The
underwear bomber’s explosives failed to go off during the 2009 Christmas Day
plot because he wore the potentially deadly underwear for three weeks before
trying to detonate them, FBI agents involved in the investigation said.
Two FBI agents told the ABC News’
Detroit affiliate WXYZ that when the bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
confessed to the plot, he went on to say that he had worn the explosive
underwear for three weeks to get used to it and make sure he could get it
through security.
“We think ultimately, that probably
is what caused a little bit of separation in the sequence of events in the
explosion,” said FBI agent Ted Peissig, who interrogated Abdulmutallab.
Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty last
year to attempting to blow up
Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on
Christmas Day in 2009.
He was able to get through security
and onto the plane, but the underwear bomb he was wearing failed to detonate.
Instead, it caught fire, severely burning Abdulmutallab.
He was given multiple life sentences,
and the agents revealed to WXYZ that Abdulmutallab was not recruited by al
Qaeda, but the other way around.
“He sought out al Qaeda
relentlessly,” another FBI agent on the case, Mike Connelly said. “He persisted
and he was almost turned away at times, you know, by al Qaeda. But he refused
to relent.”
Connelly was one of the FBI agents
tapped with travelling to Abdulmutallab’s hometown in Nigeria shortly after the
incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment