catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:05 am Post subject: 'Underwear bomber' pleads guilty in airline attack |
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Nigerian man pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to blow up an international flight for al-Qaeda with a bomb in his underwear, taking a federal court in Detroit by surprise on the second day of his trial.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab answered questions from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder.
Abdulmutallab, who told the judge he is 25, said he carried a bomb onto Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in his underwear on Christmas 2009 with the intention of killing the nearly 300 people on board. The bomb didn't work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire.
"Are you therefore pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?" Edmunds asked.
"That's right, yes," Abdulmutallab replied.
He told the courtroom that the bomb was a "blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims."
"I intended to wreck a U.S. aircraft for the U.S. wreckage of Muslim lands and property," Abdulmutallab said.
Edmunds reviewed the charges and possible penalties with Abdulmutallab before he entered his pleas, including that he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
Prosecutors' evidence was stacked high. Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaeda and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen.
There are also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S.
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Just curious to see how the conspiracy theorists will try and spin this one. |
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