Christmas Day Northwest Air's Boxer Bomber's Weapon Was Nothing More Than a Ball Buster

If anybody needed more proof that Islamist terrorists are too far gone for free nations to even attempt to reach out to, the unsuccessful Christmas attack on the Northwest Air flight to Detroit should provide all the proof they need. Lets face it, blowing up an Airplane is a sick depraved act, wearing boxers filled with the explosive components brings that sickness to a entirely new level. But that's what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab did yesterday, he strapped that bomb on top of his privates and if he did a better job with the detonator, that plane would have exploded. While  Abdulmutallab is a failure, it could have been much worse, had the fused worked properly many people would have died. But thankfully, the boxer bomber's weapon turned out to be nothing but a ball buster.

Chaos erupted as alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, tried to set off a sophisticated explosive device strapped to his body, on the Christmas Day Northwest flight to Detroit

"Suddenly, we hear a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off," said Jasper Schuringa, a film director who was traveling to the US to visit friends.

"When [it] went off, everybody panicked ... Then someone screamed, ‘Fire! Fire!’"

Schuringa, sitting in seat 20J, in the right-most section of the Airbus 330, looked to his left. "I saw smoke rising from a seat ... I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped," he said.

Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab’s seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. "It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs."

"I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs."

The unassuming hero ripped the flaming, molten object — which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle — off Abdul Mutallab’s left leg, near his crotch. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.

Schuringa yelled for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers. Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.

"I took him in a choke to the first class and all the people were like, ‘What’s going on?!" 

Nigerian attacker had syringe sewn into his underwear: NYT December 27th, 2009 - 11:56 am ICT by IANS

Washington, Dec 27 (IANS) A 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day claims he obtained explosive chemicals and a syringe that were sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda.

Federal authorities have not independently corroborated the Yemen connection claimed by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was burned in his failed attempt to bring down the airliner, the New York Times reported Saturday.But the influential US daily cited a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation as saying that the suspect’s account was “plausible. I see no reason to discount it.”

US District Judge Paul Borman read the suspect, who comes from a prominent Nigerian family, his charges in a room at the University of Michigan Medical Centre in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for burns. Abdulmutallab was asked if he understood the charges against him, and he answered in English that he did. Witnesses cited by media reports said he was in a wheelchair with a blanket over his lap.

In an affidavit filed in support of the criminal charges, the authorities said that the Abdulmutallab, had tried to ignite the device, which was attached to his body, resulting “in a fire and what appears to have been an explosion.”

The affidavit said the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, a highly explosive substance that was used in 2001 by Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber whose attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight was also thwarted.

Officials cited by the Times said analysis of the remnants of Abdulmutallab’ s device was being carried out by the FBI laboratory, but it was possible that had the chemical mixture detonated, it might have brought down the aircraft.

Abdulmutallab told FBI agents he was connected to the Al Qaeda affiliate, which operates largely in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, by a radical Yemeni cleric whom he contacted via the Web.