...They were sitting about 20 rows behind Abdulmutallab, in a center aisle with her husband and daughter a row ahead of her and their two new adopted children, a six-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy.Her daughter said that ahead of them was a man who videotaped the entire flight, including the attempted detonation.
"He sat up and videotaped the entire thing, very calmly," said Patricia. "We do know that the FBI is looking for him intensely. Since then, we've heard nothing about it."
"We heard what sounded like an electrical pop to me. Everybody looked above their seats, kind of like startled, panicked. Shortly thereafter, we heard the screams. We could not see what was going on. We were too far back. We heard shouting, and you could hear the mayhem happening.
At that point, two flight attendants ran at full speed to get fire extinguishers...
The obvious implication is that the mystery videotaper was there as part of the Al Qaeda team. His job, presumably, was to document the attempt in the event if failed to come off "successfully":
• Was the bomber detected ahead of the planned detonation and, if so, how?
• How would the crew and passengers react once the fuse was lit?
• What methods would those aboard use to defeat the threat if indeed the bomb failed to ignite?
In other words, Al Qaeda presumably wanted to learn from any failure by taping the entire incident.
And if the mystery taper was able to deplane and transmit the video back to Al Qaeda, it represents another major tactical failure for Janet Napolitano and the Obama administration's "War on Man-Made Disasters".
Update: Ace has a few other points-of-view -- including the fact that the mystery dude could have been trying to live-blog the entire incident, "successful" or not:
...Perhaps it's a back-up plan -- if the bombing fails, this guy can still probably get off the plane, and upload the video for the world's horror, thus completing the important terror step in terrorism, even minus the actual mayhem and death... [and] f this plane had Go-Go in-flight internet... maybe he was periodically streaming video to some server in Dubai or something.
Hat tip: Drudge Report. Linked by: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin and Patterico (who prods us to use the newfangled term 'videographer' as opposed to 'videotaper'. What-ever.). Thanks!
9 comments:
the video wouldn't have survied a successful attack.
ergo - imho - it's nothing.
You appear to have missed the point. The video was for use in an unsuccessful attack, to find out what went "wrong" and prevent such a "failure" in the future. In the case of a successful attack, well, the attack would have worked, with no need to debug it.
Of course, this wealthy and privileged young zealot could have been a tool, supplied with incendiary device that intentionally malfunctioned, for whatever reason - training, fear, panic, low budgets? Maybe to focus TSA on underpants, rather than...armpits? Anal cavities? Breast implants?
The video is a fascinating twist...I can't imagine a suicide volunteer signing up to merely tape a terror event without wanting to fully participate in the death and destruction. Makes one wonder...
We are at war, they -the stateless muslim terrorists - have infrastructure, Bush wasn't behind this terror attack.
People are so stupid.
I wouldn't put it passed this 'mob' organized crime to make these killer kill 2 or 3 real people by beheading to prove they are ready for prime time.
Its kind of a tough sell too for a suicide jihadi to be told "yeah, um, you just sit there and get martyred unless the thing doesnt go off, then tape what happens."
If I was a jihadi whacknut seeking paradise i'd be asking for a more heroic end than just sitting on a plane and blowing up, unless the bomb fails then I'm a videographer for Allah.
I dont think the videotaper was in on it. Not if the original intent was to blow up the plane.
If this was another dry-run using a doltish cast-off, however, where terrorist higher-ups maybe expected him to be caught and they wanted to test our reaction, then I could see the video tape dude being in on it. Video-taker guy has a name and address attached to a seat number. Go find him, coz there certainly appears to be more than this one Nigerian guy involved.
Considering the very large population of Muslim immigrants in the Detroit area, chances are the videotaper is in an al Queda safe house in the area and they already have the video of the failed terrorist attack.
It's a tough sell to a young suicide jihadi?? Are you kidding me? These people WANT TO die to get their 72 virgins, their ticket to see Allah and kill the infidels aka US! They are believers.
Is this the testimony of the Mom of a little girl. Yeah I'm sure a little girl is a reliable witness.
Wasn't everybody on the plane detained for like more than 6 hours, so the FBI could interview all of them? I read that.
Why sit in your seat (hello Mr.Reid)
and try to detonate in front of an audience? Were all the washrooms full?
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