 On August 28, the Saudi Arabian deputy minister of interior, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, (pictured) survived a bombing attack launched by an al Qaeda cell based in Yemen, Saudi Arabia's southern neighbor. Abdullah Hassan al Asiri, the would-be assassin, a Saudi who had fled to Yemen, posed as a militant willing to surrender personally to Prince Nayef. Because he leads Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda, the prince is a key target for the terrorist group. Al Asiri concealed the bomb, made of PETN, in his underwear, according to the official Saudi investigation. PETN is a plastic explosive that is not picked up by metal detectors -- through which the would-be assassin had to pass before he was allowed to meet with the prince. Saudi officials believe that the prince's assailant exploded the 100-gram device using a detonator with a chemical fuse, which would also not be detected by a metal detector. When the bomb went off in Prince Nayef's Jeddah home it killed the assassin, but the prince survived the attack, sustaining only minor injuries. Similarly, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to bring down Northwest Airlines flight 253 using a PETN bomb that was not discovered by metal detectors. A federal security bulletin obtained by CNN said Abdulmutallab claimed to investigators that the explosive device used Friday "was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used." A senior U.S. counterterrorism official says it is "rare" for PETN to be used in a terrorist attack. The method of concealment, the use of PETN and the origin of the bomb -- Yemen -- make the Prince Nayef assassination attempt and the Northwest plot an almost perfect match. "I believe that, after the attack on the prince, the fear of using similar techniques against airplanes, which was discussed openly in the media, has encouraged al Qaeda cells to try it," a Saudi counterterrorism official said, PETN was also used by Richard Reid, an al Qaeda recruit known as the shoe bomber.
He concealed a bomb made of PETN in his sneakers when he tried to bring down an American Airlines flight flying from Paris, France, to Miami, Florida, almost exactly eight years ago during the busy holiday travel season. CNN 
 A NEW regime of even tougher airport security is expected, after screening failures allowed a Nigerian man who trained with al-Qa'ida and was listed on a US terrorist database to try to blow up an international flight shortly before it landed in Detroit. The attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, with 278 passengers, has highlighted security weaknesses in three countries. Authorities are particularly concerned that the accused bomber, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was already registered as a suspected terrorist but not prevented from flying or put on an official "watch-list" because of insufficient information. Abdulmutallab, who was badly burned during the incident on Christmas Day (Washington time), was charged in a Detroit hospital yesterday with attempting to destroy an aircraft. He is accused of detonating an explosive device attached to his body. Investigators have found the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, the same plastic explosive used by convicted al-Qa'ida "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in December 2001. Flights to the US were already subject to random searches and explosives-detection tests, but US authorities have told airlines worldwide that all passengers must now be patted down by security staff and have their carry-on baggage searched prior to boarding. As well as being required to be seated one hour prior to arrival, passengers will be prevented from accessing overhead lockers and cabin baggage or having blankets, pillows or belongings on their laps during this time. Security at airports around the world was significantly tightened after al-Qa'ida-backed terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, brought down four aircraft and killed almost 3000 people. Reid's failed attempt to destroy a US-bound flight using a bomb in his shoe prompted authorities to require passengers to take off their shoes during airport screening. In the latest attack, the accused Nigerian man is said to have passed security undetected by hiding PETN detonation materials on his body that were too small to detect. After possibly mixing powder and a small amount of fluid in one of the jet's toilets and returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab covered himself with a blanket and allegedly set off the device. Passengers who witnessed the incident as the plane approached Detroit Metropolitan Airport said they saw a man on fire and an apparent explosion. He was overpowered by passengers and brought to the front of the aircraft. Abdulmutallab was charged while sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital conference room at the University of Michigan Health Centre, where he is being treated for third-degree burns. He faced two charges: attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device on board an aircraft. According to reporters, he was asked if he understood the charges. He replied in English: "Yes, I do." British police yesterday conducted searches at various addresses in London, including the basement flat where Abdulmutallab had lived when he was a student. Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent Nigerian former banker, revealed yesterday that he had alerted the US embassy in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, six months ago about the possible risk posed by his son's "radicalisation and associations". Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, is understood to have raised concerns that his son may have travelled to Yemen and feared that he wanted to join "some kind of jihad". The US government appears to have followed up the alert by creating a file in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. But Abdulmutallab had already been granted a two-year tourist visa in June last year by the US embassy in London. He was not placed on a "no-fly list" nor "watch-listed" on the day of the incident.
Abdulmutallab was a mechanical engineering student in London. He is then believed to have asked his family for further support to study in Dubai, but may have travelled to Yemen.
He is alleged to have told FBI investigators after his arrest that he received training and explosive materials from terrorists in Yemen linked to al-Qa'ida. This information is still to be verified.
Amsterdam's Schipol aiport, where Abdulmutallab boarded for Detroit, is one of the world's most high-security airports.
Schipol is understood to be testing a new generation of screening equipment, called backscatter body scanners, although it is not known at this stage if this device was used for Abdulmutallab's flight.
While some reports said yesterday explosive materials were hidden on his body, one claimed more specifically that powder was sewn into his underpants.
It was also claimed he mixed the powder with liquid from a syringe, part of which was found near his seat after the explosion. The small quantity may not have been sufficient to do wider damage to the plane.
If explosives were attached to Abdulmutallab's body, the only way to have detected them would have been a body search.
Several Republicans yesterday accused Barack Obama of failing to take notice of early signs of terrorism. Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said: "We came very, very close to losing that plane."
The US President, who is holidaying with his family in Hawaii, was briefed on the incident and did not return home early to Washington. The Australian
 If there is an American remaining who does not understand that the Islamic revolution is at war with our nation and the West, then they are in serious denial.
For general purposes, it began with the Iranian revolution that overthrew a U.S. ally, the Shah of Iran, in 1979 and then took our diplomats hostage, holding them for 444 days.
Only recently have we learned that Iran has been providing sanctuary to the family of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11 and an earlier attempt to destroy the Twin Towers.
This raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s first year in which considerable effort was made to open diplomatic communications with Iran, the primary source of all the conflicts in the Middle East as the guide and funding source for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and the provider of weapons against our troops in Iraq.
No Middle Eastern nation is safe from Iran, least of all its obsession, Israel. Its quest for nuclear weapons is not merely just another nation seeking to join the Nuclear Club.
On Christmas day, Abdul Farouk Abdul-Mutallab, aka Umar Farouk Abdul Madallad, a 23-year-old Nigerian and former engineering student at University College in London, attempted to set off an explosive device over the U.S. as Delta-Northwest Flight 253 was soon to land in Detroit.
Eight years ago this past week, Richard Reed, aka Abdul Raheem and Tariq Raja, tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami. There is an important message to be understood from these two incidents and it is the contempt for both Christianity and Judaism that Islam has always displayed. It’s worth remembering that Israel was attacked in 1973 on Yom Kippur, one of its holiest days.
The other message is that al Qaeda’s war on the West and its quest for the establishment of a new caliphate to rule the world is far from over.
The fact that the vast intelligence gathering machinery of the United States, in cooperation with that of many other nations, have not been able to find and kill Osama bin Laden and his colleagues has been a major failure.
In 2007, Strategic Forecasting released a report saying, “All signs indicate this group is no longer functional and cannot be replicated. Whether or not Osama bin Laden is still alive, al Qaeda as it once was is dead.”
There are ample signs of life from al Qaeda and events in Somalia and Yemen suggest that some elements of it are still very much alive. One of Osama bin Laden’s earliest goals was to replace the Saudi Arabian monarchy.
It does not help that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has, during the first year of the Obama administration and its Secretary, Janet Napolitano, refused to even use the word “terrorism” throughout 2009. It does not help that President Obama has gone out of his way to display his sympathies for Islam.
What I have found interesting is the way the perpetrators of acts of terrorism against the West frequently involve well educated Muslims willing to die for Islam, but not before killing large numbers of innocent infidels, “unbelievers”, in places like U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, against the citizens of Madrid, London, and, of course, New York.
After attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan following 9/11 and then ridding Iraq of its dictator, Saddam Hussein, I am beginning to believe that former President Bush had a better understanding of the threat of militant Islam than anyone has ever given him credit for. As war-weary as Americans may be at this point, the fact is we have a fairly substantial military engagement precisely where it needs to be in the heart of the Middle East.
Reducing our troop levels now or even in the near future is very likely a very bad idea.
Something is very wrong in the Obama administration’s decision to give Khalid Sheikh Muhammad a civil trial in New York. It defies the obvious fact that he is an enemy combatant who should be subject to a military tribunal, not the full rights of an American citizen. The decision goes beyond just being stupid. It makes New York City “ground zero” for another spectacular attack in 2010.
In large and small ways, the Obama administration betrays sympathies for al Qaeda’s larger mission and the election of a President who spent several years of his youth in a Muslim nation as the step-son of a Muslim father, and whose very first message as President was an interview with Al Jezeera, the popular television channel that serves the Middle East, does not bode well for our national security.
Al Qaeda has sent America a Christmas message. Are we paying sufficient attention to the one the White House is sending?
 The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef hid his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation. The prince was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August attack.
Several news reports this week have said the assailant hid the bomb inside his rectum, but according to the Saudi official, the government assessment discounted those reports, based on various factors. Among them: When the bomb went off there was a flash of light, suggesting that the bomb was not hidden inside the assassin's body. Also, doctors consulted by the government judged that the toxicity of the plastic explosives would make them hard to hold for many hours inside the rectum, and the environment in this area of the body would make detonation "difficult," according to the Saudi official close to the investigation. The Saudis said they think the bomb weighed 100 grams and was made with a plastic explosive, to avoid detection by metal detectors through which the would-be assassin had to pass before he was allowed to meet with the prince. The official said the explosive was PETN, which was used by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines flight between Paris, France, and Miami, Florida, in December 2001. The Saudis are exploring the possibility that the prince's assailant exploded the device using a detonator that used a chemical fuse, which would not be detected by a metal detector. The would-be assassin -- a Saudi member of al Qaeda who had fled to Yemen, identified as Abdullah Hassan al Asiri -- posed as a member of the terror group willing to surrender personally to Prince Nayef. Prince Nayef is responsible for overseeing the kingdom's terrorist rehabilitation program, and some two dozen important members of al Qaeda previously have surrendered to him in person, according to the Saudi government official. During the month of Ramadan, traditionally a time of repentance in the Muslim world, al Asiri gained an audience with the prince at his private residence in Jeddah, presenting himself as someone who could also persuade other militants to surrender. Under the cover of pretending that he was reaching out to other militants to surrender, al Asiri briefly called other members of al Qaeda to tell them that he was standing by Prince Nayef. After finishing the call, the bomb blew up, killing al Asiri but only slightly injuring the prince, who was a few feet away from his would-be assassin. The Saudi government official characterized the prince's narrow escape as a "miracle." Source: CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Home Office has signed an extradition order that will send accused terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri to the United States for prosecution, CNN has confirmed. Al-Masri, a one-eyed, hook-handed preacher, already is imprisoned in Britain for inciting racial hatred at his North London mosque. His legal team has 14 days to appeal the decision. If he does not appeal, he could be handed over to U.S. authorities within 28 days. A Home Office representative said it is likely Al-Masri will appeal the decision, but they have heard nothing from his lawyers. Al-Masri, who lost both hands and one eye working in Afghanistan, is the highest-profile radical Islamic figure in Britain. Read more ...Source: CNN
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On August 28, the Saudi Arabian deputy minister of interior, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, (pictured) survived a bombing attack launched by an al Qaeda cell based in Yemen, Saudi Arabia's southern neighbor.
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