subject: Terrorist Who Hid Bomb In His Kids Underwear Will Represent Himself In Court [print this page] Now this is never a good decision.
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Muslim Nigerian citizen who tried to terrorize a plane with a device he was hiding in his kids underwear, has opted to fire his defense team and represent himself.
Now, anyone even slightly familiar with the practice of law is aware that representing yourself is rarely a good idea. Not to mention, there are other factors in play explain why the decision by the kids underwear bomber to represent himself in court: mainly that he has zero familiarity with American law and has almost less experience with the English language.
Abdulmutallab, who is also referred to as Umar Abdul Mutallab or Omar Farooq al-Nigeri, is the 23-year-old son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, one of the richest men in Africa. He was added to the United States 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment in November of 2009.... However, his U.S. visa remained in place, allegedly to prevent foiling a larger investigation into al-Qaida.
So how did he go from there to being the guy with plastic explosives in his kids underwear? According to The New York Times, "officials said the suspect told them he had obtained plastic explosives that were sewn into his underwear and a syringe from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda."
It was a little over a month after being added to the 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list that Abdulmutallab had his confrontation with the law. On Christmas Day 2009, Abdulmutallab boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. As the flight approached its destination, Abdulmutallab allegedly went to the bathroom for 20 minutes, returned to his seat and pulled a blanket over himself. Other passengers detected a horrible smell, and then someone discovered Abdulmutallab's leg was on fire, as was the wall of the plane. A passenger named Jasper Schuringa subdued the suspect while a flight attendant put out the fire, and a device consisting of a six-inch packet containing the explosive PETN was found in the kids underwear.
Following his arrest (and a two-day stay in a Michigan hospital with first and second degree burns to the hand and legs), Abdulmutallab became Federal Bureau of Prisons Register #44107-039. He is currently being held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Michigan.
Currently, his kids underwear explosion stunt has him facing charges of attempting to blow-up a U.S. civil aircraft, placing a destructive device on a U.S. civil aircraft, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, and attempted murder of 289 people. In the very likely scenario that Abdulmutallab is convicted on these charges, he will face a life sentence plus 90-years in prison.
And now Abdulmutallab has made perhaps his biggest mistake of all, dismissing his court-appointed defense team earlier this month in order to defend himself. Something tells us that's not going to work, either.
by: Mark Etinger
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