Abdulmutallab allowed to board without a passport?

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De Nigeriaan had hulp om aan boord te komen in Amsterdam?

Groet / Cees

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/yemeni-al-qaida-claims-responsibility/story-e6frg6so-1225814510516

WASHINGTON: The dangerous explosive allegedly concealed by Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab in his underwear on Northwest Flight 253 could have blown a
hole in the side of his aircraft had it been detonated.

US federal sources were analysing a badly damaged syringe that the
Nigerian student allegedly used as a detonating device on Christmas Day.

Al-Qa'ida's affiliate in Yemen yesterday claimed responsibility for the
botched attack, and officials in Washington said the claim appeared valid.
The development came as evidence mounted showing that the US failed to
pursue potential leads that might have brought the alleged bomber to the
attention of authorities.

A statement attributed to the group al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula
claimed it was retaliating for what it says was the US's role in a recent
Yemeni military offensive on the organisation. The statement was
accompanied by photos of the suspect.

"The claim at this point appears valid," said one US counter-terrorism
official. Yemeni government forces, acting on US intelligence and using
what officials have admitted was American military hardware, launched air
raids on suspected militants on December 17 and again last Thursday,
reportedly killing at least 60 people in the east of the country.

Abdulmutallab bought his one-way ticket from a KLM office in Accra, the
Ghanaian capital, on December 16, indicating that his attack was planned
well before these latest air raids.

The fresh-faced engineering graduate was transferred yesterday from
hospital in Detroit to a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, where agents
questioning him said he told them that he was one of many bombers being
groomed by the Yemeni al-Qa'ida affiliate to attack America-bound
aircraft.

But the depth of the relationship between al-Qa'ida in the Arabian
Peninsula and Abdulmutallab is still unclear. The PETN explosive he
allegedly used is believed to have been involved in the recent attempted
assassination of Mohammed bin Nayyef al-Saud, the Saudi deputy interior
minister and point man on the war on terror. Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian
Peninsula claimed responsibility for that attack.

Abdulmutallab's method of concealing the device - sewn into his underwear,
where security personnel are unlikely to conduct a pat down - is similar
to the Saudi attack and he has told federal investigators he had travelled
to Yemen to collect the device.

Authorities are tracking web postings and other communications he may have
had with clerics in Yemen, including Anwar al-Aulaqi, who corresponded
with the accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan.

The disclosures came as the British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he
doubted Abdulmutallab had acted alone, and Dutch military police announced
they were investigating a witness's description of an accomplice who may
have helped the Nigerian to board the aircraft in Amsterdam.

The spectre of a wave of lone suicide bombers attempting to board
airliners bound for the US has given fresh urgency to a Dutch
investigation of how Abdulmutallab was able to board Northwest Airlines
Flight 253 despite being on a US watch list and banned from entering
Britain.

Two passengers on the flight, Kurt and Lori Haskell, said yesterday they
had seen the young man walk to the gate desk at Schiphol airport,
Amsterdam, with a well-dressed older man whom they claimed to overhear
asking that Abdulmutallab be allowed to board without a passport.

"The guy said, `He's from Sudan and we do this all the time'," Mr Haskell,
a lawyer, said.

The claim was being taken seriously by Dutch authorities.

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