Solsticewitch13's BOS: [unitedstatesaction.com news] Al-Qaeda Declares Responsibility for Attempted Christmas Jet Bomb Atack

Al-Qaeda Declares Responsibility for Attempted Christmas Jet Bomb Attack
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/aq_declares_responsibility.html
-- Additional Reports:
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/abdulmutallab.html

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Releases Statement on Jihadist Website Claiming Responsibility for Attempted Christmas Day Terrorist Attack

MEMRI Report:
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3864.htm

On December 28, 2009 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a statement titled "The Operation of Brother Mujahid Umar Farouk the Nigerian in Response to the American Attack in Yemen" on the jihadist website Shumukh Al-Islam, claiming responsibility for the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day. As of the time of its release, the statement had not been published on any other jihadi websites. Shumukh Al-Islam Network is the second major jihadi forum on which propaganda videos, articles by extremists, and statements by jihadi groups are posted. The forum has hundreds of members; some are senior members, some are supervisors, and there are also those who sympathize with the mujahideen. Shumukh Al-Islam has been shut down many times, and it always blames the CIA when this happens. The last time the site was shut down was in September 2009. You must be a JTTM member to read the full report. To subscribe, visit http://subscriptions.memri.org/content/en/member_registr_jttm.htm, or contact us at jttmsubs@memri.org. Media: For the full report, send an email with "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Statement" in the subject line along with your affiliation to media@memri.org.

"In the name of Allah the All-Merciful.

"Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"(The operation of the mujahid brother Omar Al-Farooq the Nigerian).

"In response to the American attack on Yemen.

"Praise be to Allah, who said 'Fight them until there is no fitna [strife], and the religion is all Allah's' [Surat Albaqara 2, verse 193].' Prayers and peace be upon the Messenger, the seal of the prophets, who said 'I have been supported with fear [of me] that stretches as far as one-month's walk' [hadith attributed to Jaber bin Abdallah and agreed upon by all collections of hadiths].

"With Allah's grace, the hero mujahid martyrdom-seeker, brother Omar Al-Farooq, carried out a quality operation on an American plane that took off from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the American city of Detroit, while they were celebrating the Christmas holiday on Friday December 25, 2009, [an operation] which broke through all modern advanced technological equipment and security barriers in world airports, with courage and determination, not fearing death, placing his trust in Allah, breaking with his great act the legend of American and international intelligence, demonstrating its frailty, rubbing their noses in the dust [in humiliation], and making all they have spent upon security technologies a waste for them.

"The unity of Islamic belief and fraternity is what propelled the rich youth of Nigerian origin, the mujahid brother Omar Al-Farooq, to respond directly to the oppressive American attack on the Arabian peninsula, in direct coordination with Allah's grace with the mujahideen in the Arabian peninsula, following the savage bombing using cluster bombs and cruise missiles that was launched from American ships that occupy the Gulf of Aden. All of this was launched on the noble Yemenite tribes in Abyan and Arhab, and finally in Sibwa, [in an attack] that killed scores of Muslim women and children, and families in their entirety. These operations were carried out through Yemenite-American-Saudi coordination, together with some of the neighboring countries.

"The mujahideen brothers in the department of producing weapons managed to produce, with Allah's grace, an explosive device of advanced technological [capabilities], which was tested and proven to be successful and effective, and it was passed through the [airport's] security screening equipment. The martyrdom seeker brother reached his goal, with Allah's grace, but due to Allah's will a malfunction happened which caused only a partial detonation rather than a full one. And we will continue in this path, Allah willing, until we reach our goal so that religion is all Allah's."

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Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attempted Bombing of U.S. Plane

Monday, December 28, 2009

Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581307,00.html

CAIRO — Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen.

Federal authorities met Monday to reassess the U.S. system of terror watchlists to determine how to avoid the type of lapse that allowed a man with explosives to board the flight in Amsterdam even though he was flagged as a possible terrorist.

In a statement posted on the Internet, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group, an alliance of militants based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against Al Qaeda operatives in the country this month. The second one was a day before Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.

The group said Abdulmutallab used explosives manufactured by Al Qaeda members. "He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death," the group said in the statement, "relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all what they spent on security technology."

The Obama administration has ordered investigations into how travelers are placed on watch lists and how passengers are screened, as critics and administration officials questioned how Abdulmutallab was allowed to board the flight. A senior U.S. intelligence official said authorities were reviewing the procedures that govern the lists, which could include how someone is placed on or moved between the various databases.

"Why wasn't he flagged at a higher screening level?" Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "How did he get an explosive substance on to the plane? All of those are serious questions that we are now looking at."

Passengers have faced stiffer boarding measures since Friday. Authorities warned travelers to expect extra delays returning home from holidays.

The intelligence official said the review will look at what adjustments could be made to avoid the type of gap that allowed Abdulmutallab to fly into Detroit even though Britain had refused to grant him a student visa in May. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal review.

Congress is already starting to weigh in. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Monday that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would hold hearings on the incident in January. Lieberman is chairman of the committee.

The White House press office, traveling with President Obama in Hawaii, said Monday that the president would make a statement from the Kaneoho Marine Base in the midafternoon.

Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to detonate an explosive device hidden on his body as the plane approached Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam last Friday. Law enforcement officials say he tucked below his waist a small bag holding a potentially deadly concoction of liquid and powder explosive materials. The device burst into flames without exploding, according to authorities, and Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers. The plane landed safely.

His name was one of about 550,000 in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. Inclusion in that database does not trigger mandatory additional airport screening.

Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed, backtracking from a statement Sunday in which she said the airline security system worked. She said her words had been taken out of context.

"Our system did not work in this instance," she said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."

Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, said Abdulmutallab paid cash on Dec. 16 for the $2,831 round-trip ticket from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit via Amsterdam. He said Abdulmutallab's ticket came from a KLM office in Accra, Ghana.

Demuren said Abdulmutallab checked into his flight with only a small carryon bag.

Officials said he came to the attention of U.S. intelligence last month when his father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, a prominent Nigerian banker, reported to the American Embassy in Nigeria about his son's increasingly extremist religious views.

In a statement released Monday, Abdulmutallab's family in Nigeria said that his father reached out to Nigerian security agencies two months ago. The statement says the father then approached foreign security agencies for "their assistance to find and return him home."

Abdulmutallab had been placed in a U.S. database of people suspected of terrorist ties in November, but officials say there was not enough information about his activities to place him on a watch list that could have kept him from flying.

In Britain, Abdulmutallab was placed on a standard watch list of people whose visa applications were rejected, but he was not flagged as a potential terror suspect, British officials said Monday.

Abdulmutallab, who graduated from a London university last year, had his subsequent visa application denied in May 2009. British officials said the school on his application form was not a government-approved institution.

Al Qaeda link called credible as clues emerge in foiled terror attack
December 28, 2009 7:53 p.m. EST
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/28/airline.terror.attempt/index.html

Romulus, Michigan (CNN) -- Part of an explosive device that failed to take down a plane last week was sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian man accused of igniting it, a law enforcement official told CNN Monday.

Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab is being held for allegedly trying to blow up a flight carrying 300 passengers on Christmas Day.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility Monday for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for alleged U.S. strikes on Yemeni soil.

In a message written in Arabic, dated Saturday and published Monday on radical Islamist Web sites, the group hailed the "brother" who carried out the "heroic attack."

The group said it tested a "new kind of explosives" in the attack, and hailed the fact that the explosives "passed through security."

"There was a technical problem that resulted in a non-complete explosion," the message said.

A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device AbdulMutallab is said to have carried aboard the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, contained pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive also known as PETN. The amount of explosive was sufficient to blow a hole in the aircraft, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Sunday.

In his first public comment since the Christmas Day incident, President Obama said he directed his national security team to "keep up the pressure on those who would attack our country."

"We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than simply strengthen our defenses," Obama told reporters in a break from his Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's message Monday seems credible and they have some involvement in the attempted attack but added investigators are still looking into the claim.

A federal security bulletin obtained by CNN said AbdulMutallab claimed the explosive device used Friday "was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used."

Yemen's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Friday's attempted attack in a statement released Monday. "Yemen has long suffered from terrorism and condemns such criminal acts that kill innocent civilians. Yemen is and remains an active partner of the international community in the war against terrorism. Efforts of Yemeni security agencies to continue ongoing operations and prosecutions against terrorist operatives from al Qaeda will not falter," it said.

Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, confirmed to CNN Monday that AbdulMutallab was in Yemen between August and December. According to the ministry's statement, AbdulMutallab had obtained a visa to study Arabic at a language institute in Yemen where he had previously studied.

Relatives of the suspect said Monday that they told authorities weeks ago about AbdulMutallab's "out of character" behavior and hoped authorities would intervene.

AbdulMutallab, 23, was studying abroad when he "disappeared" and stopped communicating with his relatives, they said in a statement. His father, Umaru AbdulMutallab, contacted Nigerian security agencies two months ago and foreign security agencies six weeks ago, the statement said.

A senior U.S. administration official said one of those agencies contacted was the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. The embassy -- which has law enforcement, security and intelligence representatives on staff -- reported the father's concern to other agencies, the official said.

"We were hopeful that they would find and return him home," the family said. "It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day."

AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian who had a multiple-entry visa to the United States, had been added to a watch list of 550,000 potential terrorist threats after the information provided by his father was forwarded to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, a senior administration official said. But "the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list," the official said.

Obama said Monday he has "ordered a thorough review, not only of how information related to the subject was handled, but of the overall watch-list system and how it can be strengthened."

Do you feel safe in the skies?

The father of the suspect contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with concerns his son had "become radicalized" and was planning something, a senior U.S. administration official said.

"After his father contacted the embassy recently, we coded his visa file so that, had he attempted to renew his visa months from now, it would have triggered an in-depth review of his application," a U.S. official said.

The embassy -- which has law enforcement, security and intelligence representatives on staff -- reported the father's concern to other agencies, the official said.

Passengers on the Christmas Day flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound as the plane was making its final approach, followed by flames erupting at AbdulMutallab's seat.

The suspect was moved Sunday from a hospital -- where he was treated for his burns -- to an undisclosed location in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. He is charged with attempting to destroy the plane and placing a destructive device on the aircraft.

Authorities have focused their investigation on how AbdulMutallab, 23, allegedly smuggled the explosives aboard the flight and who might have helped him.

"We're ascertaining why it was that he was not flagged in a more specific way when he purchased his ticket, given the information that we think was available, allegedly was available," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "American Morning" Monday.

Meanwhile, tighter security measures in the wake of the incident triggered long lines at security checkpoints at airports in the United States and abroad. Airlines and their crews have been given discretion over implementation of a "one-hour rule," which prohibits passengers from leaving their seats during the last hour of flight, sources said. The Transportation Security Administration invoked the rule for international U.S.-bound flights after the botched attack.

Airline security will be the focus of hearings by the Senate committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Commerce, Science and Transportation; the House Committee on Homeland Security is also slated to hold a hearing on the incident.

AbdulMutallab's trip originated in Lagos, Nigeria. There, he did not check in a bag as he flew on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, said Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority.

Demuren said the suspect underwent regular screening -- walking through a metal detector and having his shoulder bag scanned through an X-ray machine.

He then underwent secondary screening at the boarding gate for the KLM flight, according to officials of the Dutch airline.

After arriving in Amsterdam, AbdulMutallab boarded the Northwest Airlines flight to the United States.

The Netherlands' national coordinator for counterterrorism told CNN that AbdulMutallab had gone through "normal security procedures" in Amsterdam before boarding the flight to Detroit.

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