December 27, 2009
The Wisdom Fund

Northwest Flight 253: Nigerian (Underwear) Bomber

'Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport'

The purpose of this Commercial and Business Aviation Advisory Circular (CBAAC) is to alert air operators of the potential for in-flight fires caused by the failure of lithium ion and lithium batteries contained in portable laptop computers and other portable electronic devices.-- Potential for In-Flight Fires Due to Lithium Battery Failure

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The suspect in the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 used a highly explosive substance called PETN, . . . 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.--CBS News

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The most obvious use of PETN is as an explosive. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone.--Wikipedia

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The device intended to blow up the Northwest flight was made at the location in Yemen, according to Abdulmutallab, and consisted of a six-inch packet of powder and a syringe with a liquid. Both were sewn into the student's underwear so they would be near his testicles and unlikely to be detected, he told agents.--ABC News

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80 Grams of PETN is roughly the equivalent of ten blasting caps, or 4 Hollywood type blood pack squibs. Yes, if 80 grams of PETN were sewn into the crotch of our "terrorist's" underwear and detonated, it would blow his balls off, but with the shock wave absorbed by his legs, not much more than that. I think this underwear story is being put out to explain how our "terrorist" got past the full body scanners at the Amsterdam airport; by claiming the bomb was concealed behind the man's testicles. But as an explosive, 80 grams of PETN is insufficient to bring down an airplane from the crotch of a traveler's pants! This is simply not a credible story.--Mike Rivero

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I am an electrical engineer by profession for over 30 years, and the description of the explosion sounds just like a faulty battery on a personal electronic device (PED). If the plane was just starting it's descent, it could be he was stowing his device at the time of the explosion (turning it on/off, cabin pressure fluctuations, etc.), a more likely time for the battery to explode if it were faulty. These PED battery explosions are typically "small" and limited in area, consistent with the reported events. . . . Additionally, If he really wanted to blow up the plane, why would he detonate a bomb with the explosive power to only hurt himself ? A pretty dumb terrorist , I would say.--Jim Hattis

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"The guy wasn't fighting or doing anything," Mr. Schilke said. "He was just sitting there in the flames. I was shocked that he would do that." He added that he was surprised at how little panic there was. Many passengers who were farther away thought the pops were from fireworks, he said.--New York Times

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While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. "The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'"--mlive.com [Re Kurt Haskell's boarding pass for NWA Flight 253: Isn't this the part that is collected at boarding? How is it that Haskell still has it?]

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Terrorism is the war of the poor, and War is the terrorism of the rich.--Sir Peter Ustinov

"'Airlines Terror Plot' Disrupted," BBC News, August 10, 2006

"Bush Administration Exploited Terror Plots For Political Gain," Huffington Post, February 23, 2008

Robert Dreyfuss, "Yet Another Bogus 'Terror' Plot," Nation, May 22, 2009

"Yemen: New Frontier in US 'War on Terror'," The Wisdom Fund, December 22, 2009

[This suggests that Yemeni government actions taken at the behest of the U.S. have produced an al-Qaeda that wasn't there before.--Gary Leupp, "Blowback on Flight 253? Eyes on Yemen," counterpunch.org, December 28, 2009]

"Al Qaeda: We Planned Flight 253 Bombing," CBS News, December 28, 2009

"US aware 'Nigerian' prepared for terror attack," BBC News, December 30, 2009

[Instead of the video, we get a statment that the video has been viewed and that the terrorist had a passport. Each of these statements made by the FBI is a self serving play on semantics and each misses the importance of my prior "sharp dressed man" account. The importance being that the man "Tried to board the plane with an accomplice and without a passort". The other significance is that only the airport security video can verify my eyewitness account and that it is not being released.--Aaron Foley, "Flight 253 passenger Kurt Haskell: 'I was visited by the FBI'," mlive.com, December 31, 2009]

Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

"Tarpley : Underwear Bomber 'Establishment Controlled Patsy!'," Alex Jones Show, December 31, 2009

[Smith said the man was handcuffed and escorted to a room where he was interviewed and searched. Nothing was found. The man was not arrested or detained--Jennifer Chambers and Paul Egan, "Customs official confirms report of 2nd man held from Flight 253," detnews.com, January 1, 2009]

[In a CNN News program, passenger Richelle Keepman states, "There was a man that, when we first took off, I noticed about 10 seats ahead of us to the left-hand side. He had a camcorder. I thought maybe this was his first flight and was just excited. And then, when the actual incident occurred, I looked up, and he was the only one standing and filming the entire thing."--Eileen Dannemann, "US-Israeli Complicity in Terror Plots Exposed, Media Cover-Up Flight 253 Plot," ccun.org, January 4, 2010]

David Bedein, "Israeli Security Firm Fails To Stop Passenger From Carrying Explosives On Detroit Flight," thebulletin.us, January 4, 2010

"Scott Horton interviews Kurt Haskell," antiwar.com, January 6, 2010

Patrick Martin, "The airplane bomb plot: Obama continues the cover-up," WSWS, January 8, 2010

Scott Creighton, "Umar Fizzlepants Update Including a Picture of the 'Burned' Seat," willyloman.wordpress.com, January 9, 2010

Ray McGovern, "Answering Helen Thomas on Why They Want to Harm Us," CommonDreams.org, January 9, 2010

[. . . the Associated Press reported January 4, that British authorities began assembling a security file on Abdulmutallab shortly after his arrival the UK in 2005 when officials claimed he was in contact with "known radicals."--Tom Burghardt, "Flight 253: Anatomy of a Cover-Up," Global Research, January 11, 2010]

[Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would've foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.

Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with--Nathan Hurst, "Terror suspect kept visa to avoid tipping off larger investigation," Detroit News, January 27, 2010]

[Could the SDM have been a U.S. Government official? He dressed in a suit and not a security uniform. Check. He indicated we do this all the time. Could "we" be the U.S. Government? Check. He spoke English with an American accent. Check. Would he need to convince the ticket agent that this was a normal procedure to allow boarding without a passport? Check. Would he have the ability to obtain such clearance? Check. Could he enter this security area even though he wasn't a passenger? Check. Would the ticket agent likely refer this request to a manager? Check. Would the U.S. Government not want this information public and try to hide it? Check. . . .

On January 20, 2010, current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Michael E. Leiter, made a startling admission. Leiter indicated that: "I will tell you, that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another." . . .

Janet Napolitano's statement that "The System Worked." From her point of view it probably did as this WAS PART OF THE SYSTEM!--Kurt Haskell, "The Truth About Flight 253 Has Been Revealed," lewrockwell.com, February 2, 2010]

[Had the 23-year-old Nigerian set off his bomb, it would have been a nightmare for the people on board, and a tragedy for those who knew them. It would certainly have represented a safety and security issue that needed to be dealt with. But it would not have been a national emergency, nor a national-security crisis.--Tom Engelhardt, "This is not a national emergency," antiwar.com, February 15, 2010]

[A Michigan college student who sat next to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab . . . says that Abdulmutallab mostly slept and listened to music during the flight and seemed surprised when asked about the smoke that apparently came from under his blanket.--"Accused Christmas Bomber Listened to Music, Slept," NPR, February 17, 2010]

[Captain J Joseph, an air accident investigator, and Dr Wyatt both concluded that the quantity of explosive used was nowhere near enough needed to rupture the skin of a passenger plane.--"Christmas Day terror plot plane would have landed safely even if 'underpants' bomb had blown up ," Daily Mail, March 5, 2010]

[The 'trained terrorist' will be tied to a huge network of idiots and dupes, all working in the region along the Afghani/Pakistan border, an area where India, and their Israeli friends, really do train terrorists who kill hundreds with real bombs in Pakistan.--Gordon Duff, "Times Square 'Fizzler,' Israel's 'Crotch Bomber' Redux," Veterans Today, May 5, 2010]

[Since he left public service in 2009, Chertoff co-founded the Chertoff Group, a security and risk-management firm, whose clients include a manufacturer of full-body scanning machines. After a young Nigerian without a passport - the so-called Christmas Day "underwear bomber" - was allowed, in the words of Ha'aretz, to "slip through" security at Schiphol Airport by the Israeli security firm, ICTS International (which was established by former members of Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet), the former Homeland Security chief was all over the mainstream media touting full-body scanners as the answer to America's airline security problems.--Maidhc O Cathail, "Pro- Israelis turning U.S. into Islamophobic Police State," mediamonitors.net, June 10, 2011]