Suspect May Have Used Yemen School as Ruse

US officials are now aware of incident and probing connections

(AP) - A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid, and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the Christmas terrorist plot, officials say. The Somali man was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. He is in Somali custody. More»

Detroit terror suspect makes first court appearance

(NEWSER) - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab entered a not guilty plea today to charges of attempting to blow up an airplane en route from Copenhagen to Detroit. Appearing for the first time before a federal court, the 23-year-old Nigerian was polite in his brief exchanges with the judge, who entered the plea. The suspect's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, who warned US authorities of his son's radicalization, was present for the hearing, the Detroit News reports. More»

(AP) - President Obama laid blame today on an al-Qaeda affiliate for the Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. In his most direct public language to date, the president described the path through Yemen of 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian accused of trying to destroy Northwest Flight 253. "We know that he traveled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies. It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and that this group—al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America," the president said in his weekly radio address. More»

Recent terror activity, GOP outrage may complicate closure

(NEWSER) - Strong talk from GOP leaders and former Bush officials, and the emergence of al-Qaeda links in Yemen have lawyers for Yemeni detainees at Gitmo pessimistic about releases that seemed certain just recently. “I feel like my two clients who left in mid-December have gotten the last train out,” says an attorney who represents many Yemeni nationals, the largest group still at the Cuban base. The development could complicate the Obama administration's attempts to close the facility. More»

US flights will be scanned with new, modest version within 3 weeks

(AP) - The Netherlands will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the US, according to an announcement that comes with a report today on the failed Christmas airline bombing. The US opposed their use previously because of privacy concerns, but the Dutch interior minister says that the Obama administration now agrees that "all possible measures will be used." "It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster." More»