Yemen says bombing suspect's visa had expired

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press via WLOS ABC-13

December 31, 2009 09:48 EST

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- Security officials in Yemen say the Nigerian man suspected of trying to bomb a U.S. airliner stayed in Yemen illegally after his visa expired.

Yemeni officials say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's student visa expired in late September, but he didn't leave the country until the first week in December.

The officials say Yemen's airport authorities and passport control should have prevented him from departing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with the media.

The director of a language institute where Abdulmutallab had been studying Arabic says he thought the Nigerian had left the country on Sept. 21, when the school had arranged for a taxi to take him to the airport ...

Read more: http://www.wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.international/2ad6d2f1-www.wlos.com.shtml

[KansDem]

1. This is getting weirder...

So this student had both an expired visa and no passport, yet he was able to board an international flight to the United States?

[dipsydoodle]

2. The visa reference

is only material to the Yemem. Where did you pick up that he had no passport ? Without a passport he should've been returned to the Yemen on reaching Amsterdam i.e first landing within the EU.

[KansDem]

9. After checking news sites and DU threads, I'm now confused...

Check out this DU thread:
Myth: Flight NW253 Terrorist Boarded The Flight With No Passport

It was originally reported the passenger had no passport and required a third party to intervene on his behalf.

Now I'm really confused...:crazy:

[merh]

12. and according to the Dutch, he did have a proper passport

and US visa.

Yemen visa was so he could remain in Yemen as a student, that is what the article that is the OP is about.

[yodoobo]

3. The Bush TSA security system failed

and failed big time.

This is yet another Bush mess that President Obama will need to look into.

[Egalitariat]

6. If that is true 11 months after Obama took office, then who's security apparatus failed on 9/11?

[No Elephants]

13. That of the United States of America.

Every President from Reagan to Dummya failed us on terrorism. And now, I add Obama, too.

I let Jimmy Carter off the hook only because he saw only one incident--the Munich Olympics, and I don't think that alone was enough to alert him the terrorism was going to keep escalating. But, I'll even throw him under the bus if necessary to make my point.

Our lives and those of our descendants are at stake here. It's time we hold government accountable for these failures, regardless of which Party controls the Oval Office at the time, and stop worrying whether Clinton was more or less at fault than Bush, or vice versa.

[yodoobo]

14. George Bush failed there too

fwiw, the Obama bashing on this site is getting really sickening.

That aside, it was BUSH that ignored security warnings before 9/11


Obama ignored no warnings on this and acted swiftly and appropriately.

Both failures are Bush failures and it is that simple.

[No Elephants]

16. Sorry, our embassy had been warned about this guy by name, BY HIS OWN FATHER.

And, without even knowing that, the CIA was keeping an eye on him, even though agents knew him only as "the Nigerian guy. And, he was on the UK's no fly list. Despite all that, he was not on our list of people who should get extra scrutiny in airports. I believe we also knew of a Christmas attack, but not necessarily that "the Nigerian guy" would be the perp of that attack. However, we did have intelligence of an attack coming out of Yemen and also had intelligence that "a Nigerian" was being prepared to carry out "an" attack.

Obama called this a massive failure, but you call it bashing Obama. Go figure.

[Egalitariat]

23. Didn't this guy's dad shout from the rooftops that his son was a terrorist

including showing up at one of our embassies with the terrorist's name, rank, and serial number -- and nobody did a fucking thing?

George Bush left office 11 months ago. He's not the one that fucked this one up.

[No Elephants]

10. Bush has not been in office for a year. This is now Obama's TSA system.

[merh]

4. According to unnamed Yemen officials, his Yemen visa expired.

Do try to follow along.

So far, the security failures are Yemen's and the Dutch.

[dipsydoodle]

7. In what way were the Dutch at fault ?

:shrug:

[merh]

8. They admitted to their failure,

they had the equipment (the high tech sniffer machines and scanners) and they did not employ them for this flight. (Apparently they have been caught up in the controversy of the privacy concerns that these scanners present.)

[clear eye]

15. The Dutch didn't have sniffer machines,

they had microwave scanners that create virtual nudity, not to mention the controversial microwaves. That's why it seems some U.S. airlines discouraged the Dutch from using them on their passengers. I don't know why there is not a wider deployment of the sniffers. I wonder if they create too many alarms on people who are wearing clothes they wore previously during target practice or something?

The Dutch say they will soon have computers screening the scanners. People will only have to look when the computers alert to something suspicious.

[dipsydoodle]

18. But aside from that

it may be that entering the EU you just go through immigration control and then stay airside with checked luggage being transferred direct to the outbound flight - not sure but even if so would still probably go throught another check with hand luggage whatever. It also doesn't follow that he was "wearing" the chemicals at that point.

On the passport issue above to which you responded - he'd have needed a passport to leave Nigeria from whence he flew given that he arrived at Amsterdam on a Lagos flight - not from the Yemen.

The plot, like the gravey , thickens.

[No Elephants]

17. Please see Reply 16.

BTW, the Netherlands is one of few countries that uses body scanners that would have revealed the explosives, but the US has forbidden the Dutch to use them on folks bound for America.

[dipsydoodle]

21. Wouldn't want too many

contractors passing through to be detained. :sarcasm:

I doubt that concern was for your population in general.

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. A black op

Lieberman is chuckling into his Matzah ball soup today.

[marshall]

25. The report is that he (and his "Indian" accomplice) CLAIMED he didn't have a passport

Not that he didn't actually have one, or that he didn't produce one after he was pulled away from the gate. The passengers who have spoken up about this only say that they were telling the gate keepers that he didn't have a passport. That doesn't mean he didn't actually have one, just that for some reason they wanted to get him past the gate check without having to show his passport.

I've often said I don't have any money when asked. That doesn't mean I don't actually have any money in my pocket--it just means I don't want to use it.

[damntexdem]

5. Well that's certainly a relief! Oh wait -- they didn't act on it!

But that must have been some taxi ride. ;-)

[dipsydoodle]

20. If his Yemen visa had expired

the step would've actually have been deportation from the Yemen back to Nigeria - not detaining him in the Yemen. The fact it wasn't picked up on is a just red herring in context of this issue.

[pjt7]

19. Who was walking this go thru all the red lights &

do not go's?.....

This has the feel of a 9.11 fable.

[RedCloud]

22. Do we live in an incompetent planet or what?

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Also: Mutallab Spent Only 27 Mins in Country, Says (Nigerian) Govt

According to the Information and Communications Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili, in a statement, last night, Mutallab spent less than 30 minutes in Nigeria.

"Further investigations by the Nigerian Government have revealed that he arrived Nigeria on December 24 from Ghana via Nigeria Eagle, former Virgin Nigeria, airline.

"His passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 12.08 p.m and was scanned at check-in for departure for Amsterdam at 12.35 p.m."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200912310738.html

So the Nigerians are saying it's very unlikely he obtained/made the clothing in Nigeria.