underpant bomber jail for life in USA

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God is great, says underpants bomber as he is jailed for life
So-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab shouted 'God is great' as he was led from court after being sentenced to life in prison.

Handing down multiple life sentences, US District Judge Nancy Edmunds criticised the Nigerian al-Qaeda sympathiser for failing to show remorse, adding: "This is a just punishment."
Earlier, passengers and crew on Fight 253 from Amsterdam gave dramatic testimony about the moment Abdulmutallab attempted to set light to explosives smuggled in his underwear minutes before landing in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
The 25-year-old did not make eye contact as several described how the failed attack had devastated their lives.
Mother-of-two Shama Chopra from Montreal handed Abdulmutallab a rosary, telling the defendant: "As a mother, I feel for you. But you had no right to take my life."
Lamare Mason, a Northwest Flight attendant based in Detroit who put out the flames when Abdulmutallab tried to detonate the bomb, said: "Since that day, my life has changed.

"I had a dream job traveling the world. This man has stolen and robbed me of the pleasure of going to work."
Mr Mason said he woke up in night with sweats because of the incident and has been in therapy. "His intentions were to end our lives," he added.
Another passenger, Theophilus Maranga, a New York immigration lawyer said he and his family prayed for Abdulmutallab, but that he was now afraid to fly following the incident.
"I don't believe in killing anyone in the name of God," Mr Maranga told the court.
Earlier in the hearing, Abdulmutallab lost an attempt to have the sentence reduced on the grounds that no one was injured in his failed attempt to bring down the Northwest Airlines flight.
He had already pleaded guilty to the attack, which left him with a badly burnt groin and caused panic on the plane.
Judge Edmunds rejected arguments by Abdulmutallab's lawyer that a punishment of life sentences for each of the passengers on board was unconstitutional because they were never at risk of death or serious injury.
Prosecutors also won a legal argument allowing them to screen an FBI video showing the damage which explosives of the quantity believed to have been carried by Abdulmutallab could cause.
As the video was played, the Nigerian shouted; "God is great, God is great," a cry he repeated as he was led from the court.
Nearly 300 passengers were on board the flight they were invited to address the sentencing hearing, but only a handful expressed an interest in taking up the offer.
Now 25, Abdulmatallab is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker.
At an earlier hearing, he admitted being an al-Qaeda operative, and that he had carried out the plot to blow up the plane minutes before it landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on behalf of the terror group.
After performing a ritual cleansing in the airplane's bathroom, he returned to his seat and attempted to ignite the device he carried in his underwear. However, it produced smoke and small flames but did not cause any serious damage.
He changed his plea to guilty on the second day of his trial, saying he had been carrying a "blessed weapon" to avenge Muslims who have been killed or poorly treated around the world.
"The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them ... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," he said.

 

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DETROIT (AP) — Defiantly declaring "a day of victory," a Nigerian man was given a mandatory life sentence Thursday for trying to blow up a packed jetliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear. People aboard the flight testified that the failed attack had disturbed their sleep and travels for more than two years.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the same remorseless man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges related to Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He seemed to relish the mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
"Mujahideen are proud to kill in the name of God," he said. "Today is a day of victory."
Had the bomb not fizzled, nearly 300 people aboard the flight would probably have been killed.
The case stirred renewed fears that terrorists could still bring down an American jetliner more than eight years after 9/11, and it accelerated installation of body scanners at the nation's airports.
Before Thursday's sentencing, four passengers and a crew member from the flight told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that they have struggled to live and travel normally since the incident on Christmas Day 2009.
During their remarks, Abdulmutallab appeared disinterested, rarely looking up from his seat just a few feet away.
Abdulmutallab "has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission," Edmunds said. "In contrast, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission."
Life in prison is a "just punishment for what he has done," the judge said. "The defendant poses a significant ongoing threat to the safety of American citizens everywhere."
Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old, European-educated son of a wealthy banker, tried to set off the bomb minutes before the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight landed.
The government says he first performed a cleansing ritual in the lavatory — brushing his teeth and perfuming himself — then returned to his seat. The device didn't work as planned, but it still produced smoke, flame and panic.
He was subdued by fellow passengers and quickly confessed after getting hauled off the plane. He told authorities that he trained in Yemen under the eye of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.
The judge allowed prosecutors to show a video of the FBI demonstrating the power of the explosive material called PETN found in Abdulmutallab's underwear. As the video played, Abdulmutallab, who was wearing a white skull cap and oversized prison T-shirt, twice said loudly, "Allahu akbar," or God is great.
Lemare Mason, a Detroit-based flight attendant who helped put out the flames, told the judge that he suffers night sweats and his "dream job" no longer is a "joy."
Passenger Shama Chopra, founder of a Hindu temple in Montreal, left Muslim prayer beads for Abdulmutallab on the defense table after her testimony. She recalled smelling his burning flesh inside the plane's cabin, a moment "that gives me nightmares to this day."
Theophilus Maranga, a New York lawyer who was aboard the plane, said he was disgusted by Abdulmutallab's continued references to religion as justification.
"What kind of God is that? God is peace-loving," Maranga said in court, adding that he prays daily for Abdulmutallab.
Because he was a passenger, Detroit-area lawyer Kurt Haskell was allowed to publicly repeat his wild claim that the U.S. government outfitted Abdulmutallab with a defective bomb partly to force the rollout of body-imaging machines at airports.
Abdulmutallab's mentor, Al-Awlaki, and the bomb maker were killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last year, just days before Abdulmutallab's trial. At the time, President Barack Obama publicly blamed al-Awlaki for the terrorism plot.
Abdulmutallab is an "unrepentant would-be mass murderer who views his crimes as divinely inspired and blessed, and who views himself as under a continuing obligation to carry out such crimes," prosecutors said in a court filing.
Nine members of Abdulmutallab's family traveled to Detroit but did not attend Thursday's hearing. They said they were grateful that no one else was seriously hurt.
In a statement, the relatives said everyone who knew Abdulmutallab thought of him as the "last person" who would attack an airliner for al-Qaida.
Anthony Chambers, an attorney assigned to help Abdulmutallab, said a mandatory life sentence was cruel and unconstitutional punishment for a crime that didn't physically hurt anyone except Abdulmutallab. The government insisted plenty of harm had been done.
"Unsuccessful terrorist attacks still engender fear in the broader public, which, after all, is one of their main objectives," prosecutors said in a court filing before sentencing.
Indeed, Alain Ghonda, a consultant from Silver Spring, Md., who was a passenger on Flight 253, said he now travels the globe with heightened awareness.
"After having that experience, you do not know who's sitting next to you," Ghonda said before Thursday's hearing. "They may look like passengers, but they might want to harm you."
Abdulmutallab's ability to defeat security in Amsterdam spurred the Transportation Security Administration to make swift changes.
The agency was using body scanners in some American cities at the time, but the attack accelerated their placement. Hundreds of the devices are now in use nationwide.