Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a Muslim terrorist from Nigeria, acting on orders from Al Qaeda to blow up a commercial American airliner on Christmas Day 2009. Abdulmutallab flew on Northwest Flight 253 bound for Detroit, tried and failed to detonate an explosive device before being taken into custody. He was an engineering student at the UK's London's University College.

He used PETN, a powerful plastic explosive. A few ounces can blast open an airplane, so it is the preferred weapon of terrorists. Abdulmutallab tried to ignite a two-part concoction of PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive in a bomb concealed in his underwear. It produced a popping noise, smoke, and some fire, but no deadly detonation, because he used the wrong technique. Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen quickly took the credit

Security

The episode was a catastrophic breach of security. He boarded in Nigeria, where security is notoriously lax, and changed planes in Amsterdam, where security officials are not allowed to use its full-body scanners because of privacy concerns. He paid for an expensive international flight in cash, and had no luggage—well known danger signals. Worse, his father, a leading banker in Nigeria, had met with U.S. State Department and CIA officials a month before the bombing attempt to warn them his son had become radicalized, but they took no action and allowed the terrorist to keep his permanent visa permitting unrestricted entry into the U.S.

Lamestream Media

As usual, protecting the image of Islamic extremists is a job for the liberal media. They are united in distorting, minimizing, watering-down the event by omitting the word "Terrorist" or "Muslim" from their reporting.