Mon, Dec 28, 2009 page1

• Nigerian charged with attack on US airliner

  FATHER KNOWS BEST US officials said that the suspect’s father had contacted the US embassy in Abuja because he was worried about his son’s religious extremism

  • AFP
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  US investigators yesterday tried to piece together terrorism connections of a Nigerian man who has been charged with attempting to blow up a US jetliner after reportedly confessing that he had been trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

  Airport security was stepped up worldwide after the botched terror attack as police in London combed premises where the suspect, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, was thought to have lived as a university student.

  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was arraigned on Saturday at the US hospital where he was being treated for burns sustained while trying to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 people on board.

  Judge Paul Borman read the charges against him during a 20-minute hearing. Reporters allowed to witness the event said Abdulmutallab was handcuffed to a wheelchair and wore bandages on both wrists and parts of his hands.

  A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device Abdulmutallab used “contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, a high explosive,” the charge sheet said.

  The explosive was allegedly sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear and was not detected by airport security, ABC News reported.

  Abdulmutallab confessed that he had mixed a syringe full of chemicals with powder taped to his leg to try to blow up the Detroit-bound flight, senior officials were quoted by US media as saying.

  Officials believe tragedy was averted only because the makeshift detonator failed to work properly, ABC News said.

  Other law enforcement officials quoted by ABC News and NBC said the suspect also said that al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen trained him on how to carry out the attack.

  The New York Times said that Abdulmutallab told FBI agents he was connected to an al-Qaeda affiliate, which operates largely in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, by a radical Yemeni cleric whom he contacted online.

  NOT AL-AWLAKI

  But the newspaper said the cleric is not believed to be Anwar al-Awlaki, an US-born imam who has spoken in favor of anti-US violence and who corresponded with Major Nidal Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist accused of killings 13 people in a shooting spree last month at Fort Hood, Texas.

  The failed attack “shows that we must remain vigilant in the fight against terrorism at all times,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

  However, questions mounted on whether security at major airports inside and outside the US was adequate, despite all the recent upgrades.

  “We’ve known for a long time that this is possible,” Richard Clarke, a former White House anti-terrorism czar, told ABC News, referring to chemical explosives.

  “We really have to replace our scanning devices with more modern systems.”

  Clarke said full body scans were needed, “but they’re expensive and they’re intrusive. They invade people’s privacy.”

  The attack on the Airbus A330 had echoes of British-born Richard Reid’s botched “shoe-bomb” attempt almost eight years ago to the day.

  Police searched addresses in London, including an upscale mansion flat where the suspect is believed to have lived while studying mechanical engineering at University College London between 2005 and last year.

  WARNING

  Abdulmutallab’s father, Umaru Mutallab, was so worried about his son’s religious extremism that he contacted the US embassy in Abuja to express his concern last month, a US official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

  The official said Abdulmutallab had been added to a broad terrorism watchlist, but was not flagged for mandatory secondary screening or put on a no-fly list.

  Meanwhile, a passenger on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Dutch video producer and director Jasper Schuringa, was achieving cult status on the Internet for tackling the would-be bomber and helping the crew to restrain him.

  Schuringa told CNN he had jumped over the passenger next to him and lunged onto Abdulmutallab’s seat as the suspect held a burning object between his legs.

  “I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away,” said Schuringa, adding that he stripped off the suspect’s clothes to check for explosives before a crew member helped handcuff him.

  US President Barack Obama, vacationing in Hawaii with his family, ordered security measures to be increased at airports and held a conference call with his security team.

  The Department of Homeland Security said it implemented additional flight screening measures and urged holiday travelers to remain vigilant.

  Checks were tightened on Saturday at major world airports, including in Paris, Rome and London. Extra measures included frisking of passengers and searching hand baggage.
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