Posted on 12/29/2009 11:57:00 PM PST by myknowledge
The Dutch military police are investigating reports that an accomplice may have helped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab board Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam on Christmas day without a passport.
Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up the Detroit-bound plane with an explosive chemical called “PETN” he smuggled through security. He was charged on Saturday with trying to destroy an airplane, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Meanwhile, a Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
But Dutch authorities have dismissed claims that Abdulmutallab boarded the flight without a passport. A spokesman for its counter-terrorism office said: “He had a passport and a valid visa for the United States and KLM had clearance on the passenger list to carry him to the US.”
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Michigan, (see photo on right) talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the same flight as Abdul Mutallab by sending a picture of his boarding pass to the website. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight 253 on Friday.
Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man. Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab’s lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn’t see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
Haskell described Mutallab as a diminutive man who looks like a teenager.
As Mutallab was being led out of the plane in handcuffs, Haskell said he realized that was the same man he saw trying to board the plane in Amsterdam.
About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.
Maybe this is an invisible passport, like a certain other Muslim’s Hawaiian Birth Certificate......
If this was a Northwest Airlines flight, why does all the video I've seen show a Delta plane?
Northwest was purchased by Delta and sometimes runs their planes on NW’s routes.
I didn’t know that Delta had purchased NW. Thanks.
It is impossible to board without a passport in Holland. In fact everyone in The Netherlands need always to be able to show their ID, it is the law. So wherever you are, in the train, your car, a shop, your house, on the street, you have to bring your ID with you.
Bring on the grand jury investigation. This is a major cover-up. Will conservatives circle the wagons around Obama?
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