WASHINGTON – U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.

One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.

The passenger was being questioned Friday evening.

Both of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

The motive of the Christmas Day attack was not immediately clear.

I can't believe I gave this guy my bank account information.

You funded terrorism, David. As someone who buys marijuana I say to you: welcome to my world.

Made of powder and liquid? This sucks, now they're going to be even more paranoid about bringing deodorants and toothpastes on planes.

I just heard that the attacker's dad is a prominent Nigerian banker. Seriously.

Well looks like the TSA is already implementing new rules for passengers...no more getting out of your seat, accessing your carry-on, or having anything in your lap for the last hour of a flight. This makes tons of sense, nice knee-jerk reaction TSA!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091226/ap_ ... egulations

next thing you know they will be handcuffing our wrists to the armrests and we will all just fly around like prisoners.

Oddly enough, if he had pulled this off, it wouldnt even have made the top 10 for number of murders in a day in detroit this year

...and sherbet.

I can't wait for the first ipod bomb to not go off...

There's an app for that.

I'm just going to go back to the days of horse and buggy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/wealthy-quiet-unassuming-the-christmas-day-bomb-suspect-1851090.html

The assumption that modern terrorists come from poor, uneducated backgrounds needs to die.

If we're going to kill it, let's kill it properly.

The reason that neo-cons have long wanted to kill that idea is so they could simultaneously kill the idea that Islamic terrorists are motivated by the suffering America and its allies inflict upon the Islamic world, which as is the case everywhere in the world, is felt most acutely by the poorest in society. Just because many terrorists (especially the al Qaeda brand of organized terrorists) seem to come from wealthy and educated backgrounds, does NOT mean that they are not primarily motivated by the suffering they see among the poorest in their societies, especially at the hands of Western institutions. In Nigeria, it's the oil companies that are the oppressors.

Shit, just look at America. How many people did you know in college or elsewhere in your life who were "lefty radicals" who are reacting to their comfortable life, perceived as earned by their parents at the expense of the suffering in society, to become pseudo-revolutionaries. It's a natural, if somewhat comical, reaction to being wealthy and having a social conscience. It's the same thing with the bin Ladens of the world, except that they're in a society where violence, for whatever reason, is a more accepted way of dealing with injustice.

What a bunch of hyperbolic, one dimensional, bullshit.

Praise from Caesar.

It is mostly BS. The suffering of the world's poor is an excuse, not a motive, for Islamic terror. This guy was an educated, wealthy engineer. He could have worked to save thousands if he actually gave a shit about them, but chose mass murder. Don't delude yourself into thinking this is about striking back at daddy for trading soccer games for business meetings. And don't think the thousands of recent Muslim converts simmering in US prisons aren't thinking this shithead had a pretty good idea, one that they could actually succeed at.




Oh. I had no idea that 'random Dutch guy' was one of our anti-terror techniques. Talk about your full spectrum planning! Way to go space cow!

Spoiler: show

Plus I was planning to fly back to DC from Amsterdam after PJ's Berlin show in June. Grrrrr.

BI, all you really need to say to refute everything that PD said is: Yasser Arafat. Yasser Arafat subjugated, purposefully repressed, exploited, and stole billions from poor Muslims like no other person that has ever existed on this planet, yet he's a martyr and a heroic icon to an incredible amount of Muslims in the world. The irony, of course, is that a man who made the Palestinians poor on purpose to wage war against the Jews, managed to somehow turn it around and pretend like their plight was America's fault.

I think it was Ghandi who said "be the change you want to see in the world."

And he actually accomplished a hell of a lot.

Instead of doing something worthwhile or relevant... sure kill people tear things down. That really helps the plight of the poor for the better.

It's not like it's impossible to become active politically and hey, tax the shit out of the oil companies if they are causing issues.