We witnessed a Miracle this Christmas when there was an attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airline Flight 253. Only by the Grace of our Lord, God, was a tragedy prevented with the possible loss of 289 souls on the flight. The brave actions of some on the plane and the bombs failure will become clearer in the upcoming days but we were spared from this horrible attack.
Passengers help foil attack on Detroit-bound plane
Dec 26, 8:49 AM (ET)
By JIM IRWIN
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - 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-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."
Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said the U.S. has asked all airlines to take extra precautions on flights worldwide that are bound for the United States.
The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers.
Multiple law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday's attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. He was described as Nigerian.
One law enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over U.S. soil, but other law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently - inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen said they were investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
The man was being questioned Friday evening. An intelligence official said he was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Mich., hospital. The hospital said one passenger from the flight was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, but referred all inquiries to the FBI.
Melinda Dennis, who was seated in the front row of the plane, said the man involved was brought to the front row and seated near her. She said his legs appeared to be badly burned and his pants were cut off. She said he was taken off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher.
One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mutallab's name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but he was not on a watch list or a no-fly list.
The suspect boarded in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, Rep. Peter King, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN. A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam declined comment about the case or about security procedures at the airport for Flight 253.
Dutch airline KLM says the connection in Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit involves a change in carrier and a change in aircraft.
Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.
A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Akin Olukunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened before boarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagos cleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
"We had a pass mark," Olukunle said. "We actually are up to standards in all senses."
Nigeria's information minister, Dora Akunyili, condemned the attempted bombing. She said the government has opened its own investigation into the suspect and will work with U.S. authorities.
"We state very clearly that as a nation we abhor all forms of violence," Akunyili said in a statement issued Saturday.
London's Metropolitan Police also was working with U.S. officials, a spokeswoman said, and searches were being conducted in that city. The spokeswoman would not provide additional details, including what connection the suspect had to London or what was being searched. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, said a passenger caused a disturbance, was subdued, and the crew requested that law enforcement officials meet the flight.
Passenger Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said the incident occurred during the plane's descent. Jafri said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and said he saw a glow, and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."
"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," he said.
Federal officials said there would be heightened security for both domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be "layered," differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.
Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, more bomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioral-detection specialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified less visible precautions as well, officials said.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, which was obtained by The Associated Press. At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. Officials said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.
---
Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes in Baghdad, Iraq, Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Jennifer Quinn in London, Ahmed al-Haj in Yemen, and Larry Margasak and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091226/D9CR18JO0.html
There have been around 12 terrorist attacks in the United States this year, but the Obama Administration will deny them because they fail to meet their requirements of having to belong to any organized terrorist groups. They consider them individual criminal acts and have so far only impacted the Law Enforcement community. The terrorists can afford to have a high failure rate but eventually one of these attacks will be able to penetrate all the efforts that are in place by Police and Homeland Security. We have had victims this years and the cost have been high among Police Officers and Military Personnel.
The White House has tried to paint a rosy picture that there will be change and that everything that has happened before is all President George W. Bush's fault. They have gone as far as having the terminology changed that we are no longer involved in a 'Global War on Terror'. POTUS feels that the two current actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were wrong and he has traveled the world on his 'APOLOGY TOUR'.
We are at war, not with a nation, a people or a group but with a faith. We may want to deny it all we want but it exists. The enemy are believers of a radical version of a faith that was conceived originally as a conquisitive theology, Islam. They are at war with us and have been for a very long time. Their members do not carry identification cards nor do they wear certain identifying apparels.
The White House wants to mistakenly move GITMO and it's war prisoners from Cuba into Illinois and open it here. They want to confer Constitutional Rights to foreigners and once again make this entire ugly episode a criminal exercise in a proportion that has never before seen in our already over-burdened domestic criminal system.
The Transportation Security Administration has been responsible in providing security from terrorism since the 911 attacks but has become another government joke. It is a reactionary and bloated organization which is full of incompetent members who conduct their actions on the very dangerous policy of Political Correctness. This method of operation has been the brainchild of the political Left of this nation and has handicapped our Law Enforcement and Military Efforts for many years. POTUS now wants to unionize the TSA and make it yet another government work project.
When Richard Reeds was found with an explosive device in his shoes the TSA's reaction was that in it's policy of Political Correctness everyone had to take of their shoes before boarding planes. They make your grandmother take of her shoes along with those that actually might fit the profile of a terrorist. The possible terrorist tactic of mixing common liquid components into bombs have prompted the TSA to have us place our products into small carry-on containers in one large plastic bag. This is a small victory for the terrorists. The latest terrorist bomber, Umar Mutallab, had a bomb in his pants. What is the TSA, in their political correctness stragedy, going to make passengers do now in light of this latest event?
The Islamofascists are at war with us, make no qualms about that fact. They are hellbent on their mission to destroy us at all costs and their members all come with the same hate filled ideology. They may have been participating in their form of warfare in a semi-organized fashion but that has proven to be unsuccessful against a more powerful United States. They are now attempting to attack us here at home by their root members in conducting these individual attacks. This is not the time to turn our attention away from our foe but to become more vigilant.
"We have fought them in Iraq in the past, we are fighting them in Afghanistan in the present and we will be fighting them in Yemen in the future", Senator Joe Liberman stated.
Passengers help foil attack on Detroit-bound plane
Dec 26, 8:49 AM (ET)
By JIM IRWIN
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - 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-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."
Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said the U.S. has asked all airlines to take extra precautions on flights worldwide that are bound for the United States.
The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers.
Multiple law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday's attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. He was described as Nigerian.
One law enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over U.S. soil, but other law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently - inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
Intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen said they were investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
The man was being questioned Friday evening. An intelligence official said he was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Mich., hospital. The hospital said one passenger from the flight was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, but referred all inquiries to the FBI.
Melinda Dennis, who was seated in the front row of the plane, said the man involved was brought to the front row and seated near her. She said his legs appeared to be badly burned and his pants were cut off. She said he was taken off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher.
One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mutallab's name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but he was not on a watch list or a no-fly list.
The suspect boarded in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, Rep. Peter King, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN. A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam declined comment about the case or about security procedures at the airport for Flight 253.
Dutch airline KLM says the connection in Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit involves a change in carrier and a change in aircraft.
Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.
A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Akin Olukunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened before boarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagos cleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
"We had a pass mark," Olukunle said. "We actually are up to standards in all senses."
Nigeria's information minister, Dora Akunyili, condemned the attempted bombing. She said the government has opened its own investigation into the suspect and will work with U.S. authorities.
"We state very clearly that as a nation we abhor all forms of violence," Akunyili said in a statement issued Saturday.
London's Metropolitan Police also was working with U.S. officials, a spokeswoman said, and searches were being conducted in that city. The spokeswoman would not provide additional details, including what connection the suspect had to London or what was being searched. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, said a passenger caused a disturbance, was subdued, and the crew requested that law enforcement officials meet the flight.
Passenger Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said the incident occurred during the plane's descent. Jafri said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and said he saw a glow, and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him."
"Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic," he said.
Federal officials said there would be heightened security for both domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be "layered," differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.
Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, more bomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioral-detection specialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified less visible precautions as well, officials said.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, which was obtained by The Associated Press. At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. Officials said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.
---
Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes in Baghdad, Iraq, Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Jennifer Quinn in London, Ahmed al-Haj in Yemen, and Larry Margasak and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091226/D9CR18JO0.html
There have been around 12 terrorist attacks in the United States this year, but the Obama Administration will deny them because they fail to meet their requirements of having to belong to any organized terrorist groups. They consider them individual criminal acts and have so far only impacted the Law Enforcement community. The terrorists can afford to have a high failure rate but eventually one of these attacks will be able to penetrate all the efforts that are in place by Police and Homeland Security. We have had victims this years and the cost have been high among Police Officers and Military Personnel.
The White House has tried to paint a rosy picture that there will be change and that everything that has happened before is all President George W. Bush's fault. They have gone as far as having the terminology changed that we are no longer involved in a 'Global War on Terror'. POTUS feels that the two current actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were wrong and he has traveled the world on his 'APOLOGY TOUR'.
We are at war, not with a nation, a people or a group but with a faith. We may want to deny it all we want but it exists. The enemy are believers of a radical version of a faith that was conceived originally as a conquisitive theology, Islam. They are at war with us and have been for a very long time. Their members do not carry identification cards nor do they wear certain identifying apparels.
The White House wants to mistakenly move GITMO and it's war prisoners from Cuba into Illinois and open it here. They want to confer Constitutional Rights to foreigners and once again make this entire ugly episode a criminal exercise in a proportion that has never before seen in our already over-burdened domestic criminal system.
The Transportation Security Administration has been responsible in providing security from terrorism since the 911 attacks but has become another government joke. It is a reactionary and bloated organization which is full of incompetent members who conduct their actions on the very dangerous policy of Political Correctness. This method of operation has been the brainchild of the political Left of this nation and has handicapped our Law Enforcement and Military Efforts for many years. POTUS now wants to unionize the TSA and make it yet another government work project.
When Richard Reeds was found with an explosive device in his shoes the TSA's reaction was that in it's policy of Political Correctness everyone had to take of their shoes before boarding planes. They make your grandmother take of her shoes along with those that actually might fit the profile of a terrorist. The possible terrorist tactic of mixing common liquid components into bombs have prompted the TSA to have us place our products into small carry-on containers in one large plastic bag. This is a small victory for the terrorists. The latest terrorist bomber, Umar Mutallab, had a bomb in his pants. What is the TSA, in their political correctness stragedy, going to make passengers do now in light of this latest event?
The Islamofascists are at war with us, make no qualms about that fact. They are hellbent on their mission to destroy us at all costs and their members all come with the same hate filled ideology. They may have been participating in their form of warfare in a semi-organized fashion but that has proven to be unsuccessful against a more powerful United States. They are now attempting to attack us here at home by their root members in conducting these individual attacks. This is not the time to turn our attention away from our foe but to become more vigilant.
"We have fought them in Iraq in the past, we are fighting them in Afghanistan in the present and we will be fighting them in Yemen in the future", Senator Joe Liberman stated.
No comments:
Post a Comment