Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Indicted: Nigerian man indicted in plot to blow up plane

DETROIT (AP) A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day was indicted Wednesday on charges including attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill nearly 300 people.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was traveling from Amsterdam when he tried to destroy the plane by injecting chemicals into a package of pentrite explosive concealed in his underwear, authorities say.

The failed attack caused popping sounds and flames that passengers and crew rushed to extinguish.

The bomb was designed to detonate "at a time of his choosing," the grand jury's indictment said.

There is no specific mention of terrorism in the seven-page indictment, but President Barack Obama considers the incident an attempted strike against the United States by an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Abdulmutallab has told U.S. investigators he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen. His father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son had drifted into extremism in Yemen, but that threat was never fully digested by the U.S. security apparatus.

Since the failed attack, airlines and the Transportation Security Administration have boosted security in airports in the U.S. and around the world. Obama has said the government had information that could have stopped Abdulmutallab, but intelligence agencies failed to connect the dots.

Abdulmutallab faces up to life in prison if convicted of attempting to use a bomb on the plane. He is being held at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., and a message seeking comment was left Wednesday with his lawyers, Miriam Siefer and Leroy Soles.

"This investigation is fast-paced, global and ongoing, and it has already yielded valuable intelligence that we will follow wherever it leads," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "Anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool – military or judicial – available to our government."

Abdulmutallab will make his first appearance in federal court on Friday for an arraignment and a hearing to determine if he stays in custody.

"Short of actual murder, these are some of the most serious charges in the criminal code," said Lloyd Meyer, a former terrorism prosecutor at U.S. war crimes tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay prison. "These charges are tailored to the facts of what happened over the sky in Detroit."

Comments

[02bmw76]

09:39 PM on 01/06/2010

What a load of crap this article is. All these precautions were suppose to already be in place after we allowed the Patriot Act to be passed. And we allowed the creation of the Dept of Homeland Security at the cost of billions in taxpayer money and an unmeasurable amount of fear. Really! Seriously?! We thought we'd wait until after he blew up the plane to ask him why he paid cash for a one way ticket and mysteriously was allowed to board the plane without proper credentials!? Give me a break! I defy anyone of any color, race, or creed to buy a one way ticket in cash and see if you can board a plane for an international flight, without proper credentials. The only part of this story that should be newsworthy is how it was actually allowed to happen. Where are the security tapes showing everyone involved, especially Mr Haskell and what he witnessed? People accuse the internet of being a great source for disinformation, but I suggest it is the mainstream media shills, and the investigators that evade the real questions, allowing disinformation to skew the reality of most things.

[MK-CULTRA]

09:27 PM on 01/06/2010

let's interview the suspected bomber with the cash purchased one way ticket AFTER he lands in detroit.

budget concerns.

[smearjay]

09:24 PM on 01/06/2010

What happens when terrorists start swallowing the expllosivves, and to Ignite them, they simply lite the fuze coming out of their rear ends.?

[The Bank]

09:24 PM on 01/06/2010

Yet another POW given rights he doesn't possess.

[gotalifepost]

09:24 PM on 01/06/2010

They were closer to stopping him.

This is better news than before.

[ChangeurMind]

09:23 PM on 01/06/2010

The USA political system is such a joke. All the talk is how much Obama uses the word "Terror." Is that all they got? These are the guys Obama sold out health care to???

[smearjay]

09:22 PM on 01/06/2010

Quote from Maureen Dowd

"If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explossive powder in his oddliy feminine-looking underpantz and a syringge full of acid, a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags, whose visa renewal had been denied by the British, who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen, whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who can we catch?"

[karela]

09:19 PM on 01/06/2010

If someone I love was on the plane, and they had decided that a possibly dangerous person was also on the plane, I'd want them to radio the pilot and restrain the guy in flight just as soon as they knew. For pete sake, the guy had no luggage, paid in cash and they decided he might be dangerous. Seems to me waiting until the plane landed was pretty fool hardy.

[Niet]

09:19 PM on 01/06/2010

Guns on planes seems like a bad idea to me. What happens when a marshal is forced to fire on a terrorist but misses and puts a hole in the fuselage? Rapid decompression and altitude loss likely causing the crash we are trying to avoid. There's gotta be a better way.

[livinreality]

10:49 PM on 01/06/2010

Real souped up tazers.

[Niet]

06:12 AM on 01/07/2010

That actually did occur to me, but if someone's got explosives strapped to their body, it's probably not a good idea to add an electrical charge to the mix.

[magibrotherhood]

09:18 PM on 01/06/2010

Red Herring.

[blueskybigstar]

09:15 PM on 01/06/2010

Why is there no play in the media about the well dressed man who helped him get on the flight despite the fact he had no passport that the passengers on the flight are too willing to keep talking about?

[sherifffruitfly]

09:14 PM on 01/06/2010

Obviously the "Oh yah... We were just about to do that!" response isn't going to get you far, in this sort of a situation.

[OB-GYN]

09:13 PM on 01/06/2010

Why didn't Border Security call the flight while in process and report their fears? There were grownups flying the plane and on board who could have risen to the occasion as called upon.

At least he could have been checked, stripped and covered, isolated and directly guarded. What a fiasco.

What am I missing here?

[StatueOfLiberal]

09:13 PM on 01/06/2010

Detroit is a strange choice for a target.

[ancientmarinader]

02:29 AM on 01/07/2010

Well, its the most segregated city in the nation, maybe #2. To send one of their few nigerians there might be an effort to inflame racial tension. They have a tin ear for american racial problems but they might try it.

Similar to their use of saudis on 9/11.

[underoath]

09:08 PM on 01/06/2010

Yowzer