MORE ON THE CHRISTMAS DAY DELTA JIHADIST

Was this jihadi drugged up beyond comprehension? If so, there was a guardian angel working with this plane load of passengers as well. Had Farouk been in control of all of his mental faculties (to the extent islam prevents such control) this situtation would have had a very different outcome.

Wait on verification of this one, but it's reported online that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's incredible poverty and political connections may have also afforded him an interpreter at the airport to explain his lack of passport.

"I was on this flight today and am thankful to be alive. My wife and I were returning from an African safari and had this connecting flight through Amsterdam. I sat in row 27, which was 7 rows behind the terrorist. I got to see the whole thing take place and it was very scary. Thanks to a few quick acting people I am still alive today.
For those of you talking about airline security in this thread, I was next to the terrorist when he checked in at the Amsterdam airport early on Christmas. My wife and I were playing cards directly in front of the check in counter. This is what I saw (and I relayed this to the FBI when we were held in customs):


An Indian man in a nicely dressed suit around age 50 approached the check in counter with the terrorist and said "This man needs to get on this flight and he has no passport." The two of them were an odd pair as the terrorist is a short, black man that looked like he was very poor and looks around age 17(Although I think he is 23 he doesn't look it). It did not cross my mind that they were terrorists, only that the two looked weird together. The ticket taker said "you can't board without a passport". The Indian man then replied, "He is from Sudan, we do this all the time". I can only take from this to mean that it is difficult to get passports from Sudan and this was some sort of sympathy ploy. The ticket taker then said "You will have to talk to my manager", and sent the two down a hallway. I never saw the Indian man again as he wasn't on the flight. It was also weird that the terrorist never said a word in this exchange. Anyway, somehow, the terrorist still made it onto the plane. I am not sure if it was a bribe or just sympathy from the security manager.

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@ HotAir
One passenger says that the terrorist’s pants were “on fire,” which corroborates the reports of severe burns he suffered. However, the next passenger interviewed reported that the terrorist was calm, not in shock at all. In other terrorist attacks, such as in Mumbai and Afghanistan, the terrorists got themselves so high on drugs that they were unable to feel pain. It sounds as if that may have been the case here, because anyone who had those kinds of burns — by some report, third-degree burns — would not be sitting calmly unless heavily medicated.