LAGOS, Nigeria -- The U.S. gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs, but none were used on the man suspected trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight, Nigerian officials say.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tracked by cameras through the security check, only went through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed when he arrived at Nigeria's busiest airport to start his journey, the officials say.
The Soter RS scanners delivers 3-D images that would have shown something hidden under clothing. But a spokesman for the anti-drug agency, which operates the Nigerian machines, told The Associated Press that the one at Lagos airport is used sporadically and only on potential narcotics smugglers.
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http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1105ap_af_airliner_attack_lagos_airport.html
Arabic study may have been cover for bomb suspect
Dec. 31, 2009
SAN'A, Yemen – The Nigerian suspected of trying to bring down a U.S. airliner with explosives might have used Arabic studies as a pretext for entering Yemen before disappearing for months, perhaps into one of the lawless country's al-Qaida strongholds, fellow students and teachers said.
Interviews with staff and students at the Institute for the Arabic Language this week have revealed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was frequently absent from classes and spent at most one month at the school in Yemen's capital, San'a, starting in late August before vanishing. Authorities say he didn't leave the country until December and that his whereabouts during that period remains a mystery.
Adding to the notion that his studies were a ruse, one teacher at the institute said the young man stood out because he already spoke Arabic with a considerable degree of fluency. "I noticed he understood the language very quickly and he was eloquent and convincing in his speech," Ahmed Moajjib said.
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Thank you for the ping Oorang.
He is now deeply involved in spreading anti-American sentiment via the use of rhetoric about jihad throughout the world via the Internet