The EnvoyAttempted ‘underwear’ plane bomber pleads guilty at trial
Umar Farouk Abulmutallab, the Nigerian-born London University student charged with attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009, pled guilty on all counts on Wednesday, calling the explosives he had stored in his underwear a "blessed weapon."
"I plead guilty," Abdulmutallab, 23, told the judge at the trial in Detroit after changing his plea, ABC News' Jason Ryan reports. "The Koran allows every Muslim to undertake jihad. I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters... Unfortunately, my actions make me guilty of a crime."
Abdulmutallab had originally pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempting to blow up Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.
The son of a wealthy former Nigerian official who went to the American embassy to express concern about his missing son, Abdulmutallab allegedly told federal investigators after his apprehension that he had been trained by al Qaida's Yemeni affiliate and sent on the mission by the American-born radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Abdulmutallab, in his statement to the court Wednesday, said "that he was 'greatly inspired' by Awlaki" and insisted that al-Awlaki is still alive, Ryan reported.
The United States confirmed that al-Awlaki had been killed in Yemen earlier this month, apparently in a U.S. drone strike.
Abdulmutallab, who served as his own attorney at the trial, said he had attempted to down the airliner "because of the tyranny of the United States."
An attorney who advised him, Anthony Chambers, told journalists that it was Abdulmutallab's decision to change his plea to guilty, ABC News reported.
Abdulmutallab is scheduled to be sentenced on January 12.
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