Lagos — [NOTE: The plane from Amsterdam to Detroit was Northwest Airlines Flight 253, operated by Delta Airlines.]

The young man, who yesterday night attempted to ignite an explosive device aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan in the United States has been identified as Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, former First Bank chairman. Mutallab, a former minister and prominent banker recently retired from the bank's board.

The older Mutallab, as at the time of filing this report, had just left his Katsina hometown for Abuja to speak with security agencies, family sources say. According to the family members, Mutallab has been uncomfortable with the boy's extreme religious views and had six months ago reported his activities to United States' Embassy, Abuja and Nigerian security agencies.

The older Mutallab was said to be devastated on hearing the news of Abdul Farouk's attempted bombing arrest. A source close to him said he was surprised that after his reports to the US authorities, the young man was allowed to travel to the United States.

So I'm going to have to say it certainly isn't the kid who's hungry for this publicity... and "lucky" his bomb was a dud, ain't it?

Agent 99 @ 1

BOO YAH!

Obama took a lot of blowback from escalating in Afghanistan...This "attempted terrorist" act seems just too coincidental to be organic...It smelled from the first time I heard about it.

99 the link in your comment says it all...

by the way...the mainstream media are the real terrorists...the local news here (I'm a metro Detroiter) is hysterical...it's laughable.

A wise man once said...
"The only way to defeat terrorism is to not be terrified."

Will someone relay that message to the media ?

Also...

The suspect has been linked to Yeman...

It can't be long before we're bombing and occupying Yeman...

Well...we're already bombing Yeman...troops on the ground can't be far behind...Soon Iran will be surrounded.

They love it when a plan comes together you know...

Yuh. We were just not riled enough for the War on Terra lately.

I have to say, if the reports of the passengers jumping on this guy are true, it bears out what I said on 9/12/01; to wit: There will never be another American who just sits there scared while somebody tries to hijack a plane again. And I think that's turned out to be true. I think all this freaking we think is going on is really just the same hype as with Ashcroft/Ridge color coded alerts.

So, well, we better run for the duct tape now.

I'd be a lot less sceptical if this crap didn't happen 'as if on cue' during low points of a failed administration...
hire/hypnotise/hype some bozo into some crazy scheme that can't really work then tighten the screws on everyone a little more.. repeat..

oddly US authorities were not interested in his fathers' warnings and did not place him on the No Fly list that your Aunt Petunia is on for trying to bring fruitcakes into Hoboken last year..

very convenient timing for a giant Media Terror Shield for a corruption laden (see Rahm for more details) administration's end of year boondoggles is all.. just in time for parts of the onerous patriot act to be renewed as well... just a coincidence I'm sure.. there are no crooks in our honorable political system I'm sure. they'd be voted out of office! yeah..

@99, From what I have read, it was some Dutch guys that did the jumping... I may be wrong, and an American or two were in there.
I would also like to have it cleared up as to if the actual explosive vile was taped on the skin or was under the skin which I have also read.

BlueHawk doesn't read Chris Floyd.

http://www.chris-floyd.c...its-own-terror-icon.html

We've had boots on the ground as well as a proxy army in Yemen for over a decade.

It was our disruptive presence in Yemen that opened the door for Al-Queda years ago.

DAN-IN-PA @7

The U.S. has had boots on the ground in Germany, The Phillipines, Saudi Arabia and S. Korea for years too...but I wouldn't exactly called them occupations...

The troops already on the ground in Yeman just went up a level or two with this "terrorist" act...
They'll start kicking in doors, rounding up and jailing young men and getting family members too snitch on each other for a few bucks...
Human rights in Yeman just went to hell...

The bombing in Yeman now won't be so covert...

DAN-IN-PA @7

Also...I went to the link you provided...It's outstanding writing and reporting.

Yes, Chris Floyd is scary good....

"It was our disruptive presence in Yemen that opened the door for Al-Queda years ago."

BlueHawk#8 - Human rights in Yemen have been pretty much "in hell" for a long time now.

But this isn't about terrorism. For the media, it's about selling a story. Nobody got trampled to death at a WalMart on black Friday this year, so it was a bit of a downer.

Oh, and guns. This is about selling guns and bombs. (And us paying for them, gotta justify the Pentagon budget.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/...ki/Human_rights_in_Yemen

So this is rather a good place for us to be, no? We could have success here like we're having in Afghanistan? And maybe Uzbekistan next. Or Nigeria, this young lad certainly gives us an "in".

Nigeria! Think of the oil! I'm giddy.

Soul Rebel and DAN-IN-PA...

Absolutely agreed on both your points...

I read this Glenn Greenwald article the other day, on Yemen - USA actions...

Great comments. Gryphon, BlueHawk and 99: yours resonate particularly strong w/ me.

This New Yorker marvels, still, at this strange human tide: those closest to terror are the least afraid. After leaving New York for Florida in 2005, I was shocked - SHOCKED - to see how the rest of the country was reacting to Sept.11th.
I had no idea. I was living in an urban bubble of heroes.

And frankly, after the kind of supremely human showing I saw from my neighbors, friends, and strangers in NYC in the endless, burning, sooty days and weeks and months after the attacks - I found (Florida's) fear not only irrational, but utterly shameful. A slap in the face to our honored dead. (Same people who sing "home of the brave" so loud at the ballpark you wanna douse them with suds; same ones freakin' out that the terrorists are gonna bombing BRADENTON.)

So, we fire all our military translators who know Farsi / Arabic for being gay, dismantle our counter intelligence operations, super-fund the murdering U.S. contractors operating well outside the rule of law, prop up our corrupt C.I.A. backed regime du jour, and allow the random acts of so-called extremist rebels to take a few American lives here and there to keep us all (Florida-type) afraid enough to justify our illegal wars and (great line:)
"put Aunt Petunia on the no fly list for trying to bring fruitcakes into Hoboken..."

Righto, 99. This isn't "The Accidental Terr'ist".
Wasn't then, isn't now, probably won't be next time, either.

Shortbus

So maybe it's my Dutch blood, that makes me think my fellow Americans would take out anyone who started to be a terrorist near them, no matter what, no matter if it cost their lives. Or my indian blood. Or my Portuguese. Or my German. It really could be that everyone, everywhere, and for all time, over the last sixty years or so, has been braver and saner than us Old Glory hypnotized chubsters. Maybe that will be the silver lining from the hurt the plutocrats are putting on us again: That it will wake us from our sated stupor and we'll start acting like true humans again, to each other and to everyone else.

I think the Muslim terrorism thing started up in ernest in the seventies... and Paris was their main meeting ground. I think by the eighties there wasn't an "honest" terrorist left anywhere. If they weren't CIA or Mossad, or whatever other intelligence agency, they were rubes who'd been brought in by them. And I think right up to this very now the only ones who aren't "us" are the ones who've lost so much from our pillage that they want with all their hearts to blow themselves up where it might hurt us the most... or the ones who are so altruistic that the losses of the little people hurt them enough to make them act.

Whatever. It's 100% evident that a decent world to live in obviates any thoughts of terrorism by anyone, but that is NEVER the approach taken by the people in charge.

Dan

I changed yer Chris link to the subject piece so that anyone hitting it late wouldn't be confused by whatever was the top post by then.

Oh, and to Brad's deep tweets broader but very much related point (btw, isn't 'tweet' spelled 'twiit'? Maybe not, I've seen it spelled both ways. Not sure if the Oxford English Dictionary people have weighed in, yet) -
how 'BOUT that 24/7 wall to wall coverage of how to better blow up stuff - because Lord knows we the viewers are all mature, not-crazy people.
Not to mention, there's all kinds of media accountability in place for going over and over, in great detail, how to blow people up right.

Am I crazy, or was there a brief window of time when every red-blooded AND blue-blooded American, INCLUDING the members of the amoral corporate media, refrained from going all bread-n'-circusy on this stuff for the sake of national security interests? And...dare I say - out of basic human decency? Weren't they bombed into being better people for a tiny, eentsy moment or two like the rest of us? Or is it just that they have de-evolved so dramatically, so fast?

Sept 11, 2002: I remember I saw CNN use the (now mundane) graphic BREAKING NEWS with five exclamation points as their bottom-screen scroll.
It was, at the time, a departure from their normal, measured tone and it did the job of getting my rapt attention. Turned out it was some
story about gardening.

Watching it from a bar at Ground Zero, I remember being legitimately perturbed: "how can they get away with that shit, today of all days?"

Now that "BREAKING NEWS!!!!" is the modern day media norm, I just don't believe them, anymore.

Jeannie

I'm gonna have to go with the faaaaast devolution theory.....

I think the too comfortable become as feral as the too deprived too quickly, and just about all we have left in America are the too comfortable and the too deprived. Many of the too comfortable are certain they are too deprived....

The "Dutch guy who did the subduing" is now asking for hard cash for more media interviews after learning CNN paid for a CELL PHONE image of his heroics from another passenger:

http://www.huffingtonpos...a-northwes_n_404247.html

HA! Now THAT's truly heroic!

As long as they're getting a bagillion bucks to make a circus out of him, why the hell not?

Bluehawk: "... Also... The suspect has been linked to Yeman... It can't be long before we're bombing and occupying Yeman..."

Senator Joe is on the job:
"Lieberman: The United States Must Pre-Emptively Act In Yemen"

http://www.huffingtonpos...nited-stat_n_404241.html

I'd like to see a MSM reporter pull all of the covert incursions into various mid-east countries into one article and contrast it to the metastasizing debacle of the Vietnam war. We've been here before and we know it doesn't end well. The Taliban is this generation's Pol Pot- the murderous, totalitarian regime that moves in to fill the void left in a destabilized nation, only the front is more broad this time. This is Vietnam redux, just as stupid, just as poorly handled, only longer and more expensive. Someone needs to hammer home that point. I'd think it would be a natural for a story.

May I shamelessly pander for votes for this years American Bar Association blog of the year in the IMHO category? If you watch TV you've seen Johnathan Turley. He has a blawg. It's in the running in the IMHO category. You have to sign up with the site (but they don't bother you afterward) and then vote. I figure any 'reward' an advocate for the First Amendment and trials for administration torturers can get is cool. You know me, I'd cast my lot with Satan if he wanted to prosecute the architect's of the American torture policy

http://www.abajournal.com/blawg100/2009/imho

Brad, If my posting is inappropriate please accept my apologies and remove this posting.

Shortbus

Abdulmutallab is alleged to have carried the explosive in condom-like pouches attached to his body.

From a piece an hour old supposed to be about the NEXT Nigerian hiding in the bathroom on the same route, today, and would almost seem to answer your question above about whether the explosive/incendiary was in or on his person. [Of course, it's from the AP and so we have to keep wondering what it is they're actually telling us. Only sometimes does it amount to fact... lately.]

This is getting all the way out of hand.

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.

Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.

Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.

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.'”

Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

So, now, they're feeding us this cock and bull to try to—what?—get TSA stormtroopers in every airport on earth? At first blush it looks so meaty for us "conspiracy theorists", but, well, ahem. Give. Me. A. Break.

When I saw this 1st reported I had the following questions that I still think deserve to be asked.

1. Why no box cutters? What's with deviating from the 9-11 Arab hijacker program.

The reason that people believe the corp mass media version/Philip Zelicow authored 9-11 Commission Report cover-up that there was Arab hijackers using BOX CUTTERS on 9-11 as weapons was because of 1 person. A man who reversed his testimony a few times but who ultimately claimed he was talking to his wife on a cell phone on the plane that was downed in Pennsylvania.

Even the possibility of phone communication has been called into question at the altitude of the jet but I ain't an expert on telecommunication to form an opinion.

Also the crash site was ONLY a piece of scorched earth in a field missing characteristic plane parts such as wings, engines, luggage, and body parts. For example, UNLESS the airbus was SHOT OUT OF THE SKY in which debris would be scattered over the distance of a mile, this CANNOT BE EXPLAINED EITHER.

2. Did the hijacker just plan to blow up an airbus without flying it into say the newly rebuilt World Trade Tower Building #7? To recollect your memories, 47 story WTT building #7 was the 3rd steel concrete structure that collapsed into it's own footprint 7 hours after the Towers 1 and 2, 7 hours later in 6.5 seconds although not hit by an airplane. Like in the case of the twin towers, nano-thermate cutter charge particle signature has been positively identified in a peer reviewed by Professor Steven Jones. The complete evidence to support controlled demolition for the 3 WTT skyscrapers can be examined at www.ae911truth.org.

3. As how he got on the plane is already been asked, was his name on the plane's flight list? It seems that while the US Corporate mass media new the names of the 19 hijackers involved, they sure as hell didn't get them off flight lists. Not only were there no Arab sounding names, these people were missing as it turns out some of these hijacker were discovered to be alive in other countries. Whoops! Even prior to 9-11, airlines have always been good at counting heads.

3. So if this hijacker is discovered to be from Saudi Arabia, does that mean US leadership can bomb, attack, and occupy a different nation other than the hijacker's national origin in the name of national security and preserving the American way of life?

White Alqaida is going down 2010.

Who is Kurt Sonnenfeld?

Came across this article today about this FEMA videographer who was curously immediately called to ground zero prior to the 2nd plane even hitting on 9-11-2001.

He recently wrote a book as a whistleblower now since he had discovered a lot more evidence he witnessed as well observations about how things were handled at Ground Zero that connected the dots about the US government's involvement at the highest levels with this attack.

Having to hide out in another country, he is another example of a brave Patriot putting his life on the line to get the truth out about these lying greedy monsters responsibel before they do another 9-11 or attack another country "that hates us because of our Democracy."

Here is the interview.

Do not bother clicking on this link if you religiously believe that hijacked jet planes were solely responsible for the 2 non-traditional bombing demolitions of both 110 story World Trade Tower skyscrapers into dust in under 10 seconds.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article160636.html

Grizz, this is not a 9/11 thread.

How was he able to get explosives on the plane?

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, (I-Conn) a renowned hawk and one of the foremost champions of the invasion of Iraq, warned on Sunday that the United States faced “danger” unless it pre-emptively acts to curb the rise of terrorism in Yemen.

http://attackerman.fired...vasion-cant-solve-right/

I have a really big question: why is Joe Lieberman consulted on everything from health care to attacking Yemen and always on TV?

WHO is responsible for Joe Lieberman being on TV all the time? And why?

For someone that no one likes, he's rushed onto TV for his expert opinion on every single issue.

Does anyone else find this extremely strange???

Bernie Sanders is an independent and so is Joe Lieberman. Why isn't Bernie Sanders on TV all the time like Joe Lieberman? Why are the people running ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN shutting out Bernie Sanders but shoving Joe Lieberman down our throats?

Comment30: Who is responsible for these hijackings? We don't know FOR SURE, but we best take a damn good look.

Yes 99, this IS NOT a 9-11 blog. That being said, it appears that hijacked aircraft is re-ocurring again in this country for the 1st time since the 9-11 attack. Anyone Suspicious?

The Philip Zelicow authored 9-11 Commission Report is the official government version supporting the tale of 19 hijackers carrying out the 9-11 attacks for their man Bin Laden. The WTT building #7 skyscraper 6.5 second implosion collapse was not included in the 700 pg document. The US Corporate Mass Media of course mirrored the government version of 9-11 and coincidently did not show the 47 story WTT building #7 controlled demolition at all after that day. Nothing to see here.

You can at least agree that a long list of both legal and illegal actions and policies have ocurred by top US leader of Bush government with the excuse of the 9-11 attack and fight the new war.. the war on terror.

No longer fighting a country, the Executive branch is now declaring war and deciding how many US soldiers with be sent to fight these wars. FYI, it is actually the legislative branch that has the explicite power to declare war so how Bush or Commander In Chief Obama can make that decision is beyond me.

Back to my point, to people like me that do not accept the cover-up version of 9-11 and think that these greedy lying killers are still in fact running the US government, there is reason for concern.

The CIA has had a license to assassinate and has carry out covert military actions for years although the secretive gov agency DOES NOT like this to ever be reported even by their Corp mas media machine unless spun to their benefit. WTT Building #7 was the largest office of the CIA on the East Coast. It also housed offices of the FBI, Securities and Exchange, as well as a remodeled floor for then NYC Mayor Giuliani.

So, again, people like me who have been paying some attention to the work of these lying monsters, thinks we need to go back and see what we know about the last time Arab hijackers were flying the friendly skies and compare some notes.

After the US Corporate Mass Media spends a few days and months perhaps driving nails in the coffins about the recent flurry of hijackings, I think we prepare for the worst from these Illumini/CIA/FBI/BUSHIT LEFT-OVERS still running the ship.

[ed note: I don't know why this comment got dumped into the moderation queue, but, again, THIS ISN'T A 9/11 THREAD. You can talk about what's happening now and how it might relate back to 9/11, but filling up the thread with the rest of 9/11 is just a drag for people trying to explore THIS topic. This kid wasn't hijacking jack. At most he was trying to blow up a plane full of people on Christmas, but maybe not even that. And almost every "comment" you EVER make is 9/11 and spamming for AE911... nearly FIFTY times. This is BRAD'S blog. If he wanted to talk about 9/11 constantly, he'd be doing that, not you. —99]

[ANOTHER ed note: I mean, crikey! Even in THIS post, where you're trying to relate it, you just can't hold back from pasting in about Building 7, ADVERTISING, and so just cut it the hell out. If you want to increase awareness via BRAD's blog, just put in yer sacred link in the homepage field and anyone who likes what you have to say on OTHER topics will click through and find it THAT way. OR start your own 9/11 blog. But just quit using this place for your own ends. PLEASE. I can't be continually letting you do this stuff while stifling others on their pet causes. —99]

What's overlooked in the box cutter question, and is extremely relevant to the current airline events, is that passengers are now quite willing to kill hijackers/bombers or die trying... because the passengers are now aware that they will be killed regardless.

This is what has prevented further attempts at replicating 9/11... not the TSA's increasingly nonsensical restrictions.

And BTW... the powers that be are not pleased with the concept of civilians, especially American civilians, being willing to fight back and die if need be.

But they can't overtly forbid such actions without tipping their hand. Thus you can expect even more humiliating bullshit from the TSA as they try to get the civvies properly reconditioned.

I can't believe people haven't stormed the capitol over people looking at them naked just to get on a plane! It was quite enough to have the pre-9/11 precautions and lock up the cockpits... leave the rest to the people on the planes. Instead we are increasingly immobilized and subjugated, and if we don't stay fearful enough we gotta keep getting these asshole reminders.

What I'm wondering at this moment is if it's being done to help shove Obama to full throttle, or just to keep us ripe for the fascistic erasure of the Bill of Rights in progress. On the one hand, it's beginning to seem to me as though Obama is everywhere they want him to be, everywhere they want something, but maybe that's just them and Obama is the hapless "victim" of his own hubris... less even a puppet than Dubya was... just more of a... well... slave....

Okay. Sorry, Grizz, please read my notes in your comment above and I'll let you back through when you're back on the subject.

Really. I'm sorry.

Big Dan, Why is Lieberman...

Because someone in the administration wants him there. This is not the first time there have been drone attacks in Yemen- one of the plotters of the Cole attack was killed in a drone attack in Yemen 2002:

"The Drone War"
"A year later, one of the suspected planners of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, Abu Ali Al Harethi, was killed by a drone in Yemen--the first such strike outside of Afghanistan.
http://www.newamerica.ne...les/2009/drone_war_13672

Also:
ABC news reported on 18 December that the President ordered drone strikes against al Qaeda in Yemen.

"Yemen and Updates"
December 20, 2009 Now Public (which reprinted the ABC News article.):
"Along with the two U.S. cruise missile attacks, Yemen security forces carried out raids in three separate locations. As many as 120 people were killed in the three raids, according to reports from Yemen, and opposition leaders said many of the dead were innocent civilians."
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/yemen-and-updates

al Qaeda and Taliban allies have been under drone attack in Pakistan for awhile, Bush stepped up the attacks in the last year of his Presidency. Now al Qaeda and their allies are moving back and forth through Yemen, Somalia and the Pakistani border regions. Drones are the administration's weapon of choice in Pakistan and Obama has stepped up their use dramatically and is considering their use in Pakistan cities now. Drone attacks in Yemen and (IMO) Somalia are the next front .

"US to expand drone attacks into Pakistani cities
Mon, 14 Dec 2009:
"the CIA confirmed on Saturday that US security contractor Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, has been helping the agency to launch the attacks from within Pakistan. ... The new revelations also contradicted earlier US assertions that the notorious private security company does not operate in Pakistan."
http://www.presstv.ir/de...&sectionid=351020401

Having Congressional pressure to expand the use of drones into Yemen will give them legitimacy. That's Joe's job, Joe and any other Senators Joe can get to jump on the bandwagon. It seems to me that the expansion of the 'war' into Yemen should be a matter for Congressional action/approval, not just their appearance on TV to encourage the President to take some expansive military action. This is laying the groundwork for an expanded war without any Congressional oversight.

Rick Rozoff wrote a good article a couple of weeks ago. I wish I could say his timing wasn't too good, but...looks like the Global war for peace will continue.

PS-Grizzly,
Here apparently is not the place but...Keep up the interest in 9/11. Kurt is an interesting story, which opens up WTC6. And that is another large unknown in a sea of unknowns. Be careful...Stay away from Jack White material if you ask me...There are a couple very obvious discrepancies, stick to what you can prove yourself, if you asked me again.

I am a 9/11 Truther. Here is the place when and as it applies, or on open threads, which admittedly are almost never, but it gets to the point where people just SWITCH OFF when there's a bunch of comments full of promos for 9/11 Truth sites. Grizz has gone crazy determined about it to the point where he's breaking rule number five. I can't just keep letting him do it, hoping he'll cool it before too many people get too mad, and I oughta be able to remind him and have him get the idea he's carrying it too far, that's all.

This kid and, turns out a couple others about as successful, seems to me to have hooked up with someone who gave him some bad information about the efficacy of PETN... got him just enough to burn his crotch... so there could be a sensational arrest and conviction.

If his father, thinking, no doubt, that he was keeping his son from getting in trouble, bothered to notify our embassy that the kid was scary intense behind Islam, that would have notified the go-to guy for stupid failures in terrorist attempts... possibly even the Stupid Failures in Terrorism Agency wing of DHS. They found him. They told him he could sew PETN into his shorts and blow up himself and a plane full of people spectacularly over some big American city on Christmas. He went for it.

Or, there's some joker running around in terrorist circles with these "brilliant" plans and no notion of how much of the stuff is actually needed to carry it off... doesn't learn from past failures.

Anyway, given the ridiculous number of "terrorists" who turn out to have been coached heavily by our law enforcement and intelligence agency people, and the lameness of this failure, the most plausible explanation is that the kid was set up for it. He may well have been very willing and only needed the means.

And, actually, dragging 9/11 into it only muddles it and makes it seem like it's a much bigger threat, feeds the whole purpose of doing it to begin with: to keep Americans scared enough to hand over all their rights for "security".

I have the utmost respect for YOU Brad but I will no longer read this blog because of hot headed, control freak 99.
Talk about "filling up the thread" !!

I will still send any info I find regarding election machines.

aka GWN #41 - that would be "kontrol freak." Aside from that, I really wish the US would refrain from using cowardly drone attacks. Had there actually bee 19 bad Arabs on 9/11, as the catechism we hear repeated ad nauseum would have it, then at least they would have been brave enough to lay their own lives down. I know I'd be some pissed off if a funeral procession in my mountainous, poverty-stricken village were slaughtered by a bunch of spoiled illeterates in central Florida playing video games. Talk about recruiting terr'ists! This is not the America I grew up in. It stinks out loud. I want my money back, not to mention the four years I gave their killing machine!!!

"illeterates"? Ouch!

aka GWN @41

That "control freak" you refer to is actually a moderator doing her job son....

You see the Detroit flight story is actually important enough to have it's own thread and stay on topic...you wanting to drag that story into another topic is actually quite selfish ...some would even call it narcissistic...

Here's hoping you cool off and realize that the world isn't all about what pleases you.

Perhaps...since this is our first "real almost 9/11 again" incident since Richard Reid tried to blow his foot off...and since I find GBD's comments relevant to this incident (though separate) (and likely others do also)...perhaps we can have an open thread? I think it's been a while. A New Year's present for those of us interested in having the discussion?

This is not called 99-blog.

If your spirit was floating around after your death by an act of war carried out by people in your own country against it's own citizenry and who then perpetuate a cover-up of this crime blaming someone else responsible, SOMEONE OF ARAB DECENT FROM A DIFFERENT COUNTY WHO HIJACKS AND BLOWS UP PLANES, then you WOULD shine a little differently.

Who did it?
Who did it?

Why they do it?
Why they do it?

What's "our" response?

The private wealthy few in control who may or may not have planned the recent hijackings will now give "THEIR" response that represents U again and continues killing in the name of your spirit, taking money out of your family's pocket to pay for more death and re-directing those funds exactly how they wanted to.

You think you are some king of anti-war intellectual but you are proven to just be another useless pawn censuring and limiting free speech now at Bradblog. When the bastards who own your ace figure out how to take this constitutional right away in this country completely, probably in response to some act of terrorism they create, then maybe you could get a job with them.

Bluehawk: So what do you know about these recent hijackings except what you heard by corp mass media story or people's opinions of the corp media story? What do you know about the last actual hijacking story in this country that occurred on 9-11? Only Bullshit because that's what the whole official story is.

To think it is selfish to talk about the actual events on that day that we now know incriminates the same people who's interests run your country has absolute relevance in a thread about more hijackings that have occurred.

I can accept that. This would be a place to gain scientific information about the truth so justice can occur and Americans and world people can make informed decisions.

The outcome of the last quote terrorist hijacking are still in full swing. US military response costs at least 1 million per soldier per year, robbing the entire US treasury, and your tax dollars. That is only 1 strong example.

At least we now we know what is being hijacked?

IT WASN'T A HIJACKING!

GWN

Great! But I have a BETTER idea. WHY DON'T YOU MODERATE THE BRAD BLOG INSTEAD OF ME? Please.

9/11truthers and this current Detroit incident...

The 9/11truthers already have a head of steam and plenty of info out there...If I remember correctly Agent 99 simply asked that you all stay on topic and post links; not long monologues about 9/11.

This Detroit 'incident' has a whole other set of ramifications and information that needs to be heard...the 9/11truther info on this thread just muddies the waters for those looking to explore the Detroit situation...

In short it may be running off folks that thought they could get some insight from Bradblog into the Detroit flight situation...if all they see is 9/11truther stuff then they'll label Bradblog simply a 9/11truther blog...Not a comprehensive site that covers many issues.

Thanks BlueHawk. That was pretty much the general idea. Plus, certain people grinding only one axe, or only coming to spew when they're drunk, or just really only coming to blog whore, or ever only linking to their own stuff or the places they want to promote, that sort of stuff, eventually get to the point where people resent seeing them on the threads. People get mad that we don't enforce the rules with people we like or people we agree with. And, dismaying as I find it, ridiculous numbers of herd animals just instantly snap off when 9/11 is mentioned in any other context but the official line.

THEN it gets to the point where journalists and public intellectuals can't go there and have anyone listen to them about anything, and you find yourself unable to engage in meaningful discussion about anything anymore, because everyone has to keep it grounded in the big lie... or the ones who insist on bucking that blow the whole possibility of having the discussion over and over and over and over again. Can't win for losing.

It's gotten to the point where this interminable determination to knock out the underpinnings for all this fascistic stuff is just crazy-making for everyone. The instant Barack Obama showed us he was going to be an even bigger asshole about it than his fellow presidents should have been the moment any hope for that died. We've killed millions of people and tortured thousands and displaced vast populations on the basis of the official story. There is NO way on earth we're turning that ship around by this means.

Maybe a hundred years from now, if there even is a hundred years from now for humans, the truth will out. But for now, spamming blog threads with it is only a way to stay OFF the vital subjects and help keep others off them as well.

I think it's ironic Grizz should be so focussed on "hijacking" while hijacking yet another thread here, when this kid didn't hijack anything, and wasn't planning to either.

As for the inevitable gripes about my control phreakism and blog queenism, the fact that a huge percentage of the people with whom one must interact in this moderatorly fashion become aggressive and petulant instanter, instead of just take the hint and move on... well, that's been an education too... and not a pleasant one, even as I am always happy to know the truth, awful as it may be. I'm really hoping GWN takes me up on the offer to replace me here.

I don't have so much of a problem with widespread "coverage" of this type of incident as I do with the fact that we consistently draw the wrong lesson from the occurrence.

As a teaser, the following statement will appear in a pending (requested by 99 and others) effort to parse the words used by our Harvard-educated President during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech,

Waging war "over there" by no means makes us safe "over here." To the contrary, as revealed by a 2007 National Intelligence estimate, the so-called "war on terror" only served to strengthen al Qaeda. War "over there" makes us less safe "over here," yet our response is to escalate war?

Oh, good, Ernie! That should be edifying!

Also, BlueHawk, it occurs to me that it is pretty telling how aggressive people become about the Bill of Rights for this trivial business of blog comments while they've obviously decided to just lay down and take whatever breach of it the government hands down. I think shrinks call that "transference" or something....

I get your point about over-talking 9-11 too. But the following quote caught my eye 1st and it wasn't because the word "bear" was included.

99: I have to say, if the reports of the passengers jumping on this guy are true, it bears out what I said on 9/12/01; to wit: There will never be another American who just sits there scared while somebody tries to hijack a plane again. And I think that's turned out to be true. I think all this freaking we think is going on is really just the same hype as with Ashcroft/Ridge color coded alerts.

You see there is NO EVIDENCE to support that Americans jumped a quote box cutter wielding terrorist or sat transfixed in fear UNLESS you believe the official government version of 9-11.

An official cover-up of complete lies.

Since I know this for a fact, it sends me into seek and destroy mode to get the facts straight. To point out to someone even skeptical of this air bus bomber or whatever you wish accurately refer to him as, and compare flight passengers to those weak people or trembling Americans to scared to confront someone with a box cutter???

There is no hard evidence to support this even ever took place EXCEPT by people who most definitely orchestrated and carried out the 3 World Trade Center controlled demolitions in NYC.

Well the point I was making was not based on anything needing evidence that the planes were in fact hijacked. It stands only on the fact that now it is impossible to just sit there and let a hijacker carry it out in the hope you'll make it off the plane alive. The one good thing that we can say for sure came out of that day—NO MATTER WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED—is that people will not just sit there anymore. They will get up and throw themselves on that grenade, so to speak, and THAT makes us safer... but noooooo, we gotta watch ourselves letting the stormtroopers look at us naked in order to board planes in our stocking feet and hoping against hope we don't crap our pants before we land at our destinations. And I wasn't saying on 9/12 "hijacking" to cover suicide bombers in the future, and not calling a failed suicide bomber a hijacker, by recounting what I'd said back then.

Listen...this whole Detroit thing seems like justification to occupy Yeman.

I stated that earlier up the thread...but today, at this moment I am more convinced of that than ever.

The Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen has drawn growing attention here in recent weeks primarily due to Saudi Arabia’s military intervention against the Houthi insurgency in the northern Saada region of the country and charges by both Riyadh and the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh that Iran is providing military aid to the rebels.

I'm still wading through the info to get a clearer picture...but this Saudi Arabian-Yemeni governments plea for U.S. military aid is a good place to start....as always it's related to the flow of oil....

I'm telling you...they'll blow up the world to keep oil flowing...

This from a guy you all may recognize...

Oil flowing...guns flowing...blood flowing...it all amounts to the same thing - "they" are taking your money and putting it in their pockets. And I am a hardcore socialist leftist progessivist bleeding heart saying that. I believe in government, the government whose first purpose is to protect the weak from the powerful (i.e. provide for the general welfare). It ain't the government we've got, and it ain't the government we're likely to have any time soon. We all pretty much know that.

http://www.youtube.com/w...T9mg&feature=related

#56: Right about..

Now..

The country of Yemen needs an American Democracy like we have here in States. The US government can send over some brand new ES&S electronic voting machines along with some former Black Water murderers for hire to help root out their "new" alqaeda terrorist manifestation problem.

Then after a few air strikes, big oil can get in there with some big guns to help relieve them of their black gold problem.

#57: Excellent video. Well crafted with many, many outstanding points!

BlueHawk said

The U.S. has had boots on the ground in Germany, The Phillipines, Saudi Arabia and S. Korea for years too...but I wouldn't exactly called them occupations...
______________________

Oh, what would you call them?

I served in the U.S. military, on bases in Germany from Oct. '67 to Feb. '68. German citizens could not enter those bases without our permission. That is because we "occupied" bases on what would otherwise be German soil.

The U.S. presence was secured by our victory in WW II. The ostensible reason given when I was there was our supposed need to protect Western Europe against a Soviet invasion. What is the reason now?

Doesn't it seem a bit odd that the U.S. maintains between 750 - 800 bases in 63 countries but no other nation occupies so much as a single base inside the U.S.

If Germany were to operate a military base across the street from your house --- a location you could not enter without German permission, you just might feel "occupied."

Don't think for a minute that the U.S. presence in any of the nations you mention is not resented by those nations' citizens.

Look, I just want to apologize 99. I know you feel you were doing your job, however, we come different places, backgrounds, and life experiences so we take life and death situations differently. I for 1 have never gotten over the people that were killed on 9-11 on my watch. I NEver will. And then their reign of terror continued.

Something always felt off from the beginning before I ever knew that the Bush-Cheney Administration and friends actually carried it out.

As a youth, I was the 1 shouting Fck U at these bastards in control not even having a clue who they were let alone the depth of how evil these elitist loser killers are. No apologies.

To fully comprehend the strength of their stranglehold on government/s, power of the purse, the military, and the mass media makes the challenge of complete reversal in 2010 seem completely impossible.

The wrath of young Americans and their parents cannot be under-estimated. Once unified, this whole thing is gonna come down hard.

Then we can start again with people like Brad at the helm. Yeh it's gonna be just dandy!

I haven't gotten over it either. I haven't gotten over JFK, MLK, RFK, JWL.... You don't get over this stuff. It festers away inside, and even when you don't think you're thinking about it, a tiny shift in the wind, half a phrase in a news item, and—BLAM—yer heart's ripped wide open again and you KNOW... and you are helpless, except to yell. I know.

It's not getting the current state of affairs improved.

Let the kids explode then. Let them take our heads off. Let them get it done if they can, if they will. THEY are the reason I caved and chose to vote for Obama when I didn't like his record very much. So let them unify and bring the whole thing down hard, but in the meantime, just, please, let's just not be flogging the thing to death here. It just takes our eyes off what we might be able to do about what's coming down now... in practically 2010.

Back to the Detroit flight, and thoughts about it.

Im interested in what people have to say about the underwear photos.

Specifically, they seem to be cut, in 2 places, along the backsides under the buttocks.

I thought I remembered a report saying that Jasper Schuringa, the $10,000 man, had "ripped" clothes off trying to find more explosives.

After searching the net, I could not find that exactly, all accounts seem to have the suspect as simply "stripped down"....

How did those underwear get CUT? (And why show them to us so quick before trial?)

I would imagine in a true investigation (only days long) the FBI would not damage evidence like that, leaving the plane as the probable point of cutting.

But that seems just as improbable as well, where would the knife coming from, or razors, etc on a plane these days? It seems that it all happened pretty quick, so any cockpit assistance seems improbable as well.

-any thoughts?

I had started out trying hard to ignore the details, so I don't know about him being stripped, or how stripped they meant by stripped, but those undies were almost certainly cut off him, not pulled off him and then cut. This is routine, SOP, by emergency medical professionals, but I don't know if security people or police may have cut them off him first. Probably not, actually, because those undies are ridiculously undamaged, considering. They're barely even burnt... which would indicate the trouble was surely over before anyone went to get them off him. So the paramedics or ER guys probably just cut them off to get at his burnt nether parts.

In fact, had it not been for his pubes, there probably wouldn't have been any smoke....

As for images of the evidence made public before trial, I don't think the defense would be able to avoid the fact that he was wearing the underpants and that they caught fire on the plane. So I don't think there's any damage to his defense by showing them.

I could have gone for the rest of my life without seeing Tom Ridge, or anyone else for that matter, yipping about how anyone doesn't have any legal rights though.

Next he'll be waving his color code terrorism alert thing again, counseling lots of duct tape and plastic....

It keeps crossing my mind to wonder if the kid didn't think he was smuggling drugs........

We are asked to believe that a highly privileged young man, with everything to live for, was suddenly seized with a desire to commit suicide as an act of jihad: that he disappeared from his life of ease, on a street lined with Mercedes Benzes and Ferraris, in a fashionable district of London, and traveled to Yemen, where he received what may have been a defective bomb, which was sewn into his underwear by his jihadist trainers. This bomb then went undetected in Amsterdam airport, where the security arrangements are said to be tight (and a personal interview is conducted), and where he was let on a plane headed for the US in spite of explicit warnings given by his own father.

I’m not buying it, and, furthermore, in the context of Haskell’s testimony, another narrative seems just as likely: that this was a staged incident, a false flag operation, launched by those who have everything to gain by ramping up the atmosphere of hysteria and fear that regularly precedes America’s wars. This – admittedly speculative – scenario, of which I am equally skeptical, is buttressed, however, by the testimony of Jasper Schuringa – the passenger who leapt out of his seat on the other side of the plane, put out the fire, and secured Umar in a headlock – who says of the alleged terrorist:

“He was shaking. He didn’t resist anything. It’s just hard to believe that he was trying to blow up this plane. He was in a trance. He was very afraid.”

That was from my earlier link about it not being a hijacking. I don't buy that he was a bomber. I'm trying to, but I can't get there. So, if you consider that whether he thought he was going to blow up the plane, or just smuggling some dope for a hefty fee, the guy was set up, he's just not going to get anything approaching fair treatment, public undies or not.

Ernest A. Canning @59

You're correct....Allow me to split some hairs...

Welcomed American presence (S. Korea, W.Germany etc) vs occupation (Iraq, Afghanistan) to me are two different things...

I highly doubt that the West Germans or S. Koreans felt as occupied as Iraqies, Saudies and Afghanies...

But I see your point...and for the record I'm not for American military presence anywhere outside of American soil...

99-
standard operating procedures indeed for the paramedics, however, it seems this guy was naked in the plane.
This being due to Shuringa and others making sure there were no more bombs...
However, I don't know, maybe the undies were left on.
But would it make sense to leave those undies on if that is what was smoking and contained explosives?
No need to get too caught up in this though...

And for my thoughts on him personally,
I find it odd that he was so calm, and tranquil.
Shuringa said it was as if he was in a trance.

For someone who "tried to blow up a plane" , ultimately failed, lit himself on fire, and got jumped by passengers, that seems a little weird.

MKUltra? Why did this man wait until landing to "detonate" the bomb.
Surely more damage can be done over the skies, think lockerbie.

Was something about landing programmed as a trigger, Manchurian Style?
Maybe the Captain coming on talking about weather in Detroit, seatbelt signs, certain words like "approaching detroit"?

I would buy that before drugs, but I like your thoughts 99.

More fodder

They took a fire extinguisher to him really quickly. I'm pretty sure they thought he was holding a bomb in his lap and "stripping" him to look for more would mean pulling off his garments to see if he had stuff taped to himself... torso, legs, arms... wouldn't be thinking the underwear were the source.

The stories are getting out of hand, even from the so-called first hand witnesses. So you have to start thinking about this in terms of what's plausible, given that the guy was on a plane, that his undies are not damaged badly, he got out of the hospital pretty quickly and only the first guy to jump on him (pre-fire extinguisher stewardess) was slightly burned. The gift of the underwear images is that we can tell all kinds of hyperbole from the physical evidence we have seen.

There's every possibility it was nothing more than a large firecracker packed in with talcum powder... that they only say it was PETN because that's sensational, that's what somebody who wanted to blow a hole in the plane would use, assuming he had that intent AND knew for certain he'd packed the right ingredients into his underwear.

Truly. Those underwear tell practically the whole story... and it's favorable for the kid's chances... well... favorable in a sane United States, that is....

The whole quote:

He was shaking. He didn’t resist anything. It’s just hard to believe that he was trying to blow up this plane. He was in a trance. He was very afraid.

The guy's father reports his recent religious fervor to the embassy, just in case, thinking he will prevent his son from doing anything foolish; the guys in charge of failed terrorism headline grabbers keep him off the lists, nab him on Christmas, shoot him up with something disorienting, dress him in these underwear and put him on a plane, and one of them hits the detonator in the talcum powder sac sewn into his new underwear at the correct moment. End of story for fervent Muslim rich kid.

What's disconcerting about ths whole story is how W Bush like the Obama administration is becoming.

The timing of this incident reeks..
As 99 said, the kid's demeanor doesn't suggest he was even conscious of his actions...
The hysteria following this (especially here in Detroit)...
The renewed clampdown on our rights...

I saw Karl Rove on Hannity a few days ago...Rove was saying how we lost a chance at gathering more intelligence because "the kid has lawyered up" ...really Mr. Rove ? Have you ever heard of due process ?
It seemed like Rove was disappointed that they didn't get a chamce to torture the kid.

But that's besides my point...This stinks to high hell. It might as well be 2002 again...

The country has been conditioned now to invade and occupy Yeman....which in my opinion is the reason for this whole charade.