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U.S. knew of man in attack on airliner

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairwoman of a House Homeland Security subcommittee, said there were “strong suggestions of a Yemen-al-Qaida connection and an intent to blow up the plane over U.S. airspace.”

http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/us-knew-of-man-in-attack-on-airliner/1061470

According to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device showed it contained PETN, a high explosive also known as pentaerythritol, the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used when he tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Officials said it was possible that had the chemical mixture detonated, it might have brought down the aircraft.

Abdulmutallab’s name was not unknown to U.S. authorities. An official briefed on the attack told the New York Times that the United States has known for at least two years that Abdulmutallab could have terrorist ties. His name was inserted last month into the U.S. intelligence community’s central repository of information on known or suspected international terrorists after his father, a prominent Nigerian banker, told officials at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that he was concerned about his son’s increasingly extremist religious views.

Abdulmutallab was granted a two-year visa, which is still valid, the official said. He had traveled to the United States once before, to Houston in August 2008.

The suspect smiled when he was wheeled into the hospital conference room. He had a bandage on his left thumb and right wrist, and part of the skin on the thumb was burned off.

The judge sat at the far end of a 10-foot table, the suspect at the other end.

Borman asked the defendant if he was pronouncing his name correctly. Abdulmutallab responded, in English. “Yes, that’s fine.” The judge asked him if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: “Yes, I do.”

In Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the suspect’s father, told the Associated Press, “I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that.”

The father was chairman of First Bank of Nigeria from 1999 through this month. The banker said his son is a former university student in London but had left Britain to travel abroad.

Abdulmutallab attended one of West Africa’s best schools, the British School of Lome in Togo. After high school, he went to Britain to study mechanical engineering.

It was while still in high school that he began preaching to fellow students about Islam, according to a report in ThisDay, a Nigerian newspaper.