Terror on Northwest Flight 253: Bomb On Plane Linked to al-Qaeda
The White House is calling this an attempted terrorist attack.
The flight made an emergency landing in Detroit after 23-year old suspect, Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to detonate a device but failed. Initial reports were that a firecracker was set off, but as events unfolded reports shifted to characterizing it as an apparent act of terrorism — confirmed, we are now hearing, by Abdulmutallab himself, who says he was on a mission from Al Qaeda.
NBC, CBS and other news outlets report that Abdulmutallab was on a U.S. government watch list of people with suspected terrorist ties — but not a no-fly list.
According to CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen, Abdulmutallab told authorities that he procured the materials used for the potential explosive device in Yemen. Yesterday, an airstrike by Yemeni forces targeting an al Qaeda hub killed 30; reports that radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, linked to Ft. Hood shooter, army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, was not among them. According to Bergen, Yemen is becoming a major hotbed for terrorist activity
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