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Jasper Schuringa, a passenger on Northwest Flight 253, who helped apprehend Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, gives an eyewitness account. Video

Finally something that Barak Obama can legitimately blame on George Bush. ABC is reporting that two of the four leaders who planned the attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 over Detroit were former residents of the Guantanamo Bay prison. They were released in November of 2007, into the hands of Saudi Arabia who claimed the terrorists could be cured via art therapy (I swear I am not making this up). The Video at the end of this post is a 60 Minutes report on the Saudi rehabilitation program which includes "Art Therapy:"

A Newport Michigan couple, who were on board Northwest Airline flight 253, report that an Indian man tried to get Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on board the plane without a passport. The couple also allege that a different Indian man was arrested after the plane had landed when a bomb sniffing dog detected a bomb in his carry on bag. And, now this:A Wisconsin family aboard the plane that Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to bomb on Christmas Day said another passenger videotaped the entire flight including the attempted detonation of explosives, local media reports. Patricia and...

THE THWARTED Christmas Day airplane bombing raises three causes for alarm. First, it illustrates a screening system that remains porous enough to let a suspect board with the same explosive shoe-bomber Richard Reid attempted to use in 2001. Second, it exposes a terrorism bureaucracy too clumsy to catapult the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, at least to a higher level of preflight scrutiny after his father came forward with warnings that he might pose a danger. Third, if it is true that the suspect received explosives training from al-Qaeda in Yemen, the incident underscores the emergence of that troubled nation as...

The current strategy from the White House is especially odd considering the issues the president did make an effort to address. Remember the Cambridge Cop Mr. Obama excoriated for "acting stupidly" on national TV this summer? The Chicago Sun Times columnist Lynn Sweet points out (H/T TWT's Amanda Carpenter) that the White House blog has made no mention of the terror attack. Apparently hanging out in Hawaii is more important to reporters who hated Crawford, Texas trips with former President Bush than reporting the importance of a presidential response on a terror matter, so Mr. Obama's avoiding them is not...

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, and believes at least one other person from the flight was arrested on Friday at Detroit Metro Airport. 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. Kurt HaskellLori and...

Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano either doesn't get it, or is dumber than toast. Today President Obama's choice to protect us from terrorism appeared on CNN and proved that she does not belong in her position. Napolitano, said it was too early to speculate on the claims of Al Qaeda connections made by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian held in connection with the incident. After his arrest in Detroit, Abdulmutallab said he had obtained a specialized explosive chemical compound and a syringe sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with the terror network, according...

MOMENT HE WAS CAPTURED: Cops Arrest Would-Be Suicide Bomber Rich Boy Bomber Based In Londonistan [Pic in URL] Mounting evidence links UK to plane attack in States By Dominic Herbert & Daniel Sanderson, 27/12/2009 THIS is the terrorist who tried to blow up a packed jumbo jet over America being seized by cops. The dramatic picture shows Umar Abdul Mutallab moments after Northwest Airlines flight 253 landed safely in Detroit on Christmas Day. As Scotland Yard yesterday swooped on a £4 million West End flat, US authorities named the 23-year-old as a rich Nigerian banker's son who studied at a...

Not enough data to put suspect on no-fly list: official Photo 7:33pm EST KAILUA, Hawaii (Reuters) - The government created a record on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in November 2009 in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the intelligence community's central repository of information on known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative information to put him on a no-fly list, a U.S. administration official said on Saturday. "There was insufficient derogatory information available on the subject

SNIPPET: "Discussion: I first observed discussion of binary explosives on the al-Firdaws forum in January of 2007. In light of recent events I will post here my archive:" SNIPPET: "Implementation: On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab boards a flight in Amsterdam, bound for Detroit, and on final descent he attempts to set off what was most likely a binary explosive. Thank goodness he either screwed up or had bad instructions, because the chemicals he was working with were evidently quite good."

sarc/ Imagine being at DHS or the US State Department and receiving a letter like this: ATTENTION: Dear Sir/Madam in United States Department of Homeland Security, Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab. I am the retired chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria. I have the courage to Crave indulgence for this important warning believing that you will never let me down or those travelers in your great country, especially to the City of Detroit, either now or in the future. I am concerned very much over the welfare of my beloved son Mr.Abdul Farouk...

This unfolding story of the man who attempted (nearly successfully) yesterday to blow up Northwest Airlines 253 in mid-air is nerve wracking on several levels. First, the fact that the leg-bomber and/or his accomplic(es) managed to smuggle liquid and powder bomb components onto this trans-Atlantic flight, assemble them in flight, and ignite the mixture is cause for grave consternation for every law enforcement agency with any role to play in preventing this kind of thing. If this jihad-addled yahoo got this close to killing 289 innocent people, my hunch is that there are other such yahoos out there all ginned...

HEADLINE ONLY. Article will be posted when available.

As President Barack Obama vacations in Hawaii, officials say he's keeping up to date on what's described as a terror attempt on board a Northwest Airlines plane that was about to land in Detroit.

An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke - sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al Qaeda to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said. -snip- Mutallab has been in the U.S. before, having received a visa in June 2008. His listed residence was in Houston, Texas. Authorities had placed him on a preliminary watch list, meaning they wanted to gather more information about him, but law enforcement subsequently lost track of him.

The suspect in the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 used a highly explosive substance called PETN, a law enforcement official told CBS News Saturday. The explosives were carried in a soft plastic container - possibly a condom - though much of the packaging was destroyed in the fire, the official said. The FBI is questioning the suspect, identified as 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who claimed to be acting on orders from al Qaeda to blow up the airliner, officials said. A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect apparently used a syringe to inject a...

Rep. Hoekstra: Attempted airline bombing should 'connect the dots' for Obama By Jordan Fabian - 12/26/09 12:46 PM ET Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) Friday said that the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit should "connect the dots" for the Obama administration. Hoekstra, who is the top Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, told the Detroit Free Press that the attacks are an indication that al Qaeda is beginning to plan more widespread attacks on the United States. “It’s not surprising,” Hoekstra said of the attempt to blow up a Northwest airliner. “People have got to...

Abdul Mutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian claiming he was acting on al Qaida's instructions set off an explosive device on Christmas day on a plane traveling between Nigeria and Detroit. That attempt to murder over 270 people on Delta's Flight 253 was thwarted when one passenger jumped over others to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. continued

Romulus, Michigan (CNN) -- A passenger on an international flight bound for the United States Friday ignited a small explosive device shortly before landing in a move the White House called an attempted terrorist attack, a senior administration official said. Another passenger on the Northwest flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, quickly helped subdue and isolate the young male suspect with the aid of the cabin crew, passenger Syed Jafry said. The suspect, identified by a U.S. government official as 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was placed in custody and is being treated for second- and third-degree burns on his...

Nigeria on Saturday ordered a top-level probe after a botched attempt by a young Nigerian to blow up a US plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, a government statement said. "The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has directed Nigerian security agencies to commence full investigation of the incident," the statement said. Information Minister Dora Akunyili said Abuja had learnt with "dismay the news of an attempted terrorist attack on a US airline. "We state very clearly that as a nation, we abhor all forms of terrorism," she said in the statement....