Underwear bomber gets life

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to bomb a U.S.-bound flight in Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, was sentenced to life in prison today.  Abdulmutallab unexpectedly pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial, saying his attempted attack with a bomb hidden in his underwar was, a "blessed weapon to save ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
U.S. Marshals Service via Getty Images
U.S. Marshals Service via Getty Images
U.S. Marshals Service via Getty Images

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to bomb a U.S.-bound flight in Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, was sentenced to life in prison today. 

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old Nigerian man who attempted to bomb a U.S.-bound flight in Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, was sentenced to life in prison today. 

Abdulmutallab unexpectedly pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial, saying his attempted attack with a bomb hidden in his underwar was, a "blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims". In the end, his conviction was a fairly straighforward procedure, with the only controversy coming from one of the passengers, attorny Kurt Haskell, who continues to claim that Abdulmutallab was "given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. agent" and is, in fact, "a government patsy."

Conspiracy theories aside, Abdulmutallab is likely to be headed to the super-max prison in Florence, Colorado, where he will join inmates including Zacarias Massoui, Jose Padilla, shoe-bomber Richard Reid, unabomber Ted Kaczynski, and a host of other notable figures from the worlds of terrorism and organized crime.

Back in 2009, the Florence facility was reportedly near capacity, one of the arguments against relocating Guantanamo detainees to super-max prisons in the United States. Evidently, they’ve found some room. "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout may be headed there soon as well.  

Some have questioned the decision to read Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights and try him in a civilian court rather than a military tribunal system, but in the end, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan doesn’t seem to have had much trouble handing down the maximum sentence on him. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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