The man who stopped Mutallab

The mainstream U.S. media sources I have seen have spoken in vague terms about passengers overcoming Abdul Mutallab on the Northwest flight into Detroit. But it wasn’t “passengers.” It was a passenger, a Dutchman named Jasper Schuringa. The Gates of Vienna website translates a Dutch news story which tells about the man who actually subdued the terrorist and may well have prevented an explosion that would have brought down the plane.

Dutchman overpowers terrorist on A’dam-Detroit flight

The 32-year-old Jasper Schuringa overpowered the Nigerian terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab (23) on board the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit and prevented a terrorist attack.

Schuringa, an entrepreneur from Amsterdam, saw Abdulmutallab rise from his seat and light something. He dived right on top of the terrorist and knew he had to overpower him, he told CNN. Schuringa kept Abdulmutallab in a headlock until after landing.

[De Telegraaf adds: “He climbed over other, frightened passengers to storm the terrorist [ … ] when he saw what the guy was doing. When he had beaten the man down, he dragged him to the front of cabin and then extinguished the flames. [ … ] The terrorist had heavy burn wounds on his legs.”]

After the landing he was treated like a hero, says Lydia Faber, a partner in media company owned by the Amsterdam citizen. [LA adds: Of course, none of this was in the New York Times, the AP, and elsewhere.]

Schuringa’s parents indicated they are “very proud” of him. A friend of Schuringa’s, Kasem Challiou, says that the terrorist was packed with explosives. “It definitely was not fireworks, but very serious,” says Schuringa’s friend, who spoke to him after the failed attack. PVV-leader Geert Wilders wants Schuringa to be given an award.

Initially Delta Airlines reported that the man had lit fireworks in the aircraft. Later, U.S. authorities announced that it was a serious attack.

Schiphol

The big question is how the 23-year-old terrorist managed to get explosives on board the aircraft. Staff from the Royal Military Police and the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb) are investigating how this could happen. The FBI is also at Schiphol to investigate how the man was able to walk around the airport for three hours with explosives in his bag.

Twenty minutes before landing in Detroit the Nigerian Abdulmutallab took a powdery substance, mixed it with a liquid and brought it to ignition. This triggered a short series of explosions and caused the smell of burning.

The offender told the authorities that he had taped the explosive powder to his leg. He also said he used a syringe filled with chemicals. By mixing the two with each other the thing should have exploded. He says he acted on behalf of the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 26, 2009 03:33 PM | Send