AbdulMutallab's trial begins

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Suspected Nigerian terrorist, Farouk Umar Abdul-mutallab, will be tried today in the United States for attempting to bomb an airliner in a proceeding analysts say may last for only two minutes after which he would be quickly hustled by marshals back to US federal prison in Milan to serve a life sentence.

Ahead of the trial, US President Barack Obama has accepted responsibility for the failure of intelligence in the failed bombing attempt.

Cameras will not be allowed within the premises of the court and Abdulmutallab may not say anything during the trial.

Prosecutors would not be required to present more evidence unless Abdulmutallab's lawyers at the Federal Defender Office request a detention hearing.

But this is said to be unlikely because Abdulmutallab is not in the US legally – his visa having been revoked – and would immediately be detained by US immigration authorities if a judge released him.

Also unclear is whether there will be a post-arraignment hearing on prosecutors' request to obtain a DNA sample from Abdulmutallab.

His lawyers have opposed it, but legal experts have said prosecutors can obtain the evidence through a search warrant.

“The attempted murder of 289 innocent people merits the most serious charge available, and that's what we have charged in this indictment,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQ-uade of Detroit has said.

Today's arraignment is to be conducted by Magistrate Judge Mark Randon. The case has been assigned to US District Judge Nancy Edmunds.

The indictment says the 23-year-old Nigerian national tried to kill 279 passengers –including himself – and 11 crew members with a weapon of mass destruction on December 25.

"The bomb was designed to allow defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, and thereby cause an explosion aboard Flight 253," the seven-page indictment said.

The document made no mention of terrorism, but the most serious of the six charges he faces – attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction – falls squarely under US federal terrorism statutes.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Had anyone died in the bomb plot, the charge could have brought the death penalty.

The other five counts carry maximum penalties ranging from 20-30 years in prison.

Two of the counts – possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence – can add 30-year mandatory consecutive sentences to the weapon of mass destruction count. If convicted, Abdulmutallab could face a life sentence, plus 90 years.

Abdulmutallab was subdued by passengers on the plane after they noticed his pant, leg and the side of the plane's cabin were in flames. No passengers or crew were injured in the attack, which resulted in increased airline security worldwide.

When he was arrested, authorities said the bomb consisted of PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a colourless, crystalline material that is highly explosive and in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin.

Wednesday's indictment also revealed that the device contained triacetone triperoxide, another high explosive known as TATP. It's one of the most sensitive explosives known and has recently appeared as a popular weapon in the Middle East.

It can be easily prepared using commercially available materials, according to a government website.

Both explosives were used by Richard Reid, who tried unsuccessfully to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight in 2001. He is serving a life prison sentence in Colorado.

The indictment is straightforward, said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.

David Griem, a prominent Detroit criminal lawyer and former federal prosecutor, was quoted by deep.com as calling the case “the trial that cannot be lost”.

“This is a case that my 14-year-old daughter could prosecute,” he said after reading the indictment. We could try this case 100 times, and she'd beat me every time,” he said.

Griem said any plea bargain would be tricky, especially with a life-plus offence on the table. “What would the government be willing to offer this guy?” Griem said. “You can't plea-bargain your case away. What message are you sending to terrorists then?”

Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni has helped organise a demonstration, scheduled for today in front of the federal court building in Detroit, where Muslim Americans plan to denounce terrorism.

"We want to send a message to these terrorists that you're not welcome in our religion," he said. "We want the world to see our faces. Our goal is to ignite a peaceful protest throughout the Muslim world. We want the world to see what we can do here."

Moughni said he expects thousands from southeast Michigan to attend the protest.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Abdulmutallab met al Qaeda elements in Yemen, and may have also met a radical US-born Islamic preacher, a focus of past US counterterrorist probes, according to a high-ranking Yemeni official.

Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al Alimi, speaking to a news conference in the capital San'a, said Abdulmutallab may have met Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, after Abdulmutallab slipped out of San'a in late September, where he had been studying. Shabwa is one of at least three provinces known to be al Qaeda strongholds in Yemen.

"There is no doubt he met with al Qaeda elements in Shabwa, including likely with Awlaki," Alimi said, citing local intelligence investigations into the whereabouts of Abdulmutallab before he left Yemen on December 4.

And a few hours ahead of the trial of Abdulmutallab, Obama has accepted responsibility for the failure of American security agencies to stop the near-bombing.

Obama spoke as his staff released a report showing that officials missed numerous opportunities to stop Abdulmutallab before he boarded the Detroit-bound plane with explosives hidden in his clothing.

“The intelligence did not aggressively follow up on” information about the suspect, he said, nor did it “connect the dots” on the plot.
Obama said he had ordered officials to act more swiftly in adding terrorist suspects to no-fly lists and on examining evidence that could lead to an attack.

“We must follow the leads that we get,” Obama said, and act “on information that could protect the American people.”
He added, “we must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes.”

Obama said: “We must do better in keeping dangerous people off airplanes while facilitating air travel.”

The president said there's no "foolproof solution” to avoiding terror attacks.

The White House was making public a declassified account of how the suspect slipped through post-September 11 security to board the plane with an explosive.

Obama said America's first line of defence is “timely, accurate” intelligence that is properly integrated.
“That's not what happened” before the attack, he said.