'Underwear bomber' pleads guilty (BLOG)

DETROIT — A Nigerian man purportedly trained by al-Qaida pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to blow up an international flight on Christmas Day 2009 with a bomb in his underwear, taking a federal court by surprise on the second day of his trial.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told the court that the bomb was a "blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims."

Abdulmutallab answered questions from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder.

"Are you therefore pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?" Edmunds asked.

"That's right, yes," Abdulmutallab replied.

Edmunds reviewed the charges and possible penalties with Abdulmutallab before he entered his pleas, including that he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.


He's accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. The bomb didn't work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire.

Prosecutors' evidence was stacked high. Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaida and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen.

There are also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S.

At the start of his trial on Tuesday, prosecutors told jurors that moments before he allegedly attempted to bring down the American jetliner, Abdulmutallab retreated to the plane's lavatory for a long cleansing ritual to prepare for death.

Abdulmutallab prayed, washed himself, brushed his teeth and put on perfume, then returned to his seat and tried to detonate a bomb in his underwear, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel said in his opening statement.

Virtually everyone else aboard the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight had holiday plans back on Christmas Day 2009, but Abdulmutallab believed his calling was martyrdom, Turkel said.

Abdulmutallab told U.S. law enforcement officials that he was on a martyrdom mission for al-Qaida and received the bomb and training from militants in Yemen.

Al-Qaida's Yemen-based arm claimed responsibility for the plot, which also was praised by Osama bin Laden months before the al-Qa-da leader was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

After the thwarted attack, the Obama administration moved to strengthen U.S. airline security by deploying full-body scanners to try to detect explosives that could be hidden in a passenger's clothing.