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Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!WASHINGTON -- When an admitted al-Qaida operative planned his itinerary for a Christmas 2009 airline bombing, he considered launching the strike in the skies above Houston or Chicago, The Associated Press has learned. But tickets were too expensive, so he refocused the mission on a cheaper destination: Detroit. The decision is among new details emerging about one of the most sensational terrorism plots to unfold since President Barack Obama took office. It shows that al-Qaida's Yemen branch does not share Osama bin Laden's desire to attack symbolic targets, preferring instead to strike at ...
DETROIT (AP) - A judge on Tuesday set an Oct. 4 trial date for a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009 using a bomb hidden in his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is acting as his own lawyer, asked for a 2012 date and said he might not have enough time to prepare. But U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said a fall trial was best for now. "We need to move this case along," she said. Abdulmutallab is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiring with others to kill 281 passengers and 11 crew members ...
(Nov. 23) -- Officials say there is no terror threat at Boston's Logan International Airport, hours after the discovery of two suspicious packages prompted the evacuation of a cargo building. "We're all clear; nothing is wrong," airport spokesman Phil Orlandella told AOL News by phone today. Earlier this afternoon, bomb-sniffing dogs alerted security teams to two duffel bags bearing Nigerian addresses, Orlandella said. About 25 airport workers were evacuated from the Delta cargo building, but the passenger terminal and flights were unaffected, according to The Boston Globe. Agents in bomb ...
(Nov. 22) -- It hit critical mass when a California man decided that the government's new airport security measures went too far. "If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested," John Tyner told a Transportation Security Administration agent in a San Diego airport earlier this month, as the agent prepared to perform a new and "enhanced" pat-down. But the backlash that started with that simple warning has reached new heights, just in time for the Thanksgiving travel crunch. Some travelers have threatened to revolt on Wednesday, the busiest travel day of the year, and are planning a "National ...
WASHINGTON (Nov. 22) -- Today's airline travelers may have to endure intimate pat-downs and scanners that create revealing body images, but there's one humiliation they won't have to face, at least not yet: body cavity searches. "We're not going to be in the business of doing body cavities," John Pistole, the head of the Transportation Security Administration, told reporters at a breakfast this morning. "That's not where we are." The agency has faced a barrage of criticism and public outcry this month as it's expanded the use of new screening technology that provides graphic images of the ...
(Nov. 10) -- A mail bomb that was intercepted at East Midlands Airport in England last month could have exploded over the Eastern Seaboard, Scotland Yard said today. "If the device had not been removed from the aircraft, the activation could have occurred over the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.," British officials said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. The bomb, which was disguised as a printer cartridge, had been sent from Yemen and was bound for an airport in Philadelphia when it was discovered on Oct 29. According to British police, the bomb was timed to detonate about ...
(Nov. 4) -- Under pressure from U.S. and British officials, YouTube has removed sermons by a radical U.S.-born cleric linked to al-Qaida in Yemen who's accused of using the video-sharing site to seduce young Muslims into committing terrorist attacks. Anwar al-Awlaki, 39, is believed to have trained Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day. He also allegedly exchanged e-mails with Maj. Nidal Hasan, who faces charges that he gunned down 13 fellow U.S. soldiers at a Texas military base a year ago. The New Mexico-born ...
(Nov. 2) -- The U.S.-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who's believed to have inspired the underwear bombing suspect and other young al-Qaida devotees, went on trial in absentia today in Yemen, charged with plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of the terror group. Born in New Mexico, al-Awlaki is known for his YouTube videos that aim to attract young Muslims to violence. He's believed to be hiding in Yemen, training al-Qaida operatives like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day. Al-Awlaki is also ...
(Nov. 2) -- The suspected al-Qaida plotters behind a mail bomb scare last week performed a "dry run" in September, sending similar packages without explosives from Yemen to Chicago to time how long they would take to be delivered. That's according to unidentified U.S. officials, who say the September packages contained books, papers, CDs and other household items rather than explosives but were intercepted nonetheless because their return addresses were linked to al-Qaida in Yemen -- the same group suspected in the cargo bombs found Oct. 29, ABC News reported. Packages shipped by UPS or ...
(Nov. 1) -- U.S. officials and their allies in the Middle East are hunting for al-Qaida in Yemen's top bomb-maker, a Saudi man who is suspected of crafting the sophisticated cargo bombs discovered last week and is believed to have outfitted suicide bombers before -- including his own brother. The mail bombs intercepted in Dubai and England were addressed to Chicago synagogues, but U.S. and British officials say they believe the devices were meant to blow up planes in flight. One of them was unwittingly flown on two passenger flights before being discovered. Both bear similarities to the ...
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