A glance at the Christmas Day Northwest Airlines incident

As the media continues to fact check the reports surrounding the Northwest Airlines flight that made an emergency landing after a passenger attempted to detonate an explosive during landing, there are many questions that remain about the incident being described as an "Al-Qaida linked terrorist plot." According to the latest reports, the perpetrator was 23-year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student at the University of London. It has been broadcast that he acquired the device from Yemen. This plot, if indeed Al-Qaida derived, could hold a great deal of information for the future of forecasting terror plots.


It is unknown whether or not the device did indeed originate in Yemen, however if it did and is traced to Al-Qaida it is unlikely the leadership for the group was involved in such a seemingly small-scale, traditional attack. This did not involve any new techniques, and is almost identical to the Richard Reid attempt almost exactly eight years ago. However, the use of a Nigerian by Al-Qaida is interesting as Africans have continued to be involved with recent Al-Qaida operations since 9/11.


The question remains whether or not this was an individual acting independently and is sympathetic to the jihadist movement or indeed took orders from Al-Qaida leadership. If he did and the plot is traced back to Yemen, the next question is was this plot created by Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, which has traditionally stuck to attacking Saudi Arabia and Yemen but has expressed goals to perpetrate attacks in the West. If this is the group's first attempt to attack the U.S., acting independent of Al-Qaida central in Pakistan, this is a bold move made from what used to be an Al-Qaida franchise.


The question being if that this individual was in a database, is this another failure similar to the Fort Hood disaster of "rating" the threat level of individuals based on limited surveillance? While not on the "no fly list", Abdulmutallab was in a federal database. It would be safe to assume that he was being monitored by British authorities as well. How he got what was reportedly a liquid explosive device aboard despite restrictions after the 2006 transAtlantic bomb plot proves that we are still vulnerable.


In my opinion, this was not the next Al-Qaida attack. After being significantly weakened as the global jihadist movement due to a hiatus after the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaida needs a powerful attack to reinforce its image in the Muslim world. Why would a terrorist detonate the explosive in the final stages of a nearly 4,000 mile flight? My concern rests in the ability to perpetrate attacks similar to Mumbai, which provided the terrorists with nearly 2 days of nonstop international coverage as they held hostages and killed people indiscriminately. I do believe that not enough safeguards have been taken to prevent such an attack, and that it could be achieved in another major city with relative ease. We are still vulnerable and this attempt proves that one breach is all it takes for another tragedy.