Terrorist Attempt Update: Bomb Was Incendiary, Comprised of Mixed Liquids; Obama Only Notified Three Hours After Incident

AHFF Geoff noticed the WaPo editing its story to help Obama a touch.

First the article read:

A White House official said the incident was an attempted act of terrorism. The FBI is investigating and President Obama, celebrating Christmas in Hawaii, was told of the incident about three hours after the plane landed, officials said.

Well, we can't have Captain Wonderful being mocked like Bush was. So the new sentence:

The FBI is investigating the incident. President Obama, celebrating Christmas in Hawaii, was informed about it, a spokesman said, and he asked his aides to ensure that all measures are in place to provide security for air travel.

Elsewhere in the story they do say...

Obama was alerted to Friday's incident between 9 and 9:30 a.m. in Hawaii, which is five hours behind the East Coast.

...which still works out to a two to two and a half hour delay in informing the Savior of Man, but now they make you work out the math on your own.

I think Obama's people called and demanded the edit, don't you?

More:

A Nigerian man, claiming to be linked to al-Qaeda, allegedly tried to set off an incendiary device aboard a transatlantic airplane Friday as it descended toward Detroit's airport in what the White House called an attempted act of terrorism.

The man was quickly subdued after another passenger leapt on top of him, others on the plane said, and Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam landed safely around 1 p.m. Friday. The suspect was being treated at a hospital for burns he suffered while igniting the device...

The suspect[,] Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab[,] 23, attends University College London, where he studies engineering.

Although not on the TSA's "no-fly" list, Abdulmutallab's name appears to be included in the government's records of terrorism suspects, according to a preliminary review, authorities said.

Abdulmutallab has told federal investigators that he had ties to al-Qaeda and traveled to Yemen to collect the incendiary device and instructions on how to use it, according to a federal counterterrorism official briefed on the case. Authorities have yet to verify the claim, and they expect to conduct several more interviews before they determine whether he is credible, the official said.

Federal authorities have been told that Abdulmutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a syringe to mix chemicals with the powder while on the airplane, one official said.

But doing so "caused him to catch on fire," Richelle Keepman, who sat a few rows in front of Abdulmutallab, told WDIV-TV.

...

Officials described the device as incendiary rather than explosive, pending tests by forensics experts at the FBI. Incendiary devices generally deliver less of an impact than explosive devices.

AHFF Geoff also notes the three hour gap that went missing in the WaPo piece also shows up in a Politico article:

White House spokesman Bill Burton said President Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, was informed of the incident about three hours after the plane landed.

He (Geoff) points out the possibility of multiple attacks, possibly requiring fast reaction. So why was the President allowed to snooze in Hawaii undisturbed?

I'm trying to not get too partisan about this, but it sure seems to me that this evidences a casualness about terrorist incidents that seems pretty dangerous.

TERRORIST THREAT LEVEL RAISED! All the way from "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to "Hakuna Matada."

Posted in Error: The below question/implication is hereby retracted, as commenters inform me the "firecrackers" reports came from passengers and the captain, and newspaper accounts say so.

I apologize for the error. The below is left behind here just to avoid hiding my error. I've moved it out of the main post, though, as it should be quarantined off to no longer misled.

I blew this story off because Hot Air was reporting that officials were walking it back and calling the device mere "firecrackers."

This seems pretty far from the truth, and it doesn't seem like an error someone would make.

So I'd really like to know who the hell started putting out the word to the media that this was just a matter of some "firecrackers."

posted by Ace at 01:32 AM

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