure in the US government’s response to warnings of the impending attack. However, all three government officials testifying—Kennedy, Leiter and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Jane Lute—said no disciplinary action would be taken.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was invited to the hearing and was in Washington at the time, refused to attend. She did not notify committee members beforehand. Napolitano was widely criticized for claiming on December 27 that the “system worked” prior to, during and after the attempted bombing.
Official testimony now records that US intelligence agencies deliberately let Abdulmutallab board Flight 253, putting the lives of hundreds of passengers at risk, in the course of an as yet undisclosed intelligence operation. Whether US agencies were unaware of Abdulmutallab’s plans, or consciously decided to allow an attack to proceed, remains unclear.
In this context, it should be noted that the reason for US inaction given at the hearing—that US intelligence did not want to alert Al Qaeda that it was watching Abdulmutallab—does not hold water. As congressmen noted during the hearing, US Customs and Border Protection had prepared to interrogate Abdulmutallab upon arrival in Detroit, as he was on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database. This would be counterproductive if US agencies were mounting a concerted effort to hide their interest in Abdulmutallab.
There are a number of possible explanations for the decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board Northwest Flight 253. One possibility is that it was bound up with efforts by elements within the US intelligence apparatus to politically destabilize the Obama administration.
To seriously investigate the possible motivations behind the government’s actions, the question must be asked: What would have been the consequences of a successful attack? Hysterical media coverage would have provided fodder for the most right-wing factions in the ruling class to demand war against Yemen or other Muslim countries. At home, there would have been calls for a mass dragnet like that after the September 11 attacks, and immense political pressure for a new battery of police-state laws.
Even having failed, the attack was used as a pretext for expanding US military operations in Yemen, adding further security restrictions at airports, and expanding the “no-fly” passenger list and other databases by agencies unaccountable to the American people.
The testimony at the January 27 hearing also blows apart the line promulgated by the establishment media, which universally echoed the administration’s hackneyed phrase to explain the Flight 253 incident—a “failure to connect the dots” on the part of US intelligence agencies. This, of course, is the same phrase used in the official cover-up of the 9/11 attacks.
Thus, in a January 2 editorial entitled “Why Didn’t They See It?” the New York Times wrote: “No doubt sorting through heaps of information and determining what is urgent or even worthy of follow-up is daunting. Still, it is incredible, and frightening, that the government cannot do at least as good a job at swiftly updating and correlating information as Google.”
The Times itself, in a subsequent article published January 18, reported the results of its own investigation, based on interviews with senior White House and intelligence officials. The newspaper revealed more “missed clues,” including the fact that intelligence authorities learned in early November from a communications intercept of Al Qaeda followers in Yemen that a man named “Umar Farouk” had volunteered for a coming operation. Despite such evidence of an official cover-up, the Times maintained the line that the near-disaster was the result of mistakes, omissions and an inability to “connect the dots.”
It is now possible to answer the New York Times editorial of January 2: They did “see it,” and the Times’ incredulous and cynical attempt to explain the Flight 253 attack as the result of mere incompetence was part of a campaign of disinformation. This is a campaign in which, by its silence on the January 27 hearing, the Times continues to participate.
The Congressional hearing vindicates the analysis of the World Socialist Web Site, which exposed the highly dubious character of the official story, pointed to the possibility of US government involvement, and demanded that officials involved in handling Abdulmutallab’s case be named and investigated.
In a December 31 column (“The Northwest Flight 253 intelligence failure: Negligence or conspiracy?”) the World Socialist Web Site wrote: “The general outlines of the Northwest bombing attempt and the 9/11 attacks are startlingly similar. One might even say that what is involved is a modus operandi. In both cases, those alleged to have carried out the actions had been the subject of US intelligence investigations and surveillance and had been allowed to enter the country and board flights under conditions that would normally have set off multiple security alarms.
“Both then and now, the government and the media expect the public to accept that all that was involved was mistakes. But why should anyone assume that the failure to act on the extensive intelligence leading to Abdulmutallab involved merely ‘innocent’ mistakes—and not something far more sinister?”
In the January 18 New York Times article cited above, the newspaper also noted that Obama personally met on December 22 with CIA, FBI, and DHS officials because Obama was “worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas holiday.” In another meeting the same day, the Times reported, Obama’s homeland security advisor John Brennan held talks on Yemen, “where a stream of disturbing intelligence had suggested that Qaeda operatives were preparing for some action, perhaps a strike on an American target on Christmas day.”
Nevertheless, Obama gave a December 28 internet and radio address in which he falsely described Abdulmutallab as an “isolated extremist.”
He also declared: “A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism, and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable... We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.”
Over a month after Obama made these claims, it is clear that US intelligence agencies were deeply involved and the White House is overseeing a massive cover-up.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/f253-f03.shtml
The sky became cloudy and dark;
tiny droplets of water were misting in the air; and
mothers hurried their young inside.
It was about to rain.
<font size="3">No. The house next door was on fire; and the firemen were doing their thing.</font size>
So, what does what you said have to do with False Flag ? ? ?
Al Qaeda Releases Video Of Underwear Bomber In Training
New videos produced by al Qaeda in Yemen show the accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and others in his training class firing weapons at a desert camp whose targets included the Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the letters "UN."
The tape also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year old Nigerian justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He says, "the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, "God said if you do not fight back, He will punish you and replace you."
Abdulmutallab was arrested on Christmas Day in Detroit after he allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but U.S. authorities say he is now cooperating in the investigation.
The videos, obtained by a Yemeni journalist working for ABC News, are the first to show Abdulmutallab with the al Qaeda group. In the video he and others use automatic weapons to fire at targets that include a Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the a symbol of the United Nations.
Some, but not all, of the faces of others at the training camp are blurred in the video released by al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. Their logo is embedded in a corner of the screen.
"The other people in the video are presumably the people we are still looking for," said Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former White House counter-terrorism official. The video also shows the purported al Qaeda fighters in Yemen firing at what appears to be an unmanned surveillance plane overhead.
As ABC News first reported, the U.S. launched a series of cruise missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda camps in Yemen, beginning Dec. 18.
There is no indication of when the tape was recorded but U.S. officials believe Abdulmutallab was in Yemen between August and left in mid-December of 2009 on his suicide mission.
There was no immediate comment from Abdulmutallab's lawyer about his statements on the tape.
Leila Taha, Asa Eslocker and Megan Chuchmach contributed to this report.
New videos produced by al Qaeda in Yemen show the accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and others in his training class firing weapons at a desert camp whose targets included the Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the letters "UN."
The videos, to be broadcast Monday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, appear to support Abdulmutallab's statements to the FBI that there are "others like me" who also trained with him in Yemen to carry out attacks against U.S. and western targets.
The tape also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year old Nigerian justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He says, "the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, "God said if you do not fight back, He will punish you and replace you."
Abdulmutallab was arrested on Christmas Day in Detroit after he allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but U.S. authorities say he is now cooperating in the investigation.
The videos, obtained by a Yemeni journalist working for ABC News, are the first to show Abdulmutallab with the al Qaeda group. In the video he and others use automatic weapons to fire at targets that include a Jewish star, the British Union Jack and the a symbol of the United Nations.
Some, but not all, of the faces of others at the training camp are blurred in the video released by al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. Their logo is embedded in a corner of the screen.
"The other people in the video are presumably the people we are still looking for," said Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former White House counter-terrorism official. The video also shows the purported al Qaeda fighters in Yemen firing at what appears to be an unmanned surveillance plane overhead.
As ABC News first reported, the U.S. launched a series of cruise missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda camps in Yemen, beginning Dec. 18.
There is no indication of when the tape was recorded but U.S. officials believe Abdulmutallab was in Yemen between August and left in mid-December of 2009 on his suicide mission.
There was no immediate comment from Abdulmutallab's lawyer about his statements on the tape.
Leila Taha, Asa Eslocker and Megan Chuchmach contributed to this report.
Re: Al Qaeda Releases Video Of Underwear Bomber In Training
Nigerian underwear bomber gets life sentence
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
<S>CITY OF CRUISE</S> <U>DETROIT</U> -- Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Detroit-
bound international flight with and underwear bomb on Christmas Day 2009 on behalf of al-Qaida,
was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday.
Edmunds, in sentencing Abdulmutallab to multiple life sentences, said, “The defendant has
never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission,” The Detroit Free Press
reported. “To the contrary, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing
mission.”
FULL STORY
Nigerian underwear bomber gets life sentence
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
<S>CITY OF CRUISE</S> <U>DETROIT</U> -- Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Detroit-
bound international flight with and underwear bomb on Christmas Day 2009 on behalf of al-Qaida,
was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday.
Edmunds, in sentencing Abdulmutallab to multiple life sentences, said, “The defendant has
never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission,” The Detroit Free Press
reported. “To the contrary, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing
mission.”
FULL STORY
I remember this case;
Victim Impact Statement
by Kurt Haskell
Every victim of a crime in Michigan is entitled to make a statement in open court regarding the impact of the crime on their life. The statement is limited to the victim's physical, emotional and financial well being as it relates to the crime. Keep that in my as you read my statement. Below is a copy of the victim impact statement I gave today at the Underwear Bomber sentencing hearing. When reading my statement, keep in mind that I am a practicing attorney in the State of Michigan. In addition, I regularly practice in the Court the hearings are taking place at and therefore, I am somewhat limited as to what I can say. We were limited to 5 minutes each.
I wish to thank the Court for allowing me these 5 minutes to make my statement. My references to the government in this statement refer to the Federal Government excluding this Court and the prosecution. On Christmas Day 2009, my wife and I were returning from an African safari and had a connecting flight through Amsterdam. As we waited for our flight, we sat on the floor next to the boarding gate. What I witnessed while sitting there and subsequent events have changed my life forever. While I sat there, I witnessed Umar dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, being escorted around security by a man in a tan suit who spoke perfect American English and who aided Umar in boarding without a passport. The airline gate worker initially refused Umar boarding until the man in the tan suit intervened.
The event meant nothing to me at the time. Little did I know that Umar would try to kill me a few hours later as our flight approached Detroit. The final 10 minutes of our flight after the attack were the worst minutes of my life. During those 10 minutes I sat paralyzed in fear. Unfortunately, what happened next has had an even greater impact on my life and has saddened me further.
When we landed, I was shocked that our plane taxied up to the gate. I was further shocked that we were forced to sit on the plane for 20 minutes with powder from the so called bomb all over the cabin. The officers that boarded the plane did nothing to ensure our safety and did not check for accomplices or other explosive devices. Several passengers trampled through parts of the bomb as they exited the plane. We were then taken into the terminal with our unchecked carry on bags. Again, there was no concern for our safety even though Umar told the officers that there was another bomb on board as he exited the plane. I wondered why nobody was concerned about our safety, accomplices or other bombs and the lack of concern worried me greatly. I immediately told the FBI my story in order to help catch the accomplice I had seen in Amsterdam. It soon became obvious that the FBI wasn't interested in what I had to say, which upset me further. For one month the government refused to admit the existence of the man in the tan suit before changing course and admitting his existence in an ABC News article on January 22, 2010. That was the last time the government talked about this man. The video that would prove the truth of my account has never been released. I continue to be emotional upset that the video has not been released. The Dutch police, meanwhile, in this article (show article), also confirmed that Umar did not show his passport in Amsterdam which also meant that he didn't go through security as both are in the same line in Amsterdam. It upsets me that the government refuses to admit this fact.
I became further saddened from this case, when Patrick Kennedy of the State Department during Congressional hearings, admitted that Umar was a known terrorist, was being followed, and the U.S. allowed him into the U.S. so that it could catch Umar's accomplices. I was once again shocked and saddened when Michael Leiter of the National Counter terrorism Center admitted during these same hearings that intentionally letting terrorists into the U.S. was a frequent practice of the U.S. Government. I cannot fully explain my sadness, disappointment and fear when I realized that my government allowed an attack on me intentionally.
During this time, I questioned if my country intentionally put a known terrorist onto my flight with a live bomb. I had many sleepless nights over this issue. My answer came shortly thereafter. In late 2010, the FBI admitted to giving out intentionally defective bombs to the Portland Christmas Tree Bomber, the Wrigley Field Bomber and several others. Further, Mr. Chambers was quoted in the Free Press on January 11, 2011 when he indicated that the government's own explosives experts had indicated that Umar's bomb was impossibly defective. I wondered how that could be. Certainly, I thought, Al Qaeda wouldn't go through all of the trouble to plan such an attack only to provide the terrorist with an impossibly defective bomb.
I attended nearly all of the pretrial hearings. At the hearing on January 28, 2011, I was greatly disappointed by the prosecution's request to block evidence from Mr. Chambers "as it could then be able to be obtained by third parties, who could use it in a civil suit against the government". It really bothered me that the government apparently was admitting to wrongdoing of some kind as it admitted that it was concerned it would be sued. It further upset me to know that the government was putting its own interests ahead of those of the passengers.
When I attended the jury selection hearings, I questioned why versions of the same two questions kept coming up, those being:
1. Do you think whether you'll be able to tell whether something is actually a bomb? and
2. Do you realize that sometimes the media doesn't always tell the truth?
I continued to be greatly saddened at this point as I felt the truth continued to be hidden.
When Umar listed me as his only witness, I was happy to testify, not on his behalf, but on behalf of the truth. I never expected to testify, as my eyewitness account would have been too damaging to the myth that the government and media are putting forward. A mere 5 days after I was announced as a witness, there was an inexplicable guilty plea which exasperated me as I no longer would be testifying.
In closing I will just say that regardless of how the media and government try to shape the public perception of this case, I am convinced that Umar was given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. Government agent and placed on our flight without showing a passport or going through security, to stage a false terrorist attack to be used to implement various government policies.
The effect this matter has had on my life has been astounding and due to this case, I will never trust the government in any matter, ever.
In regards to sentencing, nothing I've said excuses the fact that Umar tried to kill me. He has waived his valid claim to the entrapment defense. Umar, you are not a great Muslim martyr, you are merely a "Patsy". I ask the court to impose the mandatory sentence.
Victim Impact Statement
by Kurt Haskell
Every victim of a crime in Michigan is entitled to make a statement in open court regarding the impact of the crime on their life. The statement is limited to the victim's physical, emotional and financial well being as it relates to the crime. Keep that in my as you read my statement. Below is a copy of the victim impact statement I gave today at the Underwear Bomber sentencing hearing. When reading my statement, keep in mind that I am a practicing attorney in the State of Michigan. In addition, I regularly practice in the Court the hearings are taking place at and therefore, I am somewhat limited as to what I can say. We were limited to 5 minutes each.
I wish to thank the Court for allowing me these 5 minutes to make my statement. My references to the government in this statement refer to the Federal Government excluding this Court and the prosecution. On Christmas Day 2009, my wife and I were returning from an African safari and had a connecting flight through Amsterdam. As we waited for our flight, we sat on the floor next to the boarding gate. What I witnessed while sitting there and subsequent events have changed my life forever. While I sat there, I witnessed Umar dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, being escorted around security by a man in a tan suit who spoke perfect American English and who aided Umar in boarding without a passport. The airline gate worker initially refused Umar boarding until the man in the tan suit intervened.
The event meant nothing to me at the time. Little did I know that Umar would try to kill me a few hours later as our flight approached Detroit. The final 10 minutes of our flight after the attack were the worst minutes of my life. During those 10 minutes I sat paralyzed in fear. Unfortunately, what happened next has had an even greater impact on my life and has saddened me further.
When we landed, I was shocked that our plane taxied up to the gate. I was further shocked that we were forced to sit on the plane for 20 minutes with powder from the so called bomb all over the cabin. The officers that boarded the plane did nothing to ensure our safety and did not check for accomplices or other explosive devices. Several passengers trampled through parts of the bomb as they exited the plane. We were then taken into the terminal with our unchecked carry on bags. Again, there was no concern for our safety even though Umar told the officers that there was another bomb on board as he exited the plane. I wondered why nobody was concerned about our safety, accomplices or other bombs and the lack of concern worried me greatly. I immediately told the FBI my story in order to help catch the accomplice I had seen in Amsterdam. It soon became obvious that the FBI wasn't interested in what I had to say, which upset me further. For one month the government refused to admit the existence of the man in the tan suit before changing course and admitting his existence in an ABC News article on January 22, 2010. That was the last time the government talked about this man. The video that would prove the truth of my account has never been released. I continue to be emotional upset that the video has not been released. The Dutch police, meanwhile, in this article (show article), also confirmed that Umar did not show his passport in Amsterdam which also meant that he didn't go through security as both are in the same line in Amsterdam. It upsets me that the government refuses to admit this fact.
I became further saddened from this case, when Patrick Kennedy of the State Department during Congressional hearings, admitted that Umar was a known terrorist, was being followed, and the U.S. allowed him into the U.S. so that it could catch Umar's accomplices. I was once again shocked and saddened when Michael Leiter of the National Counter terrorism Center admitted during these same hearings that intentionally letting terrorists into the U.S. was a frequent practice of the U.S. Government. I cannot fully explain my sadness, disappointment and fear when I realized that my government allowed an attack on me intentionally.
During this time, I questioned if my country intentionally put a known terrorist onto my flight with a live bomb. I had many sleepless nights over this issue. My answer came shortly thereafter. In late 2010, the FBI admitted to giving out intentionally defective bombs to the Portland Christmas Tree Bomber, the Wrigley Field Bomber and several others. Further, Mr. Chambers was quoted in the Free Press on January 11, 2011 when he indicated that the government's own explosives experts had indicated that Umar's bomb was impossibly defective. I wondered how that could be. Certainly, I thought, Al Qaeda wouldn't go through all of the trouble to plan such an attack only to provide the terrorist with an impossibly defective bomb.
I attended nearly all of the pretrial hearings. At the hearing on January 28, 2011, I was greatly disappointed by the prosecution's request to block evidence from Mr. Chambers "as it could then be able to be obtained by third parties, who could use it in a civil suit against the government". It really bothered me that the government apparently was admitting to wrongdoing of some kind as it admitted that it was concerned it would be sued. It further upset me to know that the government was putting its own interests ahead of those of the passengers.
When I attended the jury selection hearings, I questioned why versions of the same two questions kept coming up, those being:
1. Do you think whether you'll be able to tell whether something is actually a bomb? and
2. Do you realize that sometimes the media doesn't always tell the truth?
I continued to be greatly saddened at this point as I felt the truth continued to be hidden.
When Umar listed me as his only witness, I was happy to testify, not on his behalf, but on behalf of the truth. I never expected to testify, as my eyewitness account would have been too damaging to the myth that the government and media are putting forward. A mere 5 days after I was announced as a witness, there was an inexplicable guilty plea which exasperated me as I no longer would be testifying.
In closing I will just say that regardless of how the media and government try to shape the public perception of this case, I am convinced that Umar was given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. Government agent and placed on our flight without showing a passport or going through security, to stage a false terrorist attack to be used to implement various government policies.
The effect this matter has had on my life has been astounding and due to this case, I will never trust the government in any matter, ever.
In regards to sentencing, nothing I've said excuses the fact that Umar tried to kill me. He has waived his valid claim to the entrapment defense. Umar, you are not a great Muslim martyr, you are merely a "Patsy". I ask the court to impose the mandatory sentence.
CIA unraveled bomb plot from within
The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including a double-agent — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
The Saudi service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.
Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated al-Qaeda posing as a willing suicide bomber then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.
But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the bomb plot unfold.
“We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America program. “We had the device in our control and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”
The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what U.S. officials have come to regard as the most critical counter-terrorism front.
The plot shows that al-Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen remains committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.
The disruption of the threat also indicates that the CIA and other agencies have gained significant traction on their target two years after President Obama began deploying more spies, eavesdropping equipment and armed drones to the Arabian Peninsula.
CIA officials declined to comment on the mission. Other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of intelligence operations.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said spy agencies were able to keep tabs on the location of the bomb, as well as those involved in plotting how it would be used, before it was intercepted in another country in the Middle East, thought to be Saudi Arabia.
“We know the route this thing took in terms of its movement,” the official said.
The device was described as an updated version of a design that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has used in a series of plots, including the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.
The U.S. intelligence official declined to discuss what he described as “the disposition of the individual involved” in transporting the bomb before it was seized. Other officials indicated that the bomb handler was cooperating with the CIA and Saudi intelligence services, and is in protective custody.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with recent operations against AQAP said that the Saudi intelligence service has furnished a steady stream of intelligence to the CIA.
“They’ve had someone on the inside of [AQAP] for some time,” the former official said. The Saudi source has provided intelligence on previous plots, including the tip that enabled authorities to disrupt al-Qaeda’s attempt to mail parcels packed with explosives to addresses in Chicago in 2010.
Efforts by the CIA and Saudi service to protect that source and enable him to remain in place make it unlikely that he was used to deliver the bomb, according to former officials who said it is more likely that a lower-ranking operative was used in that role.
As part of an expanding collaboration with the CIA, the Saudi spy service has taken advantage of long-standing informant networks and tribal relationships in Yemen, exploiting them for intelligence on an al-Qaeda franchise with numerous Saudis in its ranks. Among them is Ibrahim al-Asiri, the bomb maker suspected of designing the latest device.
Of dozens of AQAP fighters with Saudi backgrounds “at least five or eight of them are under cover” working for the Saudi service at any point in time, said a Middle Eastern official. “The Saudis have always had a network” of sources in Yemen, the official said, “now they are expanding its objectives.”
The deepening cooperation reflects the extent to which Saudi Arabia regards AQAP as a major security threat. The country’s chief counterterrorism official, Mohammed bin Nayef, narrowly survived an attempt on his life three years ago by an AQAP operative.
The CIA established a new drone base on the Arabian peninsula last year, and the National Security Agency has deployed officers and equipment to monitor the cell phone and e-mail communications of AQAP.
Both agencies work alongside the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, an elite military force that operates its own fleet of armed drones and recently resumed providing trainers to Yemen’s counter-terrorism units.
The pace of U.S. airstrikes has quickened dramatically this year, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal Web site. Of the 31 U.S. airstrikes in Yemen since 2002, 14 of them have come within the past five months.
The most recent killed an alleged operations planner wanted in connection with the attack on the U.S.S. Cole warship in Yemen in 2000. U.S. officials said that Fahd al-Quso was likely involved in directing the bomb plot but that the strike was ordered because of his larger role in AQAP.
The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including a double-agent — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
The Saudi service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.
Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated al-Qaeda posing as a willing suicide bomber then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.
But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the bomb plot unfold.
“We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America program. “We had the device in our control and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”
The emerging details help to illuminate the evolving tactics being employed by both sides in what U.S. officials have come to regard as the most critical counter-terrorism front.
The plot shows that al-Qaeda’s franchise in Yemen remains committed to mounting attacks against Western targets even after its most prominent advocate of such strikes, the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a drone strike last year.
The disruption of the threat also indicates that the CIA and other agencies have gained significant traction on their target two years after President Obama began deploying more spies, eavesdropping equipment and armed drones to the Arabian Peninsula.
CIA officials declined to comment on the mission. Other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of intelligence operations.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said spy agencies were able to keep tabs on the location of the bomb, as well as those involved in plotting how it would be used, before it was intercepted in another country in the Middle East, thought to be Saudi Arabia.
“We know the route this thing took in terms of its movement,” the official said.
The device was described as an updated version of a design that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has used in a series of plots, including the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009.
The U.S. intelligence official declined to discuss what he described as “the disposition of the individual involved” in transporting the bomb before it was seized. Other officials indicated that the bomb handler was cooperating with the CIA and Saudi intelligence services, and is in protective custody.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with recent operations against AQAP said that the Saudi intelligence service has furnished a steady stream of intelligence to the CIA.
“They’ve had someone on the inside of [AQAP] for some time,” the former official said. The Saudi source has provided intelligence on previous plots, including the tip that enabled authorities to disrupt al-Qaeda’s attempt to mail parcels packed with explosives to addresses in Chicago in 2010.
Efforts by the CIA and Saudi service to protect that source and enable him to remain in place make it unlikely that he was used to deliver the bomb, according to former officials who said it is more likely that a lower-ranking operative was used in that role.
As part of an expanding collaboration with the CIA, the Saudi spy service has taken advantage of long-standing informant networks and tribal relationships in Yemen, exploiting them for intelligence on an al-Qaeda franchise with numerous Saudis in its ranks. Among them is Ibrahim al-Asiri, the bomb maker suspected of designing the latest device.
Of dozens of AQAP fighters with Saudi backgrounds “at least five or eight of them are under cover” working for the Saudi service at any point in time, said a Middle Eastern official. “The Saudis have always had a network” of sources in Yemen, the official said, “now they are expanding its objectives.”
The deepening cooperation reflects the extent to which Saudi Arabia regards AQAP as a major security threat. The country’s chief counterterrorism official, Mohammed bin Nayef, narrowly survived an attempt on his life three years ago by an AQAP operative.
The CIA established a new drone base on the Arabian peninsula last year, and the National Security Agency has deployed officers and equipment to monitor the cell phone and e-mail communications of AQAP.
Both agencies work alongside the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, an elite military force that operates its own fleet of armed drones and recently resumed providing trainers to Yemen’s counter-terrorism units.
The pace of U.S. airstrikes has quickened dramatically this year, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal Web site. Of the 31 U.S. airstrikes in Yemen since 2002, 14 of them have come within the past five months.
The most recent killed an alleged operations planner wanted in connection with the attack on the U.S.S. Cole warship in Yemen in 2000. U.S. officials said that Fahd al-Quso was likely involved in directing the bomb plot but that the strike was ordered because of his larger role in AQAP.
Feds Admit "Operational Control" Over Latest Al Qaeda Underwear Bombing Plot
In a stunning intelligence coup, a dangerous al Qaeda bomb cell in Yemen was successfully infiltrated by an inside source who secretly worked for the CIA and several other intelligence agencies, authorities revealed to ABC News.
The inside source is now "safely out of Yemen," according to one international intelligence official, and was able to bring with him to Saudi Arabia the bomb al Qaeda thought was going to be detonated on a U.S.-bound aircraft.
The bomb, a refined version of the so-called underwear bomb used in a failed attempt on a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day 2009, is now at the FBI crime laboratories in Quantico, Virginia.
U.S. officials said they felt confident throughout the operation that the bomb was not an actual threat because the inside source had "control."
White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan reiterated on ABC News' "Good Morning America" today that the bomb was not an "active threat," which is why the public was told repeatedly by top administration officials, including Brennan, that there were no known active plots surrounding the anniversary of bin Laden's death.
Brennan would not discuss the status of the would-be bomber, citing operational security, and declined to say whether the insider had himself been tapped to carry out the plot.
"The means that we were able to get this device, we're trying to make sure we protect, again, the equities that are involved with it," he said.
Brennan also said he could not say whether there were other bombers still at large.
"You never know what you don't know," Brennan said. "I think people getting on a plane today should feel confident their intelligence services are working day in and day out to stop these IEDs [improvised explosive devices] from getting anywhere near a plane, but also I think when they go through the security measures at airports, they understand why they're in place."
Authorities told ABC News that the device was non-metallic, meaning it could be easy to get through at least one layer of metal-detecting airport security, and had an improved triggering mechanism over the one that failed on Christmas Day in 2009. And what Brennan knows and did not say, according to officials, is that several other elements of the plot were under investigation, including possible additional bombers and other kinds of bombs.
Late Monday federal officials confirmed that the U.S., working with other intelligence agencies, recovered the explosive device presumably meant to attack a U.S.-bound flight that resembles other bombs manufactured by the Yemen-based al Qaeda affiliate al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The plot appeared timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, but the bomber did not get as far as purchasing plane tickets or choosing a flight. As ABC News first reported last week, the plot led the U.S. to order scores of air marshals to Europe to protect U.S.-bound aircraft. Flights out of Gatwick Airport in England received 100 percent coverage, according to U.S. officials.
Al Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri was again the mastermind of the plot, according to U.S. and other intelligence sources. Asiri designed the bombs in the failed printer-bomb cargo plane plot of 2009 and earlier planted a bomb in the rectum of his brother, who died in a suicide attack on the Saudi intelligence chief. He also made Abdulmutallab's underwear bomb, which failed to detonate properly.
The FBI is currently examining the new bomb and is "exploiting" it for intelligence, Brennan said.
But according to former White House counter-terrorism advisor and current ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the insider's escape from Yemen could put counter-terror operations at a disadvantage from here on out.
"You have to wonder if this plot was foiled by someone on the inside, whether or not that means that source is blown and therefore they no longer have someone on the insde and would not know about the next plot," Clarke said.
U.S. officials said Fahd al-Quso, the head of operations for AQAP, was killed over the weekend by a U.S. drone strike. Asiri, the bombmaker, is still at large, and is believed to be training other bombmakers and making other bombs, all aimed at U.S. aircraft.
AQAP has been described by numerous U.S. officials as a top security threat to the U.S. homeland, more so even than central al Qaeda formerly led by Osama bin Laden.
In a stunning intelligence coup, a dangerous al Qaeda bomb cell in Yemen was successfully infiltrated by an inside source who secretly worked for the CIA and several other intelligence agencies, authorities revealed to ABC News.
The inside source is now "safely out of Yemen," according to one international intelligence official, and was able to bring with him to Saudi Arabia the bomb al Qaeda thought was going to be detonated on a U.S.-bound aircraft.
The bomb, a refined version of the so-called underwear bomb used in a failed attempt on a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day 2009, is now at the FBI crime laboratories in Quantico, Virginia.
U.S. officials said they felt confident throughout the operation that the bomb was not an actual threat because the inside source had "control."
White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan reiterated on ABC News' "Good Morning America" today that the bomb was not an "active threat," which is why the public was told repeatedly by top administration officials, including Brennan, that there were no known active plots surrounding the anniversary of bin Laden's death.
Brennan would not discuss the status of the would-be bomber, citing operational security, and declined to say whether the insider had himself been tapped to carry out the plot.
"The means that we were able to get this device, we're trying to make sure we protect, again, the equities that are involved with it," he said.
Brennan also said he could not say whether there were other bombers still at large.
"You never know what you don't know," Brennan said. "I think people getting on a plane today should feel confident their intelligence services are working day in and day out to stop these IEDs [improvised explosive devices] from getting anywhere near a plane, but also I think when they go through the security measures at airports, they understand why they're in place."
Authorities told ABC News that the device was non-metallic, meaning it could be easy to get through at least one layer of metal-detecting airport security, and had an improved triggering mechanism over the one that failed on Christmas Day in 2009. And what Brennan knows and did not say, according to officials, is that several other elements of the plot were under investigation, including possible additional bombers and other kinds of bombs.
Late Monday federal officials confirmed that the U.S., working with other intelligence agencies, recovered the explosive device presumably meant to attack a U.S.-bound flight that resembles other bombs manufactured by the Yemen-based al Qaeda affiliate al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The plot appeared timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, but the bomber did not get as far as purchasing plane tickets or choosing a flight. As ABC News first reported last week, the plot led the U.S. to order scores of air marshals to Europe to protect U.S.-bound aircraft. Flights out of Gatwick Airport in England received 100 percent coverage, according to U.S. officials.
Al Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri was again the mastermind of the plot, according to U.S. and other intelligence sources. Asiri designed the bombs in the failed printer-bomb cargo plane plot of 2009 and earlier planted a bomb in the rectum of his brother, who died in a suicide attack on the Saudi intelligence chief. He also made Abdulmutallab's underwear bomb, which failed to detonate properly.
The FBI is currently examining the new bomb and is "exploiting" it for intelligence, Brennan said.
But according to former White House counter-terrorism advisor and current ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the insider's escape from Yemen could put counter-terror operations at a disadvantage from here on out.
"You have to wonder if this plot was foiled by someone on the inside, whether or not that means that source is blown and therefore they no longer have someone on the insde and would not know about the next plot," Clarke said.
U.S. officials said Fahd al-Quso, the head of operations for AQAP, was killed over the weekend by a U.S. drone strike. Asiri, the bombmaker, is still at large, and is believed to be training other bombmakers and making other bombs, all aimed at U.S. aircraft.
AQAP has been described by numerous U.S. officials as a top security threat to the U.S. homeland, more so even than central al Qaeda formerly led by Osama bin Laden.