Al Qaeda-linked terror suspect sets off explosives on Detroit-bound Northwest Airline

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http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3864.htm

December 28, 2009

Special Dispatch No.2717

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Releases Statement on Jihadist Website Claiming Responsibility for Attempted Christmas Day Terrorist Attack

On December 28, 2009 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a statement titled "The Operation of Brother Mujahid Umar Farouk the Nigerian in Response to the American Attack in Yemen" on the jihadist website Shumukh Al-Islam, claiming responsibility for the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. As of the time of its release, the statement had not been published on any other jihadi websites. Shumukh Al-Islam Network is the second major jihadi forum on which propaganda videos, articles by extremists, and statements by jihadi groups are posted. The forum has hundreds of members; some are senior members, some are supervisors, and there are also those who sympathize with the mujahideen. Shumukh Al-Islam has been shut down many times, and it always blames the CIA when this happens. The last time the site was shut down was in September 2009. You must be a JTTM member to read the full report.
"In the name of Allah the All-Merciful.

"Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"(The operation of the mujahid brother Omar Al-Farooq the Nigerian).

"In response to the American attack on Yemen.
"Praise be to Allah, who said 'Fight them until there is no fitna [strife], and the religion is all Allah's' [Surat Albaqara 2, verse 193].' Prayers and peace be upon the Messenger, the seal of the prophets, who said 'I have been supported with fear [of me] that stretches as far as one-month's walk' [hadith attributed to Jaber bin Abdallah and agreed upon by all collections of hadiths].

"With Allah's grace, the hero mujahid martyrdom-seeker, brother Omar Al-Farooq, carried out a quality operation on an American plane that took off from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the American city of Detroit, while they were celebrating the Christmas holiday on Friday December 25, 2009, [an operation] which broke through all modern advanced technological equipment and security barriers in world airports, with courage and determination, not fearing death, placing his trust in Allah, breaking with his great act the legend of American and international intelligence, demonstrating its frailty, rubbing their noses in the dust [in humiliation], and making all they have spent upon security technologies a waste for them.

"The unity of Islamic belief and fraternity is what propelled the rich youth of Nigerian origin, the mujahid brother Omar Al-Farooq, to respond directly to the oppressive American attack on the Arabian peninsula, in direct coordination with Allah's grace with the mujahideen in the Arabian peninsula, following the savage bombing using cluster bombs and cruise missiles that was launched from American ships that occupy the Gulf of Aden. All of this was launched on the noble Yemenite tribes in Abyan and Arhab, and finally in Sibwa, [in an attack] that killed scores of Muslim women and children, and families in their entirety. These operations were carried out through Yemenite-American-Saudi coordination, together with some of the neighboring countries.

"The mujahideen brothers in the department of producing weapons managed to produce, with Allah's grace, an explosive device of advanced technological [capabilities], which was tested and proven to be successful and effective, and it was passed through the [airport's] security screening equipment. The martyrdom seeker brother reached his goal, with Allah's grace, but due to Allah's will a malfunction happened which caused only a partial detonation rather than a full one. And we will continue in this path, Allah willing, until we reach our goal so that religion is all Allah's."



The full text of this report is available to MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor Subscribers.

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http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3862.htm

December 28, 2009

Special Dispatch No.2716

From the JTTM Archives:
Commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Wrote in October about Attacking U.S. Planes

Abu Basir Al-Wahishi, Emir of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

According to press reports, 'Umar Faruq 'Abd Al-Muttalib, the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day, received the explosives from a bomb expert affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).[1]

At this early stage in the investigation the suspect's ties to AQAP have yet to be corroborated. It is noteworthy, however, that the Emir of AQAP, Nasir Al-Wahishi, wrote about bombing U.S. airplanes in a recent issue of the organization's magazine, Sada Al-Malahim. The issue was dated Shawwal 1430, corresponding to September-October 2009, and was posted on jihadist websites on October 28, 2009.

As reported by JTTM on November 5,[2] Al-Wahishi wrote an article titled "War Is Deception" in which he urged others to emulate Abu Al-Khayr ('Abdallah Hasan Tali' 'Asiri), an AQAP suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Muhammad bin Naif. One of the passages in the article read:

"Make the explosives into a bomb that you can throw, set off with a timer, explode by remote, or make them into an explosives belt; or you can put them in any electronic device, like a digital recorder in which you hear the tunes of explosions, or in a photo album, a folder, or an envelope. Explode them on any taghut,[3] spy nest, Emir, minister, or Crusader, wherever you find them.

"Likewise, [you should explode them] in the airports of the Western Crusader countries that have taken part in the war against the Muslims, or in their planes, on their residential blocks, or in their metros, and so on. There is always a stratagem [to be found] if you think and rely on Allah, and have no fear of it being discovered after you have hidden it well. By the power of Allah, it can not be discovered…"

While Al-Wahishi appeared to be mainly encouraging independent actions on the part of "lone wolf" bombers, the article did include an offer to help with these initiatives: "For our part, we will make contact with anyone who wants to wage jihad with us, and we will guide him to a suitable means to kill the collaborators and the archons of unbelief…"

According to media reports, 'Abd Al-Muttalib, the would-be bomber of NWA flight 253, had 80 grams of the explosive PETN sewn into his underwear.[4] This method of hiding the explosives in or near one's private parts may also be suggestive of an Al-Qaeda connection. In recent propaganda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken great pride in the fact that the suicide bomber Abu Al-Khayr had managed to sneak his explosives through multiple levels of security and into the presence of the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister. The communiqué taking responsibility for the assassination attempt said that "nobody knows or will ever know the nature [of this explosives charge] and how it was detonated."[5] In fact, the bomber is believed to have hidden the explosives in his rectum. An AQAP video celebrating the assassination attempt later bragged that the explosives were not discovered "even though [Abu Al-Khayr] was searched more than once in the airports of Najran and Jeddah, and again at the Prince's palace."[6]

AQAP has also focused in its recent propaganda on the use of small amounts of powerful explosives. (According to some reports, Abu Al-Khayr's explosives were also in PETN.) Al-Wahishi wrote: "It requires no great effort on your part, nor large sums, to manufacture 10 grams, more or less, of explosives. Do not search long for the materials, since they are in your mother's kitchen and are ready at hand, in whatever city you are in. Then you will accomplish what Abu Al-Khayr accomplished, may Allah have mercy on him." Likewise, in the video released by AQAP in celebration of the assassination attempt, the suicide bomber himself said in a recording made before the bombing: "The tyrants of the House of Saud claimed that they had already shut down [the operations of] the jihad fighters, and banned the selling of explosives of any kind… Bur from now on, we will come to you with [only] 50 grams, 100 grams, or 200 grams [of explosives], and with Allah's help, our brothers in the manufacturing department will produce videos explaining how anyone, using simple materials available to him, can [manufacture explosives] and blow up the enemies of Allah… You will be surprised to learn that explosives can be manufactured [even] from foodstuffs…"[7]

In conclusion, it is not yet known for certain if or when 'Abd Al-Muttalib was in Yemen, but the circumstantial evidence drawn from AQAP's own publications and videos indicates that such a connection is plausible, and that the organization was actively seeking to assist in bombing plots like the attempt to blow up NWA 253.

Endnotes:
[1] Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton, "Officials Point to Suspect's Claim of Qaeda Ties in Yemen," New York Times, December 27, 2009.
[2] Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Looks to Continue Political Assassinations, Encourages Lone Wolf Bombers in the West, http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/report.htm?report=3736¶m=APT, November 5, 2009.
[3] A taghut is an idol or false god; salafi jihadis most often use the term as a reference to contemporary rulers of Muslim countries.
[4] Richard Esposito and Brian Ross, "Investigators: Northwest Bomb Plot Planned by Al-Qaeda in Yemen," December 26, 2009, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/northwest-bomb-plot-planned-al-qaeda-yemen/story?id=9426085.
[5] AQAP Claims Responsibility for Assassination Attempt against Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Naif, http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/blog_personal.htm?id=1815¶m=GJN%7C, August 30, 2009.
[6] New AQAP Video Justifies Assassination Attempt against Prince Muhammad bin Naif; Threatens Further Attacks on Saudi Royal Family, http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/...?id=1960¶m=GJN, September 25, 2009.
[7] New AQAP Video Justifies Assassination Attempt against Prince Muhammad bin Naif; Threatens Further Attacks on Saudi Royal Family, http://www.memrijttm.org/content/en/...?id=1960¶m=GJN, September 25, 2009.

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The System "Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly" in Detroit?

http://www.danielpipes.org/7840/detr...t-near-tragedy

The near-success of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, to set off an explosive on Christmas Day should open the American public's eyes to the sad state of counterterrorism eight years after 9/11.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is one of the most privileged young men of Nigeria.

The incident involved a Nigerian national in Seat 19A – ideally placed over the fuel tanks, atop the wing, and next to the exterior of the aircraft – of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. As summarized by the Wall Street Journal, it

happened as the Airbus 330-300 carrying 289 people was approaching Detroit. Mr. Abdulmutallab went to the plane's restroom for about 20 minutes, and upon returning to his seat he stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself, according to the Justice Department complaint. As the flight was heading for a landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport before noon, the complaint alleges, Mr. Abdulmutallab set off the device. Passengers heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odor, and some observed Mr. Abdulmutallab's pants leg and the wall of the airplane on fire.

Subsequent investigations learned that the plot was organized and launched by Al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen, who arranged for 80 grams of PETN (pentaerythritol) to be sewn in Abdulmutallab's underwear. Investigators concluded that only a chance malfunction prevented the explosives from bringing down the Northwest plane.

Umar Farouk's father, Umaru Abdulmutallab, former chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria and one of his country's most prominent businessmen, recently went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja to warn about his son's "radicalization and associations," prompting American officialdom to place the son on a terror watch list of about 550,000 names, the Terrorist Screening Data Base.

Abdulmutallab being taken off Northwest flight 253 on Dec. 25.

But they did not place him on the list of about 15,000 individuals who must go through additional screening, much less the list of about 4,000 people on the "no-fly" list, who are not allowed to fly to or in the United States. Nor did they revoke Abdulmutallab's two-year, multi-entry tourist visa. Nor did an air marshal accompany his flight.

Despite these multiple failures, Janet Napolitano, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, astonishingly claimed that the system "worked really very, very smoothly" in Detroit. This institutional myopia increases my worries about U.S. law enforcement. Of course, had the system worked, Abdulmutallab would never have entered the airplane, much less set off an explosive device.

Looking ahead, the Transportation Security Administration has issued an emergency order requiring travelers headed for the United States to undergo a "thorough pat-down" at the boarding gate, with a focus on the upper legs and torso and a secondary inspection of carry-on baggage. During the final hour on all U.S. flights, passengers must remain seated, may not access carry-on baggage or keep personal items on their laps.
More delights may follow, reports the New York Times: "Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane. … On one flight, from Newark Airport, flight attendants kept cabin lights on for the entire trip instead of dimming them for takeoff and landing. … In effect, the restrictions mean that passengers on flights of 90 minutes or less would most likely not be able to leave their seats at all."

As Phyllis Chesler plaintively asks, "Are we all going to be subjected to underwear checks before boarding our flights? If so, Al-Qaeda will soon secrete explosives in body cavities. Will we all be searched there as well?"
In other words, because U.S. security agencies refuse to take the sensible precaution of concentrating their resources on the small target pool of suspects, namely Muslims, about 1 percent of the population, hundreds of millions of passengers must bear the burden of extra cost, inconvenience, and loss of privacy.


The Detroit episode renders invalid several aphorisms I honed over recent years:

• Had U.S. law enforcement devoted the attention to the 9/11 plotters that it has since given to counterterrorism, 9/11 would never have taken place.
• While Sudden Jihad Syndrome by isolated individuals remains beyond the abilities of American institutions to stop (viz., the Ft. Hood shooter last month), terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda are well under surveillance.
• Government authorities have terrorism under control, so we private analysts can focus instead on the non-violent forms of radical Islam known variously as "stealth jihad," "creeping Shari'a," "lawful Islamism," or "Islamism 2.0."

The Northwest incident takes me back to 9/11 itself, when I wrote a bitter analysis how the U.S. government had "grievously failed in its topmost duty to protect American citizens from harm." That failure continues.

What size disaster must occur to inspire a serious approach to counterterrorism?

Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum, Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post.

_________________________
Dec. 28, 2009 update: Janet Napolitano reversed her inane comment under withering criticism, saying on NBC's "Today" program this morning that "Our system did not work in this instance. No one is happy or satisfied with that." But her original statement still indicates an alarmingly self-satisfied mentality at the upper reaches of the Obama administration.

Dec. 29, 2009 update: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has left American airline security is a state of deep disarray at one of its busiest times of the year. Michael Tarm explains in "Confusion Fills Skies After Attempted Bombing":

You are now free to move about the cabin. Or not.
After a two-day security clampdown prompted by a thwarted attempt to bomb a jetliner, some airline officials told The Associated Press that the in-flight restrictions had been eased. And it was now up to captains on each flight to decide whether passengers can have blankets and other items on their laps or can move around during the final phase of flight.
Confused? So were scores of passengers who flew Monday on one of the busiest travel days of the year. On some flights, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual. …

On one Air Canada flight from Toronto to New York's LaGuardia Airport, crew members told passengers before departure that they were not allowed to use any electronic devices - even iPods - and would not be able to access their personal belongings during the one-hour flight. … An hour before a US Air flight from Manchester, England, to Philadelphia landed, flight attendants removed passengers' blankets and told them to keep their "hands visible," said passenger Walt Swanson of Cumbria, England.

Even bathroom visits were affected on some flights. On Continental Flight 1788 from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, three airport security agents frisked everyone at the gate, including babies, prompting one to scream loudly in protest. On the plane, crew announced that the toilets would be shut down the last hour of the flight and passengers would not be able eat, drink, or use electronic devices. The warning that the bathrooms would be shut down led to lines 10 people deep at each lavatory. A demand by one attendant that no one could read anything either elicited gasps of disbelief and howls of laughter.

In-cabin screens normally showing the plane's location and flight path were switched off on an Air France flight Saturday from San Francisco to Paris. Flight attendants said they were turned off as a security measure.

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El Al Israeli Arlines Security - We Need It Here

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CBS butt bomb video.mov

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Expect HUNDREDS MORE al-Qaeda attacks from Yemen

http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/...ks-from-yemen/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6970574.ece


Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirb, said today “al-Qaeda militants are planning terror attacks that may actually be like the one we have just had in Detroit. There are maybe hundreds of them — 200, 300.”

Dr al-Qirbi said it was the “responsibility” of countries with strong intelligence capabilities to warn states such as Yemen about the movements of terror suspects. “Of course there are a number of al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen and some of their leaders. We realise this danger.

The United States, Britain and the European Union could do a lot to improve Yemen’s response to militants on its own soil, he added. “There is support, but I must say it is inadequate. We need more training, we have to expand our counter-terrorism units and provide them with equipment and transportation like helicopters.”


“We have to work in a very joint fashion in partnership to combat terrorism,” he said. “If we do, the problem will be brought under control. TIMES ONLINE

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Officials: Somali Tried to Board Flight With Explosives Last Month

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581459,00.html

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.

"We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Barise.

A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident in Somalia is similar to the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid — tools similar to those used in the Detroit attack. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he isn't authorized to release the information.

Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the chemicals from the Somali suspect could have caused an explosion that would have caused air decompression inside the plane. However, Bahoku said he doesn't believe an explosion would have brought the plane down.

A second international official familiar with the incident, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that the substances carried by the Somali passenger could have been used as an explosive device.

In the Detroit case, alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit. Like the captured Somali, Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. The substances seized from the Somali passenger are being tested.

The November incident garnered little attention before the Dec. 25 attack aboard a flight on final approach to Detroit. U.S. officials have now learned of the Somali case and are hastening to investigate any possible links between it and the Detroit attack, though no officials would speak on the record about the probe.

U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen — which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Similarly, large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an insurgent group, al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaida.

Western officials say many of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters in Somalia come in small boats across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. The officials also say that examination of equipment used in some Somali suicide attacks leads them to believe it was originally assembled in Yemen.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect in the Detroit incident tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft.

A Somali security official involved in the capture of the suspect in Mogadishu said he had a 2.2-pound package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. The security official said the suspect was the last passenger to try to board.

Once security officials detected the powder chemicals and syringe, the suspect tried to bribe the security team that detained him, the Somali security official said. The security official said the suspect had a white shampoo bottle with a black acid-like substance in it. He also had a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance and a syringe containing a green liquid. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

The powdered material had the strong scent of ammonia, Bahoku said, and samples have been sent to London for testing.

The Somali security officials said the Daallo Airlines flight was scheduled to go from Mogadishu to Hargeisa, to Djibouti and then to Dubai.

A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials weren't aware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France.

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Agencies On Defensive in Aftermath of Failed Terror Attack

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...ntent=My+Yahoo

The failed Christmas Day terror attack has put intelligence, diplomatic and security officials on the defensive, as they try to explain what went wrong while lawmakers point fingers and Obama calls for "accountability."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in particular, is under fire for claiming Sunday that the "system worked." On Tuesday, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., demanded her resignation for the "bizarre" claim -- though Napolitano has survived past calls for her ouster, and an administration official said the president "absolutely" has confidence in her.

President Obama declared Tuesday that a "systemic failure" allowed the suspect in the failed attack to carry explosives onto a plane bound for Detroit, and he signaled that his review will dig deep into the many warning signs that were missed at multiple levels of the federal bureaucracy.

"The warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America," Obama said.

Within hours of his remarks, new information trickled out about who knew what, and when. And it didn't look good for some agencies.

The basic timeline is this: As early as August, telephone intercepts alerted intelligence officials to someone called "The Nigerian" involved in a planned attack, but the CIA didn't realize that the individual was suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab until after the bombing attempt.

Then in November, the suspect's father contacted the U.S. embassy in Nigeria to warn U.S. officials about his son's radical associations and that he had disappeared. After the father's warning, Abdulmutallab's name was added to a terror database of more than a half-million people, but he was not added to the smaller "no-fly" list or another list that requires secondary screening at airports.

Obama said Tuesday that Abdulmutallab should have been on a no-fly list in part because of the father's warning. That information was passed on to U.S. intelligence, but it wasn't "effectively distributed," Obama said.

There were other pieces of valuable information out there, though sources would not describe them. One intelligence official told Fox News that a certain piece of information appeared to be available that would have allowed the National Counterterrorism Center to potentially elevate the suspect's name on a terror database.

But other officials bristled at the suggestion that key warning signs were missed in the intelligence community.

One U.S. official told Fox News that the suggestion that a "magic" piece of intelligence would have shot Abdulmutallab's name to the top of the no-fly list is absurd.

One source told Fox News that the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center were all blind-sided by Obama's comments Tuesday about failures at multiple levels of government.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano also said the agency did not have the suspect's name until after his father met with U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria. He said the CIA worked with the embassy to ensure the suspect's name was in the terror database and forwarded "key biographical information" to the National Counterterrorism Center.

Yet one intelligence official told Fox News that a CIA cable containing an "extensive description" of the suspect's travel in the Middle East and his contacts never made it to the National Counterterrorism Center. Another official said cables regarding the suspect did not amount to a "smoking gun."

The State Department, too, deflected some attention on Monday, saying counterterrorism officials were the ones who decided not to revoke Abdulmutallab's visa. Spokesman Ian Kelly said that while the State Department has the authority to revoke a visa, it's not the department's responsibility. He said that after the suspect's father contacted the embassy, the warning was sent to the National Counterterrorism Center, which reviewed the case and determined there was "insufficient" evidence to take back the visa.

He said a review, nevertheless, is in order.

The preliminary results of an internal review are due Thursday to the president, who is on vacation in Hawaii.

A senior administration official, speaking with reporters on condition of anonymity, said enough had been known about the suspect to stop him, but the government didn't connect the dots.

"It is now clear to us that there were bits and pieces of information that were in the possession of the U.S. government in advance of the Christmas Day attack -- the attempted Christmas Day attack -- that had they been assessed and correlated could have led to a much broader picture and allowed us to disrupt the attack," the official said.

It's unclear how the White House intends to handle any glaring errors in the system. But Obama's remarks Tuesday were to an extent a correction to Napolitano's claim Sunday that the system worked. Napolitano clarified Monday that she was referring to agency coordination after the attempt, not before.

Napolitano's handling of the affair has made her an early target on editorial pages and from Republicans, who have long taken issue with the former Arizona governor.

"The fact that this security breach occurred in such a brazen way means that there was a level of significant incompetence involved, and I believe that rests solely on the shoulders of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano," Burton said in a written statement. "Her bizarre remarks on Sunday were the final straw in a series of embarrassing and incompetent comments this year."

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SOMALI MUSLIM ARRESTED at airport with chemicals and syringe

Click to view video>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...31861#34631861

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Terror suspect was student in Houston

http://www.freep.com/article/2009123...ent-in-Houston

Islamic institute has metro Detroit branch

The man charged with the Christmas bombing attempt of an airliner headed for Detroit took classes at an Islamic institute in Houston that has a branch in metro Detroit, an institute leader said Wednesday.

Nigerian defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, in federal custody in Milan, attended classes in 2008 in Houston at the AlMaghrib Institute, said institute Vice President Waleed Basyouni.

Abdulmutallab told instructors he was studying engineering and finance in London, Basyouni said.

"AlMaghrib Institute is working with the authorities and will continue to cooperate as needed on this case," he said in an e-mail to the Free Press.
The institute's Web site shows 14 sites in North America, including one listed as "Dearborn/Windsor," and says it is a nonprofit with thousands of students -- mostly from the United States -- that teaches about Islam in depth. Abdulmutallab attended while in Houston on Aug. 1-17, 2008, paying $2,250 for seminars on Islamic manners and history, Basyouni said.

The institute discourages talk of religious war and terrorism among students, Basyouni told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday. Of Abdulmutallab, he said, "He showed no signs of extremism."

In metro Detroit, leaders at a Canton center that -- according to the institute's Web site -- has hosted events for the institute said they were only vaguely aware of the group.

"I've heard of them. ... They might have rented our space," said Mashood Rabbaig, vice president of the Muslim Community of Western Suburbs.

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Abdelmutalib's Act of War

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2010...act_of_war.php

In the Arab world there is a saying: “Take their truth from their crazies.” I didn’t think it would fully apply in geopolitics until I heard Libya’s dictator, Moammar Qadhafi, claiming on al Jazeera few years ago that Bin Laden had acquired intercontinental missiles.

The “crazy boy,” as the late Egyptian President Sadat used to call him, argued sarcastically that al Qaeda has developed an unstoppable weapon: human transoceanic missiles (Sawareekh bashariyya abira lil qarrat). He meant by that Jihadists who were committed to istishaad (martyrdom) by blowing up commercial jets over targets in America.

The man who has been ruling Libya for the past forty years knows his region very well and despite his peculiar behavior, has predicted what most observers of the Jihadist movement have also projected: al Qaeda and its allies worldwide have discovered the Achilles heel of American defenses: the inability of its security apparatus to identify the readying of the new weapon, its deployment and its launching.

The situation is so bad, that a man who was on some “persons of interest” list was nearly able to massacre hundreds of passengers and possibly innocent people on the ground but for the failure of his underwear bomb and the courage of a citizen of the Netherlands who rose to defend humanity with his bare hands.


Flight from Amsterdam

A Nigerian young man, educated in Europe, with no antecedent (and visible) involvement in “violent extremism” -- as defined by new US doctrines -- with a family wealthy enough to extract him from disenfranchisement and other so-called roots of radicalization, burned parts of his body as he was leaping into the “heaven of virgins.” Had he succeeded he would have accomplished a considerable feat: the second bloodiest terror act within US borders, pushing back the Fort Hood jihad to third position after 9/11.

The rapidly unfolding incident, a sheer and clear act of war, shocked and awed the American public to the core. Nine years after Mohammad Atta led an al Qaeda platoon into a genocidal attack against this country, Omar Farouq Abdelmutalib, an obscure person with no dramatic history brought hundreds of men, women and children to the edge of existence before they were bounced back to the world of the living, thanks to the instincts of ordinary individuals. How can that be possible after billions of dollars spent until now on homeland security, two overseas wars waged by the previous administration to end the terrorist threat?

Abdelmutalib’s act contrasts poorly with the Obama administration’s pledge to shut down Guantanamo by this administration in order to calm down “extremism” in addition to all the president’s speeches announcing retreats. If closing Guantanamo and ignoring democracy movements doesn’t satisfy the jihadists, what will? Why do they keep coming to kill more people?

The “Mujahid from Nigeria,” as described by al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen is the perpetrator of the 13th terrorist act on US soil in one single year. From the Arkansas murder of a US military, to the jihadists of North Carolina, New York, Illinois, Texas, all the way to Fort Hood, these are the precursors of a wider wave to slam our shores unavoidably.

Abdelmutalib, like all other suicide-to-be perpetrators is a human missile designed, programmed and set off by a jihadist war machine. Ironically, the responses uttered by US officials only deepen the conviction within the jihadi war rooms that we are trailing behind in understanding their threat.

When Major Hasan killed thirteen colleagues, the nation was urged “not to rush to judgment.” Days later, emails surfaced about links to Imam Awlaki, the bête noire of Yemen. In the wake of Abdelmutalib’s arrest we were told “there were no credible links to al Qaeda” just before a bold statement by the organization claimed the operation against the “American enemy.” By now, after the most active year in terrorism targeting the US since 2001, it would be advisable not to rush to judgment, but the other way around.

Do not claim that massacres -- those that happen and those that are stopped -- are inexplicable during a war with the jihadists. In World War II, every Nazi bomber that flew over Britain was an act of war. In this conflict, every jihadi-inspired attack is an act of warfare. Every rush to deny it and it treat it as a mere act of violence is a challenge to our national security, and eventually a threat to our defense.

******
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad.


Abdulmutalib father


Interview on Fox News Business: "If the Administration reverses the Lexicon, we would detect the Terrorists"
http://www.blip.tv/file/3029499

Interview on CTV: "The systemic failure in confronting al Qaeda is at the level of early ideological detection"
http://www.blip.tv/file/3033749

Interview on Fox News: "These Terrorists are human missiles prepared by the Jihadists"
http://www.blip.tv/file/3025780

On Fox News "We need to detect the terrorists by their ideology"
http://www.blip.tv/file/3022942

[Knaur]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz0bU0SpuQ8

[SpacemanSpiff]

Originally Posted by Knaur

http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz0bU0SpuQ8

Don't anyone say that life hasn't been kind to Barak Obama.

His first introduction to unambiguous terrorism comes as a botched plot that conveniently reveals a host of vulnerabilities, all at a time when Obama has nothing better to do that play golf and walk the beach.

Compare this to poor George Bush, who had to face the horrors of 9/11 while trying to read to school kids.

If Obama doesn't learn from this (not to mention the intransigence of Iran, and the Palestinians), then we are in for a whole load of hurt until we can replace his sorry self.

Others note that Obama does not like to interrupt his vacations, and that this isn’t the first time his preference for staying in Hawaii . . . .

I just can't believe it.

[Paparock]

Obama to offer deal to Flight 253 jihadist

Click to View Video> http://www.politico.com/singletitlev...id=60127152001

If you try to commit jihad murder, and you have the right connections, Barack Obama may have a sweet deal ready for you. "Brennan: Deal 'on the table' for terror suspect," from Politico, January 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The U.S. Government is offering the suspect charged with attempting to bomb an aircraft on Christmas Day, Omar Abdulmutallab, some kind of incentives to share what he knows about Al Qaeda, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday.

Asked why Abdulmutallab should cooperate given his right, as criminal defendant, to remain silent, Brennan replied: "He doesn't have to but he knows there are certain things that are on the table... if he wants to engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways he can do that."...

[Paparock]

Islamic Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi:
US Responsible for Attempted Airplane Bombing; Egypt-Gaza Border Is "Artificial" - It Is All "Dar Al-Islam"

Click to View Video>http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/63/0/2325.htm

Transcript:

The following are excerpts from interviews with Islamic scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) on January 1 and 3, 2010.


January 1, 2010


Interviewer: A young Nigerian man tried to blow up an American airplane. What is the origin of this behavior? What is your reaction? Who bears responsibility for this behavior?


Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Look, responsibility for this lies, first and foremost, with America. It is America that provoked the Muslims of the world with its positions that have nothing to do with justice. America always supports injustice and tyranny. It supports the Zionist entity. Responsibility lies, first and foremost, with the American positions. Then, there are the positions of the Muslims. The Muslims and their religious scholars also bear responsibility, as well as their leaders and the shameful positions of these leaders.


Every day we witness more positions like this, the last of which was the steel wall – the Wall of Death – which they want to build between the brothers in the Egyptian Rafah and the Palestinian Rafah. I'd like to tell you a story. The first time I visited Gaza was in 1957, after my release from military prison. They told me: "This is the Rafah border." It was merely a wooden barrier that they lift to let you through. I was standing there, between the two parts of Rafah – one foot in Egypt and the other in Palestine. There are no borders. These countries and borders are artificial. They were drawn up by Sykes and Picot and by colonialism. It was all one country, which the jurisprudents used to call Dar Al-Islam ["The House of Islam"], and not "The Houses of Islam."


It is these positions that provoke these young men. I denounce this, of course. I denounce any action like the hijacking or bombing of an airplane. More than 20 years ago, I issued a fatwa, categorically prohibiting the hijacking of airplanes. What have the passengers done to deserve having their plane destroyed, or having any of them killed? It is not their fault. You should not punish them for something done by others. However, we must search for the deep-rooted reasons for this indiscriminate, futile, or violent behavior. This behavior has not emerged out of the blue. It has its reasons. If we want to treat something, we must treat its reasons.


January 3, 2010


Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: A steel wall! Each unit of this wall is 50 centimeters thick, and it is sunk 20-30 meters into the ground. What is this for? They said: "For the sake of Egyptian national security. It is in order to defend Egyptian national security." That poor Egyptian national security... The people of Gaza, who are poor, hungry, needy, and oppressed, jeopardize Egyptian national security!


Hear this, oh people – the people of Gaza, not Israel, jeopardize Egyptian security. Does this make sense? Have people lost their minds so much that they say such things? When have the people of Gaza ever jeopardized Egypt? All this was intended to give Israel an opportunity to tyrannize the Palestinians more and more. The Rafah crossing – the "lung of life" through which the Palestinians breathe – must be opened and must remain open. This is an obligation according to Islamic law, the norms, moral values, and common law. All the principles of this world necessitate this. But due to strange and peculiar considerations, the crossing is closed.

[Paparock]

A Failed Anti-Terror Strategy
Nothing Obama is doing will make a recurrence of the terror attempt on Flight 253 any less likely
by Jamie Glazov

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/04/a...-jamie-glazov/

Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of ten books, eleven monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book, The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, is available now from Regnery Publishing, and he is coauthor (with Pamela Geller) of the forthcoming book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (Simon and Schuster).

FP:Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

What do you see as the key lessons of the failed terror attempt on Northwest Flight 253?

Spencer: The chief lesson of the attempted jihad attack on Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day is that our entire anti-terror strategy is a huge and abject failure. Flight 253 revealed a massive failure not only of airline security procedures, but also of the larger strategy that America and the West has been pursuing against jihad terrorism.

As for airline security procedures, Abdulmutallab was able to get on the airplane without a passport, and with ingredients for an explosive that would have destroyed the plane and killed everyone in it.

TSA officials are busy tightening security procedures with new Abdulmutallab-inspired rules such as forcing passengers to stay in their seats for the last hour of the flight, but these new measures will do nothing to prevent another attack. One thing we have seen over the years since 9/11 is that airport security is always one step behind the jihadists: after jihadist Richard Reid attempted to set off a bomb hidden in his shoes, we all have to take off our shoes and send them through security scanners.

After a group of jihadists tried to sneak onto planes explosive chemicals hidden in drink bottles, we can’t carry drinks through airport security terminals. Because Abdulmutallab attempted his jihad attack just before the plane landed, now we can’t get up during the last hour of the flight.

The one thing that the TSA should have learned, but hasn’t, is that next time the jihadists will do something else, not just repeat what they did before. And even if every passenger were given a full body cavity search, they will find some way to get around it.

But attempt a new approach based on sensible profiling? The TSA would rather fold up shop altogether.

FP:Liberals love to portray Islamic terror (this is when they are forced to even admit it exists) as the result of American capitalism and imperialism and how it has subjected poor people into misery. But Abdul Mutallab doesn’t fall into this narrative very neatly. Maybe it has something to do with some stuff he was reading while he was enjoying material wealth, personal comfort and relaxation thanks to capitalism?

Spencer: They constantly ignore the possibility that the jihadis might not always be reacting to things America has done, but may hate us for reasons of their own, independent of our actions. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a classic recipient of Western largesse designed to win over the loyalties of Muslims – he was educated at the British International School in Lome, Togo. Yet contact with solicitous and friendly non-Muslim Westerners obviously did nothing to quell his jihadist fervor. And the son of a rich man (who notified American authorities about his jihadist sentiments, to no avail), Abdulmutallab once again proves false the idea that poverty causes terrorism. The myriad aid programs that are based on this false assumption have done nothing to stop or even slow jihad terrorism, and they never will.

Abdulmutallab was, in all likelihood, “radicalized” not by Western oppression but by the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah. All the concerted efforts by the State Department and DHS to ignore the jihad doctrine and reach out to people they deemed to be “moderate Muslims” have likewise not worked.

According to the Nigerian newspaper This Day, when Abdulmutallab was at the British International School, “he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called ‘Alfa,’ a local coinage for Islamic scholar.” This illustrates yet again that, contrary to the popular view, Islamic jihadists present themselves among their fellow Muslims as the exponents of authentic Islam, making their case from the Qur’an and Sunnah — and those Muslims who oppose jihadist violence and Islamic supremacism have never successfully refuted their arguments.

Outreach to moderate Muslims has not aided in this effort, and has deceived the general public into thinking that the influence of peaceful Muslims over jihadists is much larger than it actually is.

FP:Your thoughts on Obama and Napolitano in terms of how they are handling this this attempted terror attack?

Spencer: Napolitano’s initial statement that “the system worked” was incredible, and Obama’s slowness to respond and failure to break off his vacation inexcusable — as was his later reference to this apparent Al-Qaeda operative as an “isolated extremist.” Their abysmal failure to come to grips with the jihad doctrine has left us vulnerable to attacks from quarters they consider safe, as Abdulmutallab himself illustrates: as a rich man’s well educated son, he fits none of the conventional non-Islamic explanations for jihad violence that prevail among government and media analysts. He should be the cause of a wholesale reevaluation of our policies and procedures. But that isn’t going to happen.

FP:What we need is profiling, yes? And our culture won’t allow. Tell us the psychology here that leaves us tragically vulnerable.

Spencer: We have, as a culture, been sold a bill of goods by leftist ideologues who have convinced us that to make a realistic appraisal of the source of a threat and to react accordingly would constitute “racism” and “bigotry.”

Islamic terrorists are generally not grandmothers from middle America — why should everyone be subjected to increasingly annoying and futile airline security procedures when we know what group is committing these attacks, but just don’t want to admit it?

Profiling is flawed and will not be a perfect solution, as there is no common racial or any other characteristic that the jihadis share. But a sensibly educated TSA would be able to spot people who might constitute a greater risk, and respond accordingly.

Unfortunately, no matter how many young Muslim men blow things up or try to do so, we cannot even have this conversation as a nation, because the race wolf-criers have completely dominated the field.

FP:Concluding thoughts? What concerns you the most in what you see happening? What are the grave consequences if we don’t get it right?

Spencer: One thing is certain, Jamie: nothing we are doing now will make a recurrence of the Flight 253 incident any less likely. New security methods are needed, as are new strategies to combat the global jihad. But instead, we just keep reapplying the same old failed policies. And they will continue to fail, because of a continuing failure to evaluate realistically the situation we’re in.

FP:Robert Spencer, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.

[Paparock]

Panty Bomber’s Lawyer, Prosecutors, & Obama US Attorney mocked 9/11, joked about ‘Flying Planes Into Buildings’

http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/...nto-buildings/

DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL EXCLUSIVE reports that the taxpayer-funded federal public defender on the Abdulmutallab team and the two federal prosecutors and Obama U.S. Attorney prosecuting him all mocked the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and posted jokes about flying planes into buildings at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Tomorrow at the Federal Courthouse in Detroit, it’s expected to be a madhouse, as mobs of people, protestors, and press will be there for the first hearing in the federal case against Northwest Flight 253 Islamic terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Below is a “joke” sent to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric M. Straus, the lead federal prosecutor of Abdulmutallab by Richard M. Helfrick a/k/a Rick Helfrick, a federal public defender on the Abdulmutallab defense team. He is the Managing Attorney of the Federal Defender Office in Detroit, and his salary–around $150,000 a year–is paid by you. (As I noted previously, both Mr. Helfrick and Abdulmutallab’s lead attorney, Miriam Siefer, stole a federal judge’s stationery, forged his signature and impersonated him in the Detroit terror cell trial.)

Mr. Straus thought this “flying lessons gag” about then-convicted Islamic terrorist Karim Koubriti was so “funny” that he posted it in the break and luncheon room of the U.S. Attorney’s office for months.



Both Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel (more about him here) and Barack Obama’s newly appointed Islamo-pandering U.S. Attorney, Barbara McQuade a/k/a “Barb,” saw this “joke” and did nothing. Sources said they laughed along with it. Tukel–who previously outed a loyal Islamic government informant in terrorism and drug cases to the media–is also prosecuting the Abdulmutallab case, and McQuade is overseeing it.

As I noted above, the “Mr. Koubriti,” referred to in the letter from Helfrick, is Karim Koubriti, an Islamic terrorist who plotted to blow up the U.S. Air Force Base in Incirlik Turkey, as well as Disneyland and hotels in Las Vegas. (More details about him here.)Though two federal juries said he was an Islamic terrorist, Mr. Koubriti now lives free in the Detroit area, where he is on the fast-track to become a U.S. citizen, and has a Commercial Drivers License (he drives a truck–just what you want Islamic terrorists in the U.S. doing as a profession). Mr. Straus worked with Mr. Helfrick and Mr. Abdulmutallab’s lead attorney, Miriam Siefer, to overturn Koubriti’s conviction and let him walk free.

If there are any “mistakes” in the prosecution of Abdulmutallab, don’t be surprised. These two cretins–Straus and Tukel–don’t make “mistakes.” They deliberately work to set free the terrorists their office is “prosecuting.”

[Paparock]

The UndyBomber Pass
Why is Hillary's State Department not held accountable for giving a visa to a globe-trotting, Nigerian-born nomad?
by Michelle Malkin

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/11/t...chelle-malkin/

Forget about no-fly lists, full-body scanners and air marshals. All the loud recriminations about who should have done what to stop the UndyBomber from boarding a plane to Detroit on Christmas Day miss a more fundamental point: Young, single, rootless foreign Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should never, ever have received a temporary visa into our country in the first place. No visa, no plane ticket. No ticket, no passage to airline jihad.

Even absent the intelligence we had on this al-Qaida-trained operative before his fateful trip, Hillary Clinton’s State Department was required to know better than to issue a coveted entrance pass to a globe-trotting, Nigerian-born nomad. Under federal law (section 214(b) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act to be precise), State Department consular officials must determine that foreigners applying for temporary visas (students, tourists and business people) will in fact return to their home countries as required and will not abuse their visa privileges.

This means making sure that the temporary visa applicant has strong ties to his native land. It’s supposed to be a tough burden to overcome. Yet, Abdulmutallab showed no such propensities at the time he applied for his temporary visa at the U.S. Embassy in London in June 2008. He was a 20-something student who had flitted from Nigeria to Yemen to Togo to England without a family or job. He was, in other words, a textbook itinerant waving more red flags than a bullfighter.

Question: How much due diligence did the State Department consular official on the front line who interviewed Abdulmutallab actually show? Reports say it took just four days for his visa to be approved. Barely two months later, Abdulmutallab turned up in Houston for a two-week seminar at Al Maghrib Institute, a Muslim Brotherhood-tied Islamic education center that has been dubbed “Jihad U” by veteran terrorism analysts.

Now, I’m presuming that a consular official did in fact interview Abdulmutallab before rubber-stamping his visa. Before the September 11 attacks, countless visa applicants — including 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers — skipped personal appearance requirements and bypassed the interview process as a convenience provided by Foggy Bottom panderers.

This was supposed to change.

I asked the State Department Thursday for more information about the presumed consular office interview and hasty approval of Abdulmutallab’s visa. Spokeswoman Megan Mattson invoked confidentiality rules protecting his visa form. But there is an overriding public interest in what his application might reveal about our atrociously lax consulate practices. The General Accounting Office obtained and released the 9/11 hijackers’ temporary visa forms, which showed that basic information about where they were headed (two hijackers wrote “Wasantwn”) and what business they claimed to be doing (one wrote “teater” as his occupation) was suspiciously shoddy.

Like Abdulmutallab, not a single one of the unmarried, rootless Muslim male nomads who secured student and business visas to commit mass murder on American soil should have ever obtained a temporary visa in the first place.

But the reckless customer-service mentality prevails under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The department continues to operate the dangerous “Diversity Visa Lottery” program — handing out permanent residency visas (green cards) randomly to some 50,000 foreigners from “underrepresented” regions. The bipartisan visa lottery was championed by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy and signed into law by Republican President George H. W. Bush in 1990. Although originally intended to give a leg up to Irish immigrants, most of the winners are now from non-Western countries — including several terrorist-sponsoring and terrorist-friendly nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and Yemen.

State Department flacks are busy pointing fingers at other homeland security bureaucracies, namely the National Counterterrorism Center, for failing to revoke the UndyBomber’s visa. Foggy Bottom held a press conference earlier this week to boast that it had finally taken responsibility and stripped Abdulmutallab of his golden entrance ticket. But where does the buck stop for granting the visa in the first place?

Ominously, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley revealed that other suspected jihadi visas have been revoked. “It’s more than one,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s fruitful to get into a scoreboard.” Of course not. Keeping score would mean accountability for negligent consular officials and their bosses. This administration would rather let sleeping bureaucrats lie.

[Paparock]

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3899.htm

January 11, 2010

Special Dispatch No.2745

Al-Jazeera TV Report on the Nigerian Community of 'Christmas Day Bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

The following are excerpts from a TV report on 'Christmas Day Bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 7, 2010.

To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2337.htm.




Reporter: "This is the great mosque of Kaduna, the largest city in northern Nigeria, and the largest Islamic center in the north of the country. The imam of the mosque excludes the possibility that the city and the religious ideology that prevails in it have anything to do with the accusations leveled against the Nigerian citizen, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab."

Abd Al-Hamid Balili Wali, Imam of the Mosque: "Let me tell you, the da'wa of this man is not the da'wa of Sheik Abubakar Gumi or of this mosque."

Reporter: "Abdulmutallab's family is one of the city's noble families. His 70-year-old father is a wealthy banker and a former minister. This is the home of the family of Abdulmutallab, who is accused of attempting to blow up an airplane in the U.S. The evening school which Umar attended as a child is only a few meters from here. Like others in this region, Umar's father enrolled him in this Islamic school."

Interviewer: "In which grade did Umar study in the school?"

School teacher Abd Al-Rahman Abu Bakr: "He studied in two classrooms. [pointing] This one and that one."

Interviewer: "What grade did he reach?"

Abd Al-Rahman Abu Bakr: "He began as a child, from age four to
seven, the first and second grades of elementary school."

Interviewer: "What was he like? Was he a willing student?"

Abd Al-Rahman Abu Bakr: "Farouk was a smart and polite student."

Reporter: "This is part of what the children are taught at this school – the basic principles of Islam and short Koranic verses. Most of them continue from here to the government schools that teach English. Umar's parents sent him to the UK to study at the age of seven. He began to frequent this school mosque only during school breaks, when he returned to Kaduna, Nigeria."

Mousa Omar Tumadu, School Principal and Imam of the Mosque:"The last time I saw him was four months ago. He left because his father sent him to study in Dubai, after he had studied in Britain. But he did not listen to his father, and he went to Yemen to study Arabic. His father was worried, and so he informed the U.S. authorities of this."

Reporter: "The entire school staff knows Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. They all say that there was nothing to suggest that he might try to blow up a plane in the U.S."

[SpacemanSpiff]

From Fox News:

In one specific criticism, Blair said suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been questioned by the recently created High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG. As he explained the need to use the interrogation unit for such cases in the future, he made an offhand remark that carried a touch of defeatism. "We'll make a new mistake. We won't make that one," he said.
.
.
.
Blair said analysts were being told to cast a "very fishy eye" on including more names for "several years before 2008."

His assessment was essentially a repudiation of the way the United States has been processing this information for years. Since the Christmas episode, the list has been expanded, he said.

"Shame on us for giving into that pressure," Blair said. "I should not have given into that pressure, but it was a factor and we've certainly changed that attitude. "

(emphasis mine)

Full article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...rror-policies/