[Updated at 3:35 p.m. ET] A Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to bring down a Christmas Day 2009 flight with an explosive device hidden in his underwear was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.
Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, 25, pleaded guilty in October to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, among other charges. Shortly before he was sentenced Thursday in a federal courtroom in Detroit, he argued a life sentence – for which prosecutors were arguing – would be "cruel and unusual punishment," as well as unconstitutional.
The judge rejected his argument.
U.S. officials say the terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula helped plot the bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, which was heading from the Netherlands to Detroit. Authorities say AbdulMutallab, a passenger, tried to ignite an explosive device that was hidden in his underwear shortly before the plane landed, but passengers and flight crew members subdued him and extinguished flames after the device briefly set him on fire.
The plane was carrying 289 people.
"As this investigation and prosecution have shown, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a remorseless terrorist who believes it is his duty to kill Americans," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a Justice Department news release after Thursday's sentencing. "For attempting to take the lives of 289 innocent people, he has been appropriately sentenced to serve every day of the rest of his life in prison.
"Today's sentence once again underscores the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in both incapacitating terrorists and gathering valuable intelligence from them."
When pleading guilty in October, AbdulMutallab told the court that he aimed to avenge "the killing of innocent Muslims" and "U.S. tyranny and oppression of Muslims."
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Stop making fun of Allah. I'm a muslim and I respect your relegions as well as everyone's. Those people you're talking about here have had their brains washed by some sick and twisted people taking advantage of young people instead of doing by themselves because they're full of lies, they're bunch of hypocrites and they never put their lives on the line instead. Those people in fact, Islam is way too far from them. Islam is all about doing Good never about doing Evil. I hope everyone understands where I'm coming from. God bless you. God bless America and every place else.
Life in prison with a burned up weiner. Sux to be him.
He *definitely* won't be the husband...
@banasy: LOL
lmfa off at you guys, how r u
Is that why mens briefs no longer have "that pocket" in front, rather they're sewn up, so nobody can pack C4 in there?
Jeff, you actually *used* that opening? O.o
@banasy: some of us have no choice..
Lee:
Sorry you came up with tje "short end of the stick", dear...
lol, oh no.. had to bust out somewhere, if ya follow.. gotta wrap it around my waist when i wear shorts..
@lee:
Ah.
The water is deep.
And cold.
Was the death penalty ever on the table for this terrorist?
@Patrick @ 8:17, ?????!!!!
If they want to blow themselves that's one thing, but blowing up their ass. Lets assume they blow up their ass and they aren't dead. What a dumb terrorist.
You guys are too funny!
I get yaw'll's guy humor on this but really this is no a laughing matter. My wife was scheduled to be on this flight but didn't make it to Amsterdam in time. I am one thankful man!!!
Yes, Daz.
I am glad that you wife didn't make it in time.
I am also glad that the only real injury was to himself.....as it should be.
Yikes.
Send him home on a Greyhound bus with a tag around his neck saying: He missed.
Then they'll execute him for failing his mission.