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Al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula Claims Responsibility for Failed US Airline
Bombing

   Group  says bombing attempt in response to US efforts against al-Qaida
   group in Yemen

   VOA News 28 December 2009

   Al-Qaida  in  the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the
   attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner Friday.
   The  group  made the claim in an Internet statement Monday, three days
   after  a  Nigerian  man  allegedly  tried  to detonate explosives on a
   Northwest  Airlines  Flight  as it landed in Detroit from Amsterdam on
   Christmas Day.
   The statement said the bombing attempt was in response to U.S. efforts
   against the al-Qaida group in Yemen.  The United States has reportedly
   been  quietly  supplying Yemen with military trainers and equipment to
   help it fight a growing al-Qaida presence in there.
   The  White  House  says  President  Barack  Obama  will comment on the
   incident,  and  say  it  is  critical  that Washington learns from the
   attack  and  takes  the  necessary  measures to prevent future acts of
   terrorism.
   The  suspect,  23-year-old  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is charged with
   attempting  to  destroy  the aircraft.  He allegedly tried to detonate
   explosives,  but  that  failed,  and  he  burned  himself before other
   passengers and the flight crew restrained him.
   The  suspect is listed in a U.S. government intelligence database, but
   he was not on the "no-fly list."  President Obama has ordered a review
   of  security  and  an  investigation  to  determine  how Abdulmutallab
   boarded a U.S.-bound plane with explosives.
   As  a  young  man,  Abdulmutallab  studied  in  London  and Dubai, and
   recently  traveled  to Yemen, where he says he was trained by al-Qaida
   operatives.
   Abdulmutallab's  family  says  they lost contact with him while he was
   studying abroad.  His father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, a prominent banker
   and  former  Nigerian government minister, had warned the U.S. embassy
   in Nigeria about his son's views.
   Prosecutors  are  seeking  a  DNA  sample  of the suspect, and a court
   hearing scheduled for Monday on that matter has been postponed.
   On  Sunday,  authorities  moved  Abdulmutallab  to a federal prison in
   Michigan from a hospital where he was treated for burns.
   Homeland  Security  Secretary  Janet  Napolitano previously told (U.S.
   news  network)  CNN there is "no indication" that the attempted attack
   was part of a larger terrorist plot.  On Monday, she told NBC that the
   U.S. security system "did not work in this instance" and an "extensive
   review is under way."
   Republican  Congressman  Peter  King,  of  the House Homeland Security
   Committee, said Sunday the system failed and the suspect may have been
   seconds  away  from  killing  hundreds.  Nearly 300 people were on the
   flight.

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