The trial of a man accused of trying to blow up a commercial airliner with a bomb sewed into his underwear ended Wednesday, just a day after it had begun, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused, abruptly announced that he would plead guilty to all of the federal counts against him.
Prosecutors and federal agents seemed stunned, if pleased, and declared that the plea was evidence that the American court system, as opposed to a military tribunal, could bring a suitable outcome to a terrorism case. Anthony Chambers, a legal adviser assigned to Mr. Abdulmutallab, who was representing himself in court, said that he was disappointed with Mr. Abdulmutallab’s last-moment decision, but that it was entirely his choice.
Almost two years after fellow passengers flying aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 watched in panic and confusion as smoke and flames rose from Mr. Abdulmutallab’s lap, he pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes, including conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He was offered no deal from prosecutors in exchange for his plea. He faces sentencing in January, but prosecutors said the nature of some of the crimes he pleaded guilty to automatically required a life sentence with no chance of parole.
The choice appeared less a strategic legal calculation than an opportunity for Mr. Abdulmutallab, who has described himself as a member of Al Qaeda and who prosecutors say conspired in his plan with other members of Al Qaeda, to make a public statement certain to reach a wide audience.
After telling Judge Nancy G. Edmunds that he was indeed pleading guilty to each count against him, Mr. Abdulmutallab read a statement that he had written saying that his behavior may have violated American law but that it was in keeping with Muslim law, and that his efforts to harm Americans were retribution for American acts around the world.
“I attempted to use an explosive device which in the U.S. law is a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims, for U.S. use of weapons of mass destruction on Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and beyond,” Mr. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen in his 20s, said quietly and calmly. In repeated appearances in court, Mr. Abdulmutallab, the well-educated son of a wealthy family, has almost seemed to have two personas: a polite, silent observer who appeared small at the defense table, and an unruly onlooker who would suddenly yell out messages of support for Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, who was recently killed by a missile from an American drone. The American authorities have described him as a leading figure in a Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
“If you laugh at us now,” he said Wednesday, during the statement in open court that went on for several minutes, “we will laugh at you later.”
On Dec. 25, 2009, after almost eight hours of flying from Amsterdam, the plane was preparing to land in Detroit when a loud pop sounded from among the passengers. Some among the nearly 300 passengers quickly turned to Mr. Abdulmutallab, whose odd, specially designed undershorts were clearly burning. As a chaotic scene unfolded and the smoke grew thicker, passengers grabbed him from his seat, flight attendants extinguished the blaze and pilots made an emergency landing at the airport near Detroit.
The jarring end of a trial that had been expected to last a month drew praise from prosecutors, federal agents and other authorities. Many of them said the results offered a definitive counterpoint to critics who had argued for several years that terrorism cases — including this one — ought to be handled within a military system, not in the courts. Prosecutors here said that this case had proven that civilian court should remain an option.
In Washington, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, issued a statement on the verdict. “Contrary to what some have claimed, today’s plea removes any doubt that our courts are one of the most effective tools we have to fight terrorism and keep the American people safe,” he said. “Our priority in this case was to ensure that we arrested a man who tried to do us harm, that we collected actionable intelligence from him and that we prosecuted him in a way that was consistent with the rule of law.”
All along, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s trial had been expected to reveal far more than had been publicly known up about his ties to Al Qaeda, to Mr. Awlaki, the American-born cleric, and to an individual who prosecutors say provided him with an assignment to blow up a plane.
Any detailed testimony about Mr. Awlaki and his role in the attempted bombing of Northwest 253 had been likely to draw particular interest. But with the trial over, such details now appeared unlikely to emerge — at least here. Asked to elaborate on the Qaeda ties, Barbara L. McQuade, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, declined Wednesday to go beyond the broad outlines that had already come out in court.
In his own statement, Mr. Abdulmutallab talked specifically of Mr. Awlaki, but said little more than what was already known about their relationship: that he had listened to tape recordings of Mr. Awlaki. “I was greatly inspired to participate in jihad by the lectures of the great and rightly guided mujahedeen who is alive, Sheik Anwar al-Awlaki, may Allah preserve him and his family and give them victory,” he said.
Some of Flight 253’s passengers had been called to the courthouse here to testify as witnesses in the trial in the coming weeks. A few seemed puzzled by the swift end to the case, but also relieved to leave the episode behind.
Courtesy: The New York Times