Nigerian man indicted in foiled airline attack on Christmas Day

DETROIT — A federal grand jury in Detroit indicted Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Wednesday in the Christmas Day terror attack on a Detroit-bound airliner.

Abdulmutallab was charged with six counts: attempted
use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder within the
special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, willful attempt to destroy and wreck an aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States,
willfully placing a destructive device on an aircraft and two counts
possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of
violence.

The attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction charge is punishable by up to life in prison.

Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian national, is in custody at a federal prison in Milan, Mich.,
charged in a federal criminal complaint with trying to detonate a bomb
hidden in his underwear on Flight 253, which was bound from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Passengers subdued the man after noticing that his
pant leg and side of the cabin were in flames. No one was injured in
the attack, which resulted in increased airline security nationwide.

The indictment said Abdulmutallab tried to murder
279 passengers and 11 crew members aboard the plane by trying to
detonate a bomb.

When Abdulmutallab was arrested, authorities said
the bomb consisted of PETN, a colorless, crystalline material that is
highly explosive and in the same chemical family as nitroglycerin.

Wednesday’s indictment said the device also
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 Web site.

Both explosives were used by Richard Reid, the unsuccessful shoe bomber, 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 said the bomb is still undergoing lab analysis.

“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 indictment said.

It was not immediately clear when he would be arraigned on the charges.

A detention hearing is scheduled for Friday.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds.

Abdulmutallab was charged in a federal criminal
complaint on the day after the bombing attempt. But the only way to
proceed to trial in U.S. District Court in Eastern Michigan is through a grand jury indictment.

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