There are two new minor details in the UndieBomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s, case. He was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing tomorrow, but his lawyer, Anthony Chambers, just submitted a waiver of Abdulmutallab’s presence at the hearing, and the judge rescheduled the hearing for two weeks later. This is significant only insofar as it’ll prevent him from firing Chambers, as he fired his public defenders in September.
In another filing submitted yesterday, Chambers asks for the file the public defender kept during the time they represented Abdulmutallab. Here’s the interesting bit about that request:
That counsel herein further believes that the file contains expert information which disputes the governments allegations and furthermore, that the alleged attempt to “destroy an aircraft” was impossible!
Now, I’ve seen reports to that effect on the Toobz. For example, a terrorism and explosives expert did a rough reenactment of the UndieBombing attempt, and found it would not have destroyed the plane.
Dr John Wyatt, an international terrorism and explosives adviser to the UN, replicated the conditions on board the Detroit flight on a decommissioned Boeing 747 at an aircraft graveyard in Gloucestershire, England .
Wyatt used the same amount of the explosive pentaerythritol that the bomber carried, about 80 grams, which packs about the punch of a hand grenade. They put it on the same seat and lit off a controlled explosion, which sent a shock wave through the aluminum exterior.
The metal was permanently bowed out, and a handful of rivets were punched out, but no gaping holes appeared. The pressurized air inside the cabin would have slowly leaked out .
Wyatt and his cohorts say that wouldn’t have been life-threatening, and it wouldn’t have brought down the plane. However, the blast would probably have killed the bomber and the person next to him
But this suggests some expert actually told the Public Defender’s office that the UndieBomber was never able to destroy the plane he was on.
The entire flying public is now subject to gate grope because of Abdulmutallab. Is it possible that, all this time, he was never a competent threat to the plane he was on?
Then again, given that the FBI now seems to be routinely entrapping people into trying to set off inert bombs the FBI made, I’m not sure it’ll make a difference in court.