Failed Terrorist Attack on Plane Landing in Detroit

[HERBIE1]

Even after immigrating, most will go home sooner or later for a visit. Plus, round trip tickets are historically cheaper than one way tickets (internationally speaking).

Maybe we should be Non-PC and actually profile one way ticket purchasers out of predominantly terrorist areas ( I didn't say Muslim).

While this was a weak attempt, maybe that was all it was supposed to be...to see how far one could get with certain chemicals, what the result would be with that amount, what the status of passengers is (complacent or not), reaction of airline staff, reaction of US government, small scare to reduce or slow holiday traffic.

"Maybe we should be Non-PC and actually profile one way ticket purchasers out of predominantly terrorist areas ( I didn't say Muslim)."

Why not say Muslim? This is exactly one of the criteria that needs to be on a profile.

[CBEMT]

Looks like TSA needs a field office in Nigeria.

[akflightmedic]

"Maybe we should be Non-PC and actually profile one way ticket purchasers out of predominantly terrorist areas ( I didn't say Muslim)."

Why not say Muslim? This is exactly one of the criteria that needs to be on a profile.

Because I was being PC.

[spenac]

I know from when I was doing alot of flying, those that had a one way ticket, those that paid for their tickets with cash were subjected to 'increased security measures', why wasn't this clown put through the same thing?

I flew one way from Flint, MI to Tampa, FL (I was flying down to look for a 'good Florida car' to take back to Michigan. This way I could be assured that at least the body was 'solid' and not eaten up by that cancer called RUST that plagues so many Michigan cars. (Must be something to do with the fact that Michigan salts the roads in the winter months)...

I was put through every concievable 'search' just shy of a strip search and a cavity search). This was because the ticket was a 'one way ticket' and I paid in cash (didnt have a debit card at the time).....

Boots and socks off...pockets turned inside out....patted down, groped, 3 forms of ID......

Did they at least buy you dinner before they enjoyed you?

As to buying cars Florida is not a good place for a rust free car as to close to salt water.

[Richard B the EMT]

Even after immigrating, most will go home sooner or later for a visit.

I might not be so certain of that. I knew a student, back when I attended the Brooklyn Center/Zeckendorf Campus of Long Island University, of which my faculty counselor stated, if he had gone back to his home country, he risked assassination. I never asked for details.

Come to think of it, that student was from Nigeria, but this was circa 1972-1975.

[Lone Star]

Nigerian charged in foiled airliner bombing

He was in U.S. terror database for at least 2 years, but not on no-fly list

NBC, msnbc.com and news services

updated 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

DETROIT - A 23-year-old Nigerian who claims to be an agent of al-Qaida was charged Saturday with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day as it was preparing to land in Detroit.

A retired banker in Nigeria said Saturday that he feared the suspect was his son. U.S. authorities said the suspect's father had gone to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, in November to express concerns about his son.

The Justice Department said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had a device containing a high explosive attached to his body on Flight 253 from Amsterdam. As the flight neared Detroit's airport on Friday, Abdulmutallab set it off — but it sparked a fire instead of an explosion, the government said.

A preliminary analysis of the device shows that it contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, according the affidavit filed in federal court in Detroit.

In the charging papers, the Justice Department states that after Abdulmutallab was restrained by passengers and crew, "one flight attendant asked him what he had had in his pocket, and he replied 'explosive device.'"

Now hospitalized with burns, Abdulmutallab had for at least two years been on a list that includes people with known or suspected contact with or ties to terrorists, an official briefed on the attack told The Associated Press Saturday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The list, known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and contains about 550,000 names.

People on the list are not necessarily on the no-fly list and that was the case with Abdulmutallab, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told MSNBC.

"Why he was not on the no-fly list, we have to look into," said King, who is the ranking Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said Abdulmutallab was traveling on a U.S. visa valid through the first half of 2010.

A security official in Amsterdam, where the Christmas Day flight originated, told Newsweek that U.S. security authorities had cleared the flight for departure.

A U.S. counterterrorism official acknowledged that "in many respects, this one (case) is puzzling. There's still a lot of questions that need answers."

Suspect claims al-Qaida role

U.S. counterterrorism officials told NBC News that, shortly after he was taken into custody, the suspect said he was working for al-Qaida and that he had been instructed to blow up the plane on approach to Detroit because it would likely produce the most casualties and collateral damage on the ground if the wreckage fell into a densely populated area.

The officials said, however, that so far there had been no solid evidence of any direct or indirect ties to al-Qaida. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

Two law enforcement sources told NBC News that Abdulmutallab had recently spent at least a month with extremists in Yemen, but that it was not clear if those extremists were al-Qaida members or radicals inspired by al-Qaida.

In Yemen, a government source said that authorities would take action if a link to Yemen is officially identified.

Injecting fluid from syringe

A law enforcement official told NBC News that no air marshals were aboard the flight and that two passengers were being hailed as heroes: The first jumped on the suspect and suffered burns; the second put the suspect in a headlock.

The source said the suspect had been observed going to the bathroom and coming out looking agitated. Abdulmutallab allegedly told passengers that his stomach was upset, then pulled a blanket over himself, the affidavit said. The source said he apparently had a pillow stuffed under his shirt or tucked under his beltline and was seen injecting a fluid from a syringe into some unseen substance.

Passengers heard popping noises that sounded like fireworks and smelled smoke.

Other U.S. counterterrorism officials said the explosive device malfunctioned and that instead of exploding, it burned itself out.

Son of retired banker?

In Nigeria, a retired banker said on Saturday he was meeting with security officials because he fears his son may be the suspect.

Alhaji Umaru Mutallab said his son was a one-time university student in London who had left Britain to travel abroad. He said his son hadn't lived in London "for some time" but he wasn't sure exactly where he had gone.

"I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that," the elder Mutallab said.

Another son of the elder Mutallab told Reuters that the suspect "is my brother."

Nigeria's This Day newspaper cited family members as saying the elder Mutallab had been uncomfortable with his son's "extreme religious views" and had reported him to the U.S. Embassy in the capital Abuja and to Nigerian security agencies six months ago.

British officials on Saturday were searching the last known address of the suspect, who was thought to have been an engineering student at University College London, one of the United Kingdom's leading universities, according to Sky News.

'First there was a pop'

The attempted bombing occurred as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday.

Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers as Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land.

"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."

Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the suspect, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man.

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

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

Another man contacted msnbc.com to say he was seated in the same row as the suspect, sitting several seats to his left. The man, who identified himself as Alain Ghonda, said he "heard the explosion … at that point we thought it was outside the plane so people lifted the window blinds to look out."

"It wasn’t a big explosion, it sounded like a firecracker, but it smelled like a gun had just gone off," he added.

"I looked and saw that smoke was coming out of him and he was trying to brush something off his pants … and suddenly I saw a big flame come out of him," Ghonda said. "A Dutch guy jumped over the seats and grabbed the guy on fire."

Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there.

The United States quickly imposed stricter security measures on airline travel.

Similarities to Richard Reid.

The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers.

The suspect boarded in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit. Dutch airline KLM says the connection in Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit involves a change in carrier and a change in aircraft.

Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.

A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Akin Olukunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened before boarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagos cleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.

"We had a pass mark," Olukunle said. "We actually are up to standards in all senses."

It was eight years ago this week that a similar attempted attack was launched by a British member of al-Qaida who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami by igniting explosives in his shoes. And the attempted attack comes on the same day that the Taliban released a video of a U.S. soldier it is holding captive in Afghanistan.

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

As far as getting a car in Florida, I ended up getting a great deal on a 1989 Ford Thunderbird, very solid and still pulls 27 mpg. It was far more 'solid' than any car I saw in Michigan (especially with the lower quarter panels and fram rusted out because of the salt on the roads.

As far as the 'airport incident, I didn't even get drinks beforehand. I'm guessin they're kind of 'out of touch' with the whole 'dating protocol' thing......

[JPINFV]

You know, I've really gotta give al-Qaida some credit for this.

1. They get rid of Amit, the idiot terrorist. Thinning the ranks of idiots is always a good idea.

2. In the 1/100 chance that a plot like this actually does succeed, bonus.

3. Regardless, TSA goes crazy and issues new rules like no moving around during the last hour of an international flight and no personal items on your lap during the last hour of an international flight. It's only a matter of time before it moves to anal probes with the TSA not changing probe covers between suspects passengers. This, of course, hurts air travel and the airlines as people decide to drive or take the train when ever they can.

[Dustdevil]

So why do WE allow people to enter our country on 1 way tickets?

And no passeport either.

Meanwhile, they still give the full anal probe to the guy in the wheelchair with military ID and a round trip ticket.

[Lone Star]

Second man arrested on jet in Detroit

Officials say passenger on Sunday flight was ill, posed no threat

DETROIT - The same Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas Day saw another security scare Sunday after a confrontation with a sick passenger, officials said.

Security and airline personnel have been on edge since authorities charged a passenger from Nigeria with attempting to detonate a hidden explosive device while his flight from Amsterdam approached Detroit on Friday.

In the Sunday incident, the flight crew became concerned after the man — also Nigerian — became sick and spent about an hour locked in the bathroom, officials said.

"This raised concerns so an alert was raised," FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said. "The investigation shows that this was a non-serious incident and all is clear at this point."

After the flight crew became concerned, the pilot of the Sunday flight had requested emergency assistance upon arrival, sending federal authorities scrambling to respond to a potential danger.

The Transportation Security Administration said the airline alerted authorities to a "disruptive passenger" on board flight 253, who was taken into custody when the plane landed.

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident, said the crew apparently acted out of an abundance of caution in alerting authorities.

Post-flight interviews by investigators determined the passenger was a legitimate businessman who posed no security threat to the plane, the two law enforcement officials said.

On Saturday, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged with trying to destroy the plane. A conviction on the charge could bring Abdulmutallab up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Obama orders briefing

The White House says President Barack Obama has told U.S. officials to maintain heightened airline security.

Obama made the comments during a briefing Sunday with his national security team after a second incident was reported aboard a flight arriving in Detroit.

White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters that Obama was told of the incident about 9 a.m. Hawaii time — about 90 minutes after the flight from Amsterdam landed. Burton says Obama also asked national security officials for another briefing as soon as possible.

Obama spent the earlier part of the morning playing basketball and working out during his vacation.

First off, does this mean we'll be going to war with Nigeria now?

Second, since the first attack going into Detroit was determined to be a 'terroristic action', shouldn't that be enough to cause the LEADER of this country to cut short his 'fun time' and actually get back to the office and start taking care of business?

I guess throwing the United States deeper in debt is hard work,....that would explain why he needs a vacation with less than a year on the job....

[akflightmedic]

Second man arrested on jet in Detroit Second, since the first attack going into Detroit was determined to be a 'terroristic action', shouldn't that be enough to cause the LEADER of this country to cut short his 'fun time' and actually get back to the office and start taking care of business?

I guess throwing the United States deeper in debt is hard work,....that would explain why he needs a vacation with less than a year on the job....

Funny you think in this day and age one needs to be in an "office" to get anything done. Secondly, he has people who specialize in these things and I can assure you they are already handling it and they brief him as soon as they have enough to do so and then he weighs in.

A vacation is not unheard of and he certainly deserves it after the non stop work he has done during the past year whether you agree or not with the outcome, the work is there. The man has a family and deserves some downtime to see them and to clear his head...do not even get me started on the actual time Bush spent on vacation, if you want a comparison.

"Did Somebody Say War?"

August 2007

"Bush on track to become the vacation president," Julie Mason headlined in the August 9, 2007, edition of the Houston Chronicle:[1]

"On Thursday, Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine, and his family's summer compound, Walker's Point. On Monday, he heads to his Crawford retreat, where he has spent all or part of 418 days of his presidency, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS News White House correspondent and meticulous record-keeper.

"...The presidential vacation-time record holder is the late Ronald Reagan, who tallied 436 days in his two terms. At 418 days, and with 17 months to go in his presidency, Bush is going to beat that easily."

"I guess you could look at it this way -- the more he's on vacation, the less damage he can do to the country," Pam Spaulding wrote August 12, 2007.[2]

The "War President"'s MIA habit should come as no surprise. When Bush received the August 6, 2001, President's Daily Briefing Memo relating to al Qaeda's reported terrorism plans, he was likewise vacationing on his ranch at Crawford, Texas:

* Terry Moran, reporting for ABC World News Tonight on August 3, 2001, headlined with the announcement that "President Bush [Was] to Spend Much of His Month-Long Vacation Enjoying Peace and Quiet of His 1600-acre Texas Ranch." Bush's vacation was to be "the longest of any president since Richard Nixon." [13]