Terrorist attack foiled aboard U.S. jetliner

I saw on the news that if the terrorist had been able to detonate his bomb, he would have done so over Southern Ontario. :shock:
 
kokonut said:
Again, I look toward the Obama administration for answers.
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so far.....

Obama orders review of flight screenings
President Obama has ordered a review of security screening processes after Friday's botched terror attack on a U.S. airliner, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

Appearing on the ABC program "This Week" and the NBC program "Meet the Press," Gibbs said Obama is receiving regular briefings by his national security staff on the incident in which a suspect allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, making its final approach to Detroit, Michigan.
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Obama also called for "a review to ... figure out why an individual with the chemical explosive he had on him could get on a plane in Amsterdam and fly into the United States," Gibbs said on NBC.

"The president is very confident that this government is taking the steps that are necessary to take our fight to those who seek to do us harm," Gibbs said on the ABC program.
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good to see our President taking immediate action to demand explanation for this security lapse despite of him being on vacation in Hawaii.

BTW - don't forget that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father notified US Embassy about his son's delusional plot.
 
More information about explosive device that this terrorist was carrying -

Explosive on Flight 253 Is Among Most Powerful
Sewn into the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a powerful plastic explosive, the authorities say.

Had Mr. Abdulmutallab, sitting in seat 19A of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday from Amsterdam to Detroit, been able to set off the explosive, it might have blown a hole in the side of the airplane and caused it to crash, experts believe.

Mr. Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian citizen, was charged in a federal criminal complaint on Saturday with the willful attempt to destroy an aircraft with an explosive device.

The complaint identified the explosive as pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.

Introduced after World War I, PETN is in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin and among the most powerful of explosives. It was the same explosive that Richard C. Reid tried to detonate in his shoes during an American Airlines flight in December 2001.

But one characteristic of PETN is that it does not easily detonate, and that apparently thwarted Mr. Abdulmutallab, officials said. Dropping it or setting it on fire will not typically detonate it, explosive experts said.

Usually, a shock wave from a blasting cap or an exploding wire detonator is needed to set off PETN. Mr. Abdulmutallab was reported to have used a syringe to try to inject a liquid into the explosive.

“It sounds like he was trying to cause a chemical reaction that would initiate it, and that didn’t work out so well,” said Jimmie C. Oxley, an explosives expert and professor of chemistry at the University of Rhode Island.

Some passengers aboard Flight 253 said they heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled a burning odor and observed Mr. Abdulmutallab’s pants leg and a wall of the airplane on fire. Passengers and crew members subdued Mr. Abdulmutallab and used blankets and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, according to the criminal complaint.

“A passenger stated that he observed Abdulmutallab holding what appeared to be a partially melted syringe, which was smoking,” the complaint said. “The passenger took the syringe from Abdulmutallab, shook it to stop it from smoking and threw it to the floor of the aircraft.”

F.B.I. agents recovered what appeared to be the remnants of a syringe from near Mr. Abdulmutallab’s seat, officials said, but the agency has not said what it suspects was in the syringe.

Dr. Oxley said it was conceivable that the contents of the syringe were sufficient to set off the PETN. “I’ve been thinking about it,” she said. “I know what I would do now, but I’m not going to tell you.”

In Mr. Reid’s shoe bombs, in 2001, a highly unstable explosive known as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, was the detonator for the PETN, but Mr. Reid failed to set it off when he was unable to light the fuse. But TATP is a solid, so it is unlikely that that was the substance in Mr. Abdulmutallab’s syringe, Dr. Oxley said.
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while it sounds pretty scary.... please understand that this method has failed not just once but TWICE. why? because of stringent security protocols in place and despite of security lapses, both of terrorists lack proper tools needed to detonate it. BOTH plots have failed TWICE because the tools needed to accomplish this heinous acts are nearly impossible to acquire and to pass thru security checkpoints.

Do not be scared. Do not worry.
 
So far there have been 32 terror-related “events” on US soil since 9/11 but in one single year there were 12 attacks that occurred in 2009.


2009 saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.
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Read more: Domestic Terror Incidents Hit a Peak in 2009 - TIME



Could it be terrorists are taking advantage of Obama seeing him as weak on terrorism?
 
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and people - let's not forget. This flight originated from Amsterdam which was bound for Detroit. Amsterdam has the most full-body scanners in the world. So the big question is - how did Dutch airport security checkpoint miss this? How did European counter-terrorism unit miss this?

The American government is not responsible for European's security. The ultimate fault in responsibility belies on Amsterdam's airport security.
 
Mod note:

Ft. Hood shootings is unrelated to the title of the thread here and has nothing to do with this article. Make a new thread as you wish.

:ty:
 
Jiro said:
PETN is the bomb - like TNT, C4, and Semtex.


no idea and most likely not enough to down the plane. It is not easy to obtain enough amount to blow up a vehicle.
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I found other webpage

It says:
The device allegedly used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab involved a syringe and a soft plastic container filled, reportedly, with 80g of PETN. The remnants of the bomb are being analysed in an FBI laboratory.

A little more than 100g of PETN could destroy a car.
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80g of PETN can be enough to destroy a whole airline??
 
Chevy57 said:
I found other webpage

It says:


80g of PETN can be enough to destroy a whole airline??
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the forensics scientists are working on that. They're going to try to replicate Mutallab's method in the laboratory and then we'll know the result.

an interesting article here.
"Why didn't he go to the toilets to detonate the bomb? Why would he try to set it off 20 minutes before he's going to land? It could probably have been successful had the person not been amateurish. I think this is a sign that it's much more difficult now for al-Qa'ida to pull off something serious."

Chaim Koppel, a security consultant, added: "I think the explosive was supposed to go bang rather than just start a fire. The terrorists probably didn't mix it well enough. Maybe they didn't do enough practice runs, but the more the guy is trained, the more exposed he is to MI5, MI6, the FBI and other security agencies, so he probably didn't receive enough training."
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Jiro said:
the forensics scientists are working on that. They're going to try to replicate Mutallab's method in the laboratory and then we'll know the result.

an interesting article here.
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I wish that video surveillance equipment should be installed in airlines' toliets.
 
Chevy57 said:
I wish that video surveillance equipment should be installed in airlines' toliets.
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I rather not. I mean c'mon..... how did this man smooth-talk his way into the plane with no passport? Dutch airport ticket agent was insane enough to allow him so. Could not believe the manager bought Mutallab's sob story as Sudanese refugee. :roll:

This would never happen in America and Canada. :crazy:
 
Jiro said:
I rather not. I mean c'mon..... how did this man smooth-talk his way into the plane with no passport? Dutch airport ticket agent was insane enough to allow him so. Could not believe the manager bought Mutallab's sob story as Sudanese refugee. :roll:

This would never happen in America and Canada. :crazy:
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It is what we will find out soon or later. It is no excuse for them to allow that guy take aboard the plane with no passport.
 
Royale said:
It is what we will find out soon or later. It is no excuse for them to allow that guy take aboard the plane with no passport.
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I don't like that he took aboard the plane without passport. Dutch agents are stupid!
 
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