Nigerian Man Indicted in Plot to Blow up Plane
January 7, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Nigerian Man Indicted in Plot to Blow up Plane, A young Nigerian was Wednesday charged with attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction aboard a US plane, as under-fire security chiefs vowed to revamp intelligence services.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was indicted by a grand jury on six counts arising from a botched Christmas Day plot to blow up a Northwest airliner packed with 279 passengers and 11 crew as it approached Detroit, Michigan.
Michigan district court documents accused him of “carrying a concealed bomb” inside his clothing on board Flight 253 from Amsterdam.
“The bomb consisted of a device containing Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) and other ingredients,” the charge sheet said, adding that both substances were highly explosive.
“The bomb was designed to allow defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, and to thereby cause an explosion aboard Flight 253,” the documents added.
If convicted of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, the young Nigerian faces life imprisonment, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Other charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years, while two charges of possession of a firearm carry a mandatory 30 years in prison.
“This investigation is fast-paced, global and ongoing, and it has already yielded valuable intelligence that we will follow wherever it leads,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in the statement. He vowed that “anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool — military or judicial — available to our government.”
Nigerian Man Indicted in Plot to Blow up Plane was first posted on January 7, 2010 at 12:07 pm.
Development Aid key to Terrorism Fight: Clinton
January 7, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
US security depends on a new approach to international aid, so Washington must consult more and dictate less as it dispenses billions of dollars in assistance, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton’s speech at Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington marked the Obama administration’s latest effort to persuade the US public that development aid is a foreign policy tool as important as defense and diplomacy. Clinton said aid efforts in places such as Afghanistan and Yemen, where she conceded the odds of success were long and critical components of security strategy. We cannot stop terrorism or defeat the ideologies of violent extremism when hundreds of millions of young people see a future with no jobs, no hope, and no way ever to catch up to the developed world, she said. US aid programs will also focus on programs to assist women and girls in order to eliminate terrorism as women and girls are one of the world’s greatest untapped resources.
Development Aid key to Terrorism Fight: Clinton was first posted on January 7, 2010 at 12:12 pm.
