Posted on 12/27/2009 9:24:51 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
Haskell said the flight was mostly unremarkable. That was until he heard a flight attendant say she smelled smoke, just after the pilot announced the plane would land in Detroit in 10 minutes. Haskell got out of his seat to view the brewing commotion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
I was there in’91. Machine-gun armed guards throughout. We stopped that presence here after whiney public outcry post-9/11.
FOX has been talking about the “no passport” story this morning. Napolitano is supposed to be on at 7:35. Let’s see if they ask her about it.
She’s not giving a direct answer, surprise surprise
It’s a damned shame that even FOX won’t press her on this!
Nappy stuck to the script.
She said a whole lotta NOTHING. Wouldn’t answer the passport question.
Used the ol’ climategate “taken out of context” excuse to explain “the system worked.”
So predictable.
BLACK TIE!!!
yep. Love how the panel isn’t buying her bs.
The system worked AFTER the terrorist was on board with a bomb and the attack failed.
Phew! Good to know. /s
I was wondering if I was the only person thinking about ZZ Top.
If they get to that point, aviation will cash completely.
But the closest thing to this is that screener thing that shows nearly everything..
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