A US district court has sentenced Nigeria's "underwear bomber" to life in prison for his role in trying to blow up a packed airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on Thursday charged in a six-count criminal indictment for his alleged attempt to blow up a North West Airlines plane with 300 people on board on Christmas Day."The charges that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab faces could imprison him for life," Attorney General Eric Holder said. Abdulmutallab allegedly boarded Northwest Airlines flight 253, with 289 passengers and 11 crew members, at Amsterdam on Dec 25, carrying a concealed bomb.
Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to blow up a US airliner as he was arraigned before a Michigan court.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who allegedly tried to blow up a US plane, had "sneaked" into Nigeria on December 24, a day ahead of the failed terror bid, country's information minister has said. "The man in question had lived outside the country for a while. He sneaked into Nigeria on December 24, 2009 and left the same day," Dora Akunyili, Nigerian information minister said.
Nigerian terror-suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was on Monday discharged from a Detroit hospital where he was being treated for burn injuries, which he sustained in his failed attempt to blow up a US plane mid-air on Friday.
As US President Barack Obama conceded of systemic intelligence failure, media reports said the Central Intelligence Agency knew about the Nigerian terror suspect involved in a thwarted Christmas Day plane attack.
The arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national who tried to set off an explosive device on board a Detroit-bound flight, has confirmed the United States administration's fears about the presence of an active Al Qaeda terror network in several African nations including Nigeria and Kenya.Speaking on the terror network operating inside Africa, sources in the Intelligence Bureau said that some African nations were initially used as hide-out by criminals.
It was the Internet that helped the Al Qaeda to contact, recruit, train and equip Nigerian 'underwear' bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab 'within weeks' to try to blow up a United States plane on Christmas Day, a top Pentagon official has said.This reflects how the extremist groups have been increasingly using Internet as a recruitment tool, which otherwise could have taken months, if not years, to hire and train a terror suspect, said Garry Reid.
The global jihadi network is under pressure but it needs a long-term strategy to keep it in control, writes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
There is no doubt that the Al Qaeda has expanded its network to newer areas like Yemen and Somalia, but Pakistan remains its nerve centre, a top American Senator said on Wednesday.
Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged in a botched al-Qaeda plot to blow up an American airliner, has provided useful "actionable intelligence" during his interrogation by FBI sleuths, the White House has said.
Noting that there was sufficient information to uncover the December 25 plot, US President Barack Obama has said that the intelligence community failed to connect the dots and added that this would not be tolerated.
Accusing Britain of being a "menace to the outside world", Americans have blamed their closest ally in Europe for the rise of Islamic extremism amid growing anger over the UK's perceived failure to tackle extremism.
The Nigerian-origin bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, has warned US investigators that "there are more just like me who will strike soon." Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had earlier claimed connection with Yemen-based Al Qaeda, which had supplied him with "new type explosives" to bring the trans-Atlantic flight down, and kill 289 people on board.
The two Al Qaeda leaders said to be behind the plot to blow up a US airplane on Christmas Day were Guantanamo detainees released in November 2007, a media report said on Tuesday prompting calls from lawmakers that the administration review its plan to close the prison.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has told FBI that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners, CBS said in an exclusive investigative report.
The US state department has said the information provided by the father of a Nigerian man, who is charged with trying to blow up a US-bound flight on December 25, was "insufficient" to revoke the terror-suspect's visa or to put him on the no-fly list.
The 23-year old Nigerian al Qaeda suspect, who tried to blow up a US plane, was arraigned on Sunday and faces a prison term of up to 20 years if convicted, even as aviation authorities beefed up security measures and flight rules for America-bound flights globally.
The White House has ruled out sending Ahmed Abu Khatallah, a key suspect in the attacks at the United States consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, to the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center and asserted that he would be tried through the federal court system.
'Underwear bomb' creator Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, perhaps the best bomb maker in the world, has been the most high-profile recruit of the Islamic State. And the ability of his bombs to go unchecked through the most stringent security setups has left the US and UK very worried. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
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