If The Shoe Bomb Fits
Let him wear it. Wannabe named Abdul attempts to ignite a powdery substancw on a Northwest flight, injures himself and two others. Claims AQ directed him to do it, but the authorities are questioning his credibility. ABC.
I dunno. AQ is as AQ does. If Al Qaeda is an idea in the hearts of jihadis everywhere, and he thinks he’s a part of it, why not grant him the full rights and privileges? Off to Guantanamo, give him a dunking, some AC/DC and Barney, you know, a little of the old “I love you, you love me,” and a military tribunal … oh yeah, never mind. Bungled attack by a wannabe in the post-post-9/11 era? Sounds like a suspended sentence, a couple years of probation, community service and maybe some counseling. Either that or really throw the book at him and give him a chance to turn his life around as a member of Richard Reid’s prison ministry.
Washington Post with more details on the attack says Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, a University College London student who claims he was made AQ in Yemen, was not on the TSA’s no-fly list but is some government records as a terrorism suspect. Sounds like maybe a disconnect. Anyway, some post-9/11 passengers who apparently didn’t get the memo that the GWOT’s over tackled him.
Wall Street Journal has another name and more details. It was a leg bomb, mixture of powder and lqiuid strapped to the leg of former University College London mechanical engineering student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
NYT, with U.S. Rep. Peter King, briefed on what he called “the real deal,” a sophisticated bomb that, had it succeeded, could have been “devastating.” More incident details:
The incident unfolded just before noon. “There was a pop that sounded like a firecracker,” said Syed Jafry, a passenger who said he had been sitting three rows ahead of the suspect. A few seconds later, he said, there was smoke and “some glow” from the suspect’s seat and on the left side of the plane.
“There was a panic,” said Mr. Jafry, 57, of Holland, Ohio. “Next thing you know everybody was on him.” He said the passengers and the crew subdued the man.
I guess that qualifies as a Christmas miracle. This could have been a very different Boxing Day. So it turns out the GWOT isn’t over after all. Good thing the passengers figured that out. Stay alert. With Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s big grandstanding opportunity coming up, it could just be entering an exciting new phase.
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Topics: GWOT,terrorists
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:50 am Comments (9) on Saturday, December 26, 2009
9 Responses to “If The Shoe Bomb Fits”
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December 26th, 2009 at 8:12 am
The WaPost in its first story said President Wonderful was informed of the attack three HOURS after the attack. As soon as the White House read this, there evidently was a phone call and that entirely understandable human lapse on the part of The One’s administrative apparatus left the story. BTW, Murtha said just yesterday AQ no longer represented a threat to American security, so let’s lower the volume here.
December 26th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Bungled attack by a wannabe in the post-post-9/11 era? Sounds like a suspended sentence, a couple years of probation, community service and maybe some counseling.
Yep; and the real travesty is that the resultant prison propaganda program will be hailed as a triumph of our legal system. Contrast that with the clear-headed response to Nazi saboteurs in WWII:
Note the “trial and punishment” they’re talking about is a military commission followed by a prompt execution.
December 26th, 2009 at 9:54 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: “I guess that qualifies as a Christmas miracle. This could have been a very different Boxing Day. So it turns out the GWOT isn’t over after all. Good thing the passengers figured that out. Stay alert. With Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s big grandstanding opportunity coming up, it could just be entering an exciting new phase.” [...]
December 26th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I get very tired of this PC crap that we can not profile. We profiled to the extreme with the Japanese during WWII and considerably less with the German and Italian population. During those days, political correctness seemed to exist in a more irrational form. Today’s random searching of passengers, irrespective of nationality and possible religious beliefs, is not security efforts but bowing to PCness.
When I worked at a very secure government installation prior to 9/11 everyone had to remove their head coverings when entering a security area except the Sikhs. Under their religion, the turban is an article of faith that represents honor, self-respect, courage, spirituality, and piety; they are not to remove their turbans. The purpose of removing the head covering. beyond recognition, was incase a weapon or weapon parts were being smuggled in to the facility, but an exception was given Sikhs. That angered many of us; if the necessary security interfered with their religious beliefs and they refused to conform then they should not be allowed access to the secured area, period. They had a choice and this security requirement was not an act of profiling. Even at this late date this controversy still exists; this time in the Army which apparently has caved to the Sikh’s religious dress and appearance requirements. This is not to attack the Sikhs, but to point out a most obvious accommodation that our government is willing to make that can be used to endanger our security by those willing to utilize the compassion that exists in America for diversity.
I fear that in the future this PC attitude will get many more thousands killed in America as it did leading up to 9/11.
December 26th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I hope he got a good old fashioned ass kicking while he was being subdued. A kicking contest with his head would be about right.
December 26th, 2009 at 11:17 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: I guess that qualifies as a Christmas miracle. This could have been a very different Boxing Day. So it turns out the GWOT isn’t over after all. Good thing the passengers figured that out. Stay alert. With Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s big grandstanding opportunity coming up, it could just be entering an exciting new phase. [...]
December 26th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I propose guys like this are tried, found guilty, given a firing squad, and wrapped in a pigskin and buried upside down.
December 26th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Sound advice that. To my mind this represents a real reason why the politicians should not be allowed to fly charter or first class. Let them sweat in steerage with us little people.
December 26th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Actually, for Spencer Ackerman, Matthew Yglesias, and those leftist types, the bombing attempt was evidence that we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan! See, ‘Leftists Spin Attempted Northwest Airlines Attack as Evidence of Fake Al-Qaeda Threat’.