Underwear Bomber Gets Life Sentence
The admitted terrorist who sought to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on its way to Detroit is in court today for sentencing. Abdul Farouk Abdul Mutallab received a life sentence.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the privileged son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, returns to federal court in Detroit on Thursday to receive a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, four months after pleading guilty and admitting it was a suicide mission for al-Qaida.
The hearing is an open platform for passengers and crew who want to speak, but only five of nearly 300 are expected to address the court, according to the government.
Abdulmutallab, 25, tried to detonate explosive chemicals that were hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The government says he first performed a ritual in the lavatory — brushing his teeth and perfuming himself — and returned to his seat. The device didn’t work as planned, but still produced flame, smoke and panic in the cabin.
“I’ve become bolder. I’ve become stronger,” said passenger Shama Chopra, 56, of Montreal, who plans to speak in court. She ran unsuccessfully for the Canadian Parliament in 2011, a race she couldn’t have imagined joining years ago.
“I don’t have to feel weak,” Chopra said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t have to be scared of anything. God has given me a second chance to live.”
On the second day of the trial in October, Abdulmutallab suddenly pleaded guilty to all charges. In a defiant speech, he said he was carrying a “blessed weapon” to avenge Muslims who have been killed or poorly treated around the world. He admitted he was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and leading al-Qaida figure in Yemen who was killed by a U.S. drone strike last fall.
“The Quran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them … an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Abdulmutallab said.
Yet, perhaps the most bizarre thing about today’s sentencing is the testimony of one of Mutallab’s potential victims, who claims that this was all a conspiracy between the terrorist and the US government to force the installation of full-body scanners around the country.