Christmas firecracker leads to al Qaeda scare

A Nigerian man, identified as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, attempted to detonate an explosive mixture of powder and chemicals on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 upon approach to land in Detroit.  The device failed as passengers rushed the man.  Abdulmutallab sustained second degree burns, consistent with firecrackers of a similar chemical composition.  Something I myself have witnessed before, just not on a plane and without the intent of killing innocent people.

Back in my sophomore year of high school, I had chemistry with Mr. Jones.  Aside from his goofy antics and mastery of the field, Mr. Jones also had brilliant teaching methods.  To teach us about the law of expansion of gases, he showed how to make dry ice bombs (non-lethal...just very loud).  When the dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) reacted with the water inside the bottle, the dry ice experienced a rapid change of matter-state (from solid to gas) leading to a build up of pressure so robust, the bottle burst in an eruption of sound and water.  Very cool stuff to a 15-year-old.

When it came time to teach us about chemicals and how they are mixed, Jones displayed a layered combination of chemical powders (he wouldn't tell us what) and ignited the mixture with a liquid chemical ( essentially a firecracker).  The beaker containing the mixture blossomed with a brilliant display of colors with the visual aesthetic of a Fourth of July sparkler on crack and acid, tweeker flipping.

This appears to be the same combination by explanation through the press, of Abdulmutallab's concoction; the difference though is not by design but intention.  Jones sought to teach, Abdulmutallab sought to kill.  Problem being, firecrackers don't explode with deadly force.

As facts about this horrifying incident begin to fill the world wide web, few things have been declared that the FBI is verifying:

• Abdulmutallab is an engineering student from the University College of London, according to federal documents (many members of the Mujahideen financed by the CIA during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s were also engineering students, many Mujahid joined Osama bin Laden in the creation of al Qaeda)
• Abdulmutallab's name is in a law enforcement database, stated ABC News.
• Abdulmutallab is on a suspected terrorist watchlist, stated Rep. Peter King (R-NY) member of the Committee on Homeland Security.
  
• Abdulmutallab allegedly has affiliations with al Qaeda and received the device along with instructions while in Yemen.
  

As the events of September 11, 2001, appear to be an act of deadly desperation on a grand scale, as the hijackers for some reason required $100,000 wired to them by ISI (Pakistan's CIA) in the months proceeding 911;  we can see now that years later, just shy of a decade, al Qaeda is strapped for cash and short on resources (assets, intelligence, and innovation).

I don't know how to make a bomb, but I could find out.  Sad to say as it is these devices have been around for far long, and discovering the proper combination of chemicals to cause an explosion sizable enough to level an air plane is not difficult.  But I know for fact, that a firecracker couldn't even blow up some of my model airplanes gracing my attic, let alone a jet liner.  Bad students do bad work, lucky al Qaeda inspired and hired a class clown.

For the events of today on Northwest Flight 253 clue us into the fact that, we've gotten to them and they are hurting.

We have seen attempts like this before.

Just eight years ago, Richard Reid, an al Qaeda operative, attempted to detonate an explosive device in his shoe.  That failed, he's in jail.  Suffice to say, a fate Abdulmutallab shall suffer shortly.

But this is old technique played out on an American people that have become by default of survival, feverishly paranoid towards the inevitability of another terrorist attack via plane.

Why?  Success on our behalf.

The war in Afghanistan has waged now for eight years, since then we've heard a stream of upper al Qaeda operatives and commanders falling to the prey of American muscle and missile.

Essentially, they have become lame in their attempts, and scattered to a degree of unsophistication that was once their edge against the Western World.  The guerrillas have run out of bananas, leaving few peels for U.S. to slip up on.

Which is how we wrap around to today.  This attempt is an act of desperation to keep control of psyche.  As long as we fear of an inevitable attack because of ones in proximal history, the tactics of al Qaeda are successful.  As soon as we shed this fear, their house of cards collapses before their eyes.

Yesterday, reports from the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, Iran disclosed that one of Osama bin Laden's daughters just showed up.  Officials at the embassy had no clue she was in the country, nor how she entered.

After running around Afghanistan and flying around the northern provinces of Pakistan for eight years, bin Laden has eluded U.S. captivity like a fox...or perhaps not.  Out foxed us in the sense that we've been searching in all the old holes while he's moved on, true.  Yet cracks from his steps are beginning to show.

His age is turning against him, his dream of Islamic supremacy is fading with his eye sight, and the ranks of his "base" are thinning; these are the acts and ploys of a desperate man on edge, shall he fall soon?  We shall see...