Muslim terrorist attempts to detonate explosive aboard Detroit bound plane

By Douglas J, Hagmann

UPDATE 9:00 pm ET 25 December 2009: Abdul Farouk Abdul-Mutallab (a/k/a Umar Farouk Abdul Mudallad), a 23 year-old Nigerian national, who is reportedly an engineering student at University College in London, UK, is the primary suspect in the attempt to detonate an explosive aboard Delta-Northwest Flight 253 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport just before noon today. The suspect’s air travel originated in Lagos, Nigeria when he boarded board KLM Flight 588 to Amsterdam, where he then made the connecting flight aboard Delta-Northwest Flight 253 to Detroit. According to officials in Amsterdam, the suspect’s stated purpose for traveling to Detroit was to attend an Islamic ceremony in Michigan. The suspect, who suffered second and third-degree burns on his upper extremities, is being treated at the University of Michigan Medical Center and will be transferred into federal custody.

According to a law enforcement source speaking to this investigator, the suspect is on several terrorism watch lists and is also reportedly on a federal no-fly list, although there is some confusion about the latter. “It might be the result of variations of the suspect’s name,â€