Terrorist Attack on U. S. Plane

From: Stratfor

In an incident aboard a Northwest Airlines flight arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam, a passenger identified as a 23-year-old Nigerian male attempted to detonate some form of explosive or ignite an incendiary compound as the plane was landing.

Initial reports stated that the suspect had attempted to ignite fireworks from his seat, but it was later painted as a more serious attempt and the U.S. government is now calling it an attempted terrorist attack.

The plane landed safely. The suspect claimed to be linked to al Qaeda and to have received the explosives or incendiary compound from al Qaeda operatives from Yemen.

The suspect was identified as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, an engineering student at University College London.

A member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said Abdulmutallab’s name was not on any U.S. terrorist watch lists but was “hot” on other terrorism-related databases kept by intelligence officials.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said the White House is viewing the incident as a serious threat.



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