Experts: Underwear bombing trial may look like slam dunk, but prosecutors should be wary

[mfcorey1]

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab isn't the typical terror suspect.

He was never under surveillance for any significant period of time.

He's alive and in custody -- unlike most suicide bombers.

There actually was an explosive in his case. And the government is prosecuting the actual bombing suspect, rather than those supporting his mission.

Experts say the case against Abdulmutallab should be a slam dunk for the federal government, which was humiliated in 2003 in a botched terrorism trial in Detroit. A judge tossed the convictions because of prosecutorial misconduct.

In Abdulmutallab's case, prosecutors have a confession and a planeload of witnesses who can testify he tried to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Dec. 25, 2009, with plastic explosives hidden in his underwear. They also say they have remnants of his burned underwear.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111010/NEWS06/110100346/Experts-Underwear-bombing-trial-may-look-like-slam-dunk-prosecutors-should-wary?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE