Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Details of the Attempted Terror Attack

Aired December 26, 2009 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin at the CNN NEWSROOM in Atlanta, in today for Don Lemon.

A plot to blow up a passenger jet over Detroit fails. A pop, a cloud of smoke, and then a suspect tackled as the plane lands safely. But today the investigation growing on three continents. It centers on just one man, he is the man in that t-shirt there being brought to the front of the plane, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now charged with attempting to destroy a u.s. airplane with a destructive device. He's the son of a wealthy banker in Nigeria, well educated, and claiming ties to al Qaeda. But who is he really, and how did this man slip through the security cracks at various checkpoints? Air travelers already feeling the ripple effect, using our global resources now to tell this story from every single angle.

We have Martin Savidge on the ground in Detroit with the latest on the terror investigation there.

Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve is in d.c. with a look at the criminal charges just filed, by the way.

Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry traveling with the president in Hawaii.

And Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson picks up the story now in London, where the suspect attended college.

And Kate Bolduan is tackling holiday traveling in Virginia, coping with increased security crackdown.

Well, the more we learn, the more questions being raised. Over the next several hours, we're going to get you as many answers as possible. How did it happen, who is this guy, and did al Qaeda play a role? Who is the passenger who took decisive action? And what is the ripple effect on security and much more.

Let's go right though first to Martin Savidge at the Detroit Municipal Airport for the latest on where all of this unfolded -- Martin.

Martin Savidge, foreign news correspondent: Drew, right now what's taking place actually is an arraignment. This is where the charges are being read against the suspect, which you identified correctly as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. This is a 23-year-old Nigerian national. He is in the hospital in custody, all as a result of what happened on a northwestern airlines flight that was traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit yesterday. The charges against him so far include attempting to destroy an airliner and also placing a destructive device on an airplane. Clearly, there will be more charges to come, but these are the initial charges that are being read against him. And again, the federal court has been coming to him in his hospital room.

We understand that there are reporters that have been allowed inside so we should get pool coverage and an indication of whether the suspect says anything in response to the charges. Meanwhile, the investigation goes on. And the courts documents have come out have given us a bit more insight as into the kind of device that he was using. And reportedly, the fbi says it involved a chemical called petn. This is an explosive, a highly explosive compound that is similar in nature to nitro glycerin and this was the device or at least the portion of the device that he was attempting to set up to bring down the airliner according to federal officials yesterday.

Fortunately, that plan was thwarted in part because the device didn't work properly, and also because of the quick action of the crew and passengers on board that flight. That is somewhat miraculous. However, there are still implications which will have far-reaching consequences for potentially millions of people, most of them holiday travelers that will be trying to get back home after the Christmas holidays. That means that security measures have been tightened in domestic airports across the country. It could mean longer lines. It could mean also greater inspections. It could also mean problems for the airlines. For instance, here in Detroit, they are now demanding that passengers be in their seats, on their plane 20 minutes before departure. Otherwise, there's no guarantee that the passenger will be allowed if they show up after that time.

International passengers coming to the United States, they can expect greater security scrutiny. On top of that, there will be greater restrictions on those passengers. Once the planes reach American airspace. For instance, they could be ordered to remain in their seats for an hour or more before landing. Not allowed to move, not allowed to use or access any of their personal luggages that they brought on board. All of this because there is a concern that this may not have been the only plot. Right now, coming out of Yemen are reports that al Qaeda actually instructed and supplied the suspect, giving him the explosive device that he tried to detonate on the aircraft yesterday.

Now, as we point out, one of the reasons it was thwarted was thanks to people like Jasper Schuringa, who spoke to CNN exclusively. He was on board the plane and one of the first passengers to react when the explosion and fire began. Here's how he described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP))

Jasper Schuringa, FLIGHT 253 PASSENGER: When I saw that the suspect, he was getting on fire, and, you know, I freaked, of course. And without any hesitation, I just jumped over all of the seats and I jumped to the suspect, because I was thinking, you know, like he's trying to blow up the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SAVIDGE: So, it was thanks to his quick action and the quick actions of members of the crew that the suspect was taken into custody. Today he's been formally charged -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right. Martin Savidge in Detroit. Thanks for that.

Here's how it unfolded, unless you're just catching in on this. It was on Christmas Eve, about 5:00 Eastern Time, that this suspect boarded a klm flight 588 in Lagos, Nigeria, nonstop to Amsterdam. After about six and a half hours later, 11:37 p.m., the plane lands in Amsterdam. And after a three-hour layover, the suspect gets to board a flight that is going to be heading to Detroit. Northwest flight 253. It is a nine-hour flight to Detroit. About 12:30 Christmas day, just 20 minutes from Detroit, from landing, the suspect allegedly lit a substance in his lap. Passengers and crew put out a small fire and then subdued this guy, and the plane landed safely in Detroit at 12:51 p.m. Again, nobody really hurt. Minor injuries except for the suspect, who is now in hospital. And federal authorities are already moving forward on the criminal charges as Martin Savidge was reporting.

Cnn's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us from Washington. And I know, Jeanne, you have delved into this rather brief charging paper that we have. But there is some information in there about the chemical that they believe was used or initial indicator for. What else are we learning about, not only the device, but what happened aboard that plane?

JEANNE MESERVE, Cnn's Homeland Security Correspondent: First, the charges against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, he is charged in this federal complaint today with attempting to destroy a Northwest airlines plane and with placing a destructive device on the aircraft. According to an affidavit filed with the charges he had attached to his body petn, which is a very volatile, very powerful explosive. In addition, according to the affidavit, a syringe was found near his seat, which they believe was to be part of this device. It talks about interviews they did with the crews and passengers. We talked to many of them on the air, the revelations here were that he went to the bathroom for about 20 minutes, came back saying he an upset stomach, put a blanket across his lap, and that's when people started hearing pops that sounded like fire crackers. When one flight attendant asked him what he had in his pocket, he said, and I quote here, "explosive device."

Now, we do know from a senior administration officials that this individual was known to authorities. His father in Nigeria had alerted the u.s. embassy there that he was worried about his son and what he might be up to. That information was passed onto the national counterterrorism center, which maintains the watch list. And according to the senior official, he was on a list but there was not enough information to elevate him to the no-fly list, to yank his visa or anything of the kind. And so he flew. But I just had an interesting conversation with a former government official who's very familiar with aviation matters.

He is not familiar with the details of this investigation but as someone who looked extensively as previous plots, he sees elements of the 2006 liquid explosives plot and also the Richard Reid's shoe bombing plot melded together here. He believes this evolutionary in nature. This former government official, very familiar with aviation matters, says it looks to him as though this was someone who had been trained. He talked about that trip to the bathroom, the blanket, the cover story, having the petn, which is something you don't get on the street.

All as being something that indicates this man may have been trained by somebody. This former official's opinion was that this had some of the hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation. But, again, u.s. officials are not yet saying that. They are saying, they are pulling the strings. They are trying to find out more about who he is, where he got this material, who might have trained him, if indeed there was training. We're waiting for answers to all of those questions still -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: And, Jeanne, as I read through this and listen to what you are reporting, I mean, not only the blanket but even where he sat, the timing of this, which is sort of an evolution there had been plans in the past to blow up planes over the oceans, where they would just kind of disappear. This speculation is that they were looking for some kind of dramatic on-the-ground fire that would have been covered by media. I mean, in the event of this was actually carried out to maximize the terror.

MESERVE: Well, I think those are things they're looking at. I will tell you about the seat placement that this former government official familiar with aviation matters told me that this seat was now coincidence. He was dead center in the middle of that plane. He was over the fuel tanks, where if there was an ignition, he gets maximum effect. He was next to the skin of the airplane, which means that might be more likely to take out the side of the plane. This official said, if you were going to pick one or two seats on this plane that would be the right place to sit to pull off an attack, this was one of them.

GRIFFIN: All right. Jeanne Meserve from Washington this afternoon. Thanks, Jeanne.

We move on to President Barack Obama. He's in Hawaii on vacation. When all of this happened this morning, he learned about it about 6:00 a.m., I believe. He's now following the developments from Oahu. And that is where CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry is, too -- Ed.

Ed Henry, CNN Senior White House Correspondent: Good afternoon, Drew. You're right, it was just after 6:00 a.m. this morning that the president got yet another secure briefing over a conference call with two of his top aides. We're five hours behind the east coast in the United States, so that's shortly before noon eastern time today. On that call, John Brennan, the President's Chief Homeland Security Adviser as well as Dennis McDonough, he is the chief of staff for the national Security Council, gives you an idea of the nature of the high level of this and trying to get to the bottom of it, keeps the president abreast of the situation. We're told the president also getting paper updates in addition to that secure conference call. Paper updates from the white house situation room back in Washington.

What they're telling the president, we're told, from senior officials is basically that they believe that the suspect is talking a lot to the FBI as you have been hearing, giving up a lot of information, but investigators are being very careful to comb through that to verify what he's saying in terms of what ties he may or may not have with al Qaeda or another terror group. Specifically one senior official familiar with the investigation telling cnn that in the early stages, they did not find any sort of formal ties with the terror group like al Qaeda. But that leaves a lot of wiggle room for whether or not there was any financing, whether or not there was any training, were there any sort of small ties, maybe not formal ties, but was there any contact at all between the suspect and al Qaeda or another terror group. Officials stressing that it's an early part of the investigation. They're being very careful to get to get to the bottom of this -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Ed, is there any indication that the president will be delving in more critically on this? We've already heard calls for hearings in the senate and in the house, almost accuse totally in the way they're saying we need to get to the bottom of this, more or less finding out who dropped the ball. Is the administration at that point where they're thinking a mistake had to have been made?

HENRY: They don't seem to be. Because what they seem to be doing in the initial hours in talking to senior officials is making sure that this was an isolated incident. Making sure there are not other devices that are expected to be going off in the days ahead, that there's not some broader plot they're missing here. Again, to be careful and cautious in the early stages of this investigation, they believe that this is isolated but they want to be sure, and so they say that they're running all of that down. In terms of assigning blame, a senior officials do say in private that they understand a lot of questions have to be answered about how this person who was known in general to authorities still was able to get on this airplane, number one and number two, and perhaps just as important, how he was able to get this device on, these chemicals, et cetera, you have been talking about with Jeanne Meserve and others. So, they know these questions are coming and they're ready to cooperate. Senator jay Rockefeller, among other powerful democrats on Capitol Hill, already saying they're going to launch hearings in January when Congress comes back to session -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right. Ed, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact this thing ended pretty well okay, as well as could be expected with the passengers and crew doing pretty much a heroic job, making sure it didn't escalate. Ed Henry from Hawaii with the president this evening.

Well, many people think of terrorists as being poor and uneducated. But the man charged with trying to bring down flight 253 yesterday, he certainly doesn't fit that profile. We'll going to tell you why.

And the tsa is now stepping up security measures at u.s. airports. We're going find out what to expect at the nation's airports. Right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Here's what we know about the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He is 23-years-old, a Nigerian. He was educated at the university college of London from September 2005 until June of 2008. That is him wearing that t-shirt there, being escorted off a plane. He went through normal security procedures in Amsterdam. Meaning he was re-screened there, and had been granted a multiple year, multiple entry tourist visa at the u.s. embassy in London. That was in June of 2008. While he's not believed to be on any no-fly list, his name does appear in a u.s. database of people with suspect connections. This may be why.

His father retired as chairman of first bank in Nigeria, and we're learning that it was his father who contacted the u.s. embassy in Nigeria a few weeks ago. It seems the father was concerned that his son had become radicalized and could be planning something. Abdulmutallab was formally charged today in a hospital room.

Cnn Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is in London with the latest on this investigation, which includes a search of this man's latest residence -- Nic.

Nic Robertson, Cnn Senior International Correspondent: Drew, until the summer of 2008, it is believed that Abdulmutallab was living in a ground floor basement apartment here belonging to his father, an affluent -- an affluent Nigerian banker. That was when he completed his university degree in mechanical engineering and according to his family, that is when he told his family he wanted to go on and study in Saudi Arabia, study in Egypt. And it was also at that time, June 2008, when he was given at the u.s. embassy here in London a multiple- entry visa for the United States. It's not clear when he last stayed in the apartment building, but it was u.s. authorities that tipped off the British police this morning and counterterrorism police began their search of the premises here about 10, 12 hours ago.

They began by going in in forensic suits, if you will, so not as to contaminate a potential crime scene. But later in the day we have seen police officers, counterterrorism police officers, coming and going to this apartment in regular police clothing. And I think perhaps that gives us an indication that it's not, if you will, an active crime scene in the apartment they're searching. And perhaps another indication of what is happening here the development that took place in the last hour. The police suspended their search in this apartment building. They say that they will return in the morning. There's tape here that's flapping behind me, the police tape to keep people out of the area. There are police securing this building overnight. The residents will be allowed back in.

But this does seem to indicate the police are not working on in, if you will, hot leads that might lead to information that could prevent another terror attack. The fact that they paused their search overnight does seem to indicate this will be a slow search and there's nothing there that's going to give -- that needs to be sort of collected, rounded up and passed on tonight if you will -- Drew. GRIFFIN: Nic, I want you to stand by in London. I am going to come back to you for a couple of questions. But I want to go to Deb Feyerick. She is on the phone from Ann Arbor, I believe, and has details on this court appearance, this rather odd court appearance from the suspect's hospital room that just took place -- Deb.

Deb Feyerick, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, the young man was brought into a conference room actually where u.s. attorneys were waiting along with members of the federal defender's office to represent him. A judge was in the room at the time. A pool reporter who was there described him as very, very young, baby faced almost and very slender, very slight. And that's what surprised them the most. He was handcuffed to a wheelchair. He was wearing a green hospital gown. His two thumbs were bandaged as was his -- one of his hands, his right hand.

Now, according to one of the pool reporters, he spoke English. Seemed to understand what was going on around him. The judge asked him how he was doing. He responded that he was doing better today, quote/unquote. His lawyer asked for the ability to search the plane that he was on in order to gather evidence of their own. Also raised the possibility of skin grafts for this young man. We are also told that in fact he is being kept in the burn unit. There were several fbi agents with him, that he is under guard and the charges were read against him. Again, he seemed to understand everything that was going on. Now, according to the affidavit ...

GRIFFIN: Deb, can I jump in for a second.

FEYERICK: Please. Go, go.

GRIFFIN: We're going to hear from -- in fact I see you there, this news conference from the pool reporters. Let's hear exactly what they had to say. Here are the reporters that were in the room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There were obvious signs there was medical damage or some kind of burns to him. The rest was covered up.

One more time --

And there is little bit around the right index finger and there was a little around here, too. And he wasn't grimacing in pain or anything. Sat there very pleasantly. He spoke English. He told ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: This is raw video of a news conference just held outside the Detroit hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He told the assistant district attorney that he was feeling much better than he was feeling the day before, and they asked him how he was today, and he said he felt better. At one point they asked him if he could afford his own attorney or if he needed counsel to be appointed to him. It took a little while to explain to him what that meant but he said he could not afford his own attorney. Outside -- the federal court represented him.

The federal defender's office?

Uh-huh.

Do you know what the name of that person is?

Eric Strauss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: All right. Deb, if you're still there, one interesting thing I did hear, the suspect said he couldn't afford an attorney. I'm supposing that he got a federally appointed attorney but he comes from a very wealthy family.

FEYERICK: He does. It appears, however, that he, when he went on this particular journey that he separated from his family, texting his family that he was going off to Dubai. His father clearly concerned that this young man had been radicalized. Didn't know whether or not in fact he had been in touch with certain elements. But we are told, according to the affidavit, that prior to this incident happening, he did go to the bathroom. He was there for about 20 minutes. When he got back to his seat, he started complaining that his stomach was upset, he pulled a blanket over himself, and that's when the popping noise was heard and an odor and pant's leg and wall of the airplane caught on fire.

And a passenger apparently grabbed the syringe from him because the syringe was smoking through to the floor. Again, federal defenders, those two people who will be representing him during the course of these hearings, they want to search that plane. They want to take a look at exactly what is there and what happened. But clearly, he was talking to people, the flight attendant asked him what he had in his pocket. He responded, quote, an "explosive device," unquote -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right. Deb Feyerick. Let's see if we can turn that tape around guys and get more of what actually was said in the courtroom. In the meantime, I want to go back to Nic Robertson. Nic, we just heard about this rather strange, I guess you could call it a court appearance which the man said, he needed an attorney because he didn't have any money. And that leads to this man's family, and the fact that the family may have reported this fellow as suspicious to authorities. They are certainly concern about him and also said that, you know, he had kind of disowned by his own family.

ROBERTSON: Indeed. He seems to have indicated to his family that they would no longer be able to reach him because he was getting rid of his cell phone chip, going on a journey to Yemen. The family obviously very concerned, contacting u.s. authorities. It is interesting, of course, that the family if they had passed on the information as they have described, that he was still able to board an aircraft to the United States. Apparently without additional checks, without raising any concern or any alarm. That also after he, by his own admission, apparently, had been to Yemen and also coming from Nigeria as well, a country where it is known certainly to British customs officials here in the United Kingdom that it's a route for smuggling drugs and illicit money trades out of Africa.

So, it's the sort of route and the sort of background, if you will, that should have been raising alarms. And his family does seem to have done their best to set those alarm bells ringing themselves because of their concern for him. And that concern seems to have been sort of established when he was living here in the summer of June 2008 when he finished his mechanical engineering degree at the University College here in London, which is literally ten minutes' walk away from this luxury apartment building behind me.

He told his family that he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia or Cairo to continue his studies, two places where he could get further or he could get more religious education. And this is already setting off alarm bells for the family, not the son who had come to start to study at the university here in 2005. Apparently while here in the United Kingdom, he picked up ideas that wanted him to further his understanding, further his knowledge of Islam, leading him to Saudi Arabia, Cairo and as he described to his family -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: And Nic, you know, based on your reporting over the last several years, this is not -- this is not out of the realm of what's been going on. A rich kid. He goes to school in London, he becomes radicalized, he has access to money and then somehow or another, he adopts this kind of terrorism bent.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And not just a rich kid. He studied mechanical engineering. That requires a certain level of education and that has been the m.o., if you will, the modus operandi that has happened several times here in London be and elsewhere in Europe, that you have a particularly well educated young man from a Muslim family who comes to university here in London, who listens to some of the radicalizing speeches that can be heard quite easily and quite freely here in Britain.

Indeed, some radicalizers in the past decade have targeted universities here and recruited young men, who had then gone away to partake in terror attacks or plot and plan terror attacks from what they learned here at university. And he does seem to fit that sort of profile, if you will. Again, this is analysis. This isn't hard, solid fact that we have from investigators here in Britain at this stage. It certainly will be going through the minds of the police while they go through the apartment behind me, but it does appear and certainly his family were worried about this, that in Britain he came in contact with people that may have radicalized him, and this is something that is not uncommon, that has happened here before, Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Nic Robertson in London. Deborah Feyerick in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Thank you, both. After all of this, now you have to fly home after the holidays. What to expect now that security is being stepped up yet again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DREW GRIFFIN, CNN NEWS GUEST ANCHOR: The son of a prominent Nigerian banker charged today with trying to destroy a plane and placing an explosive device on an aircraft. Those are the charges against a 23-year-old man who was subdued by passengers and crew yesterday, Christmas day, aboard Northwest flight 253. Taken into custody when the plane landed in Detroit just 20 minutes later, he had serious burns. Passengers say there was a pop, like a firecracker, and then smoke rising from the lap of the suspect.

In Iran, signs the opposition has not been silenced. Riot police clashing with protesters today in the run-up to the Shiite Muslim holiday known as Ashura. The holiday is celebrated on Sunday and there are concerns that more violence is possible there. Tomorrow the country will also mourn a recently deceased cleric, who was a vocal critic of the government and a champion of the opposition movement.

People in the nation's heartland grabbing shovels today, digging out after a blustery storm, even as forecasters warn blizzard conditions could continue across the northern plains. Parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, all of those states under blizzard warnings.

And air travelers are already feeling the fallout from yesterday's failed midair blast. If you're heading to the airport, get ready for a wait at the security line.

Here is what the lines look like at Detroit airport one day after the event. And it's not just Detroit, travelers around the world are feeling the security crackdown as well.

CNN's Kate Bolduan is at Virginia's Dulles international airport.

This is kind of a slow travel day in this holiday lull, but I expect it will be picking up over the weekend.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Drew. That's absolutely right. I will tell you, we have been here all day and the passengers we've been talking to have definitely been telling us it seems like a very different day, a very different atmosphere for air travel for so many people, especially those traveling into the United States from international locations.

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a statement earlier today saying that Americans should continue with holiday plans -- holiday travel as planned. But I'll tell you, passengers say they are experiencing long lines, delays, sometimes extensive delays due to the intensified security measures that they are facing. Everything from something seemingly as simple as additional checks of documentation of your identification, of your passports, to multiple scans of carry-on luggage in the x-ray scan machine, even to when you go to the gate, people getting individual pat-downs and individual searches, extensive searches of their carry- on luggage. That's even before they board the flight. More on that later.

First, I want you to hear from a man who traveled here from Dulles from Memphis, Tennessee, earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FLYER: I spent 24 years in the military, I have never seen them take like my case and just take it apart. It's just simply a laptop computer. And I saw a young lady with her child, they x-rayed the milk, I don't know how many times, and then they took the milk out and sampled each and every bottle of the milk. I have never seen that before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now, U.S.-bound flights, flights coming into the United States here to Dulles from international locations are facing far more extensive security searches.

Listen here to a woman that just arrived from Paris. We spoke to her just as she arrived from Paris a short time ago. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FLYER: Just half hour before our flight started to board, they actually had two agents check everybody's hand luggage, going through each item, taking out every sub -- item that was within the bags, going through in detail. This is after we cleared security. In addition, everybody's shoes were removed. We were hand-wand down. When we got on -- it too two hours to clear every passenger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that's not all. When the passengers got onto the flight as the flight continued -- and I've heard this from multiple people as they arrived from international locations -- is that the hour prior to landing, they were told they could not get out of their seats. They had to be in their seats with their seat belts fastened. They could not get anything out of the overhead luggage and they also could not have any pillows or blankets on their laps. Those were taken away, one person told me.

And another interesting point, Drew, that I heard from more than one person from different flights is that during that hour, the screens, the GPS screens that allowed the passengers, so you can often see where your plane is in relation to the geographical map, they turned that off, and passengers said that was a good clue that the plane didn't really want them to know exactly where they were.

But many people -- I will tell you, Drew, while they said it was inconvenient and it was very difficult to not be able to get up for an hour, people were very much resigned to the fact if this meant safer security and getting home safely, then they'll deal with it.

GRIFFIN: Absolutely, Kate. Thanks a lot. Very interesting.

One day after the attack on flight 253, there's a lot of unanswered questions. Among them, is there a Yemeni connection? Also, we're told Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name was in a U.S. government database. How did he get on the plane? We'll look for answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The man accused of trying to blow up a passenger jet as it was landing in Detroit is now being linked to past travels in Yemen, possibly ties to al Qaeda. So now authorities in the U.S. and around the world are fanning out, searching this person's records and his whereabouts.

But this isn't the first time Yemen has made headlines because of its al Qaeda connections. Yesterday's failed bombing attempt comes as Yemen's government is intensifying military operations against the terror network there. Dozens of people were killed in an air strike just Thursday, one day after a radical Yemeni cleric claimed he helped inspire last month's massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas. And nearly half of the 210 detainees at Guantanamo are Yemeni nationals.

Also, if you remember back in October of 2000, the guided missile destroyer, the "USS Cole," was in Yemen's port of Aden when a small boat with a bomb blew a massive hole in the hull. 17 U.S. sailors were killed, 39 more were wounded.

The question is, how tightly linked is this man to al Qaeda?

Joining us from New York is security analyst, Glenn Schoen. He's head of security and integrity services at Ernst and Young.

Glenn, it appears from his actions, he had some training or direction. How do you find out from whom?

GLENN SCHOEN, SECURITY & INTEGRITY SERVICES, ERNST AND YOUNG: Well, it's going to be major investigation. Obviously, it's already unfolding, but it will intensify further in the days ahead as different kind of clues and pieces of proof fall into place and we learn more about his family and his studying.

But already if we look back, we start taking a look at where did this person travel, where did this person study, with whom did he associate with there, what can we find out about his movements within Nigeria, where might he have received these explosives, and who is it he met in third countries? If he's been to Yemen, who did he have contact with? If he was in Nigeria, who did he have contact with? There are an awful lot of lead points for this investigation to focus in on. And I think we're going to see an awful lot develop in the next few days.

GRIFFIN: Yemen is not a very tightly controlled country. I've heard you can buy arms, guns, bombs material there. Is it conceivable that this man could have self-radicalized and self-educated himself enough to put this plan together on his own, or are you leaning towards the fact he must have had help?

SCHOEN: It's possible, but I'm leaning towards the fact that he probably had help. If we look at his travel patterns, it costs money to travel. It costs money to stay places. Normally, you need an invitation or a connection somewhere. If you're going to stay in Yemen for a while, where do you stay? With whom do you stay? How do you finance that? You need to have friends there and somebody to support you. When we start looking at the different factors, what his family is saying, you look at his travel schedule, the fact he was well educated, the fact he used PETN, which is not that easy to get, the fact he himself is saying he had ties to different people, it's all starting to add up to support, and that adds up to a plot, and that adds up to a continued threat right at the moment.

GRIFFIN: Do you believe, based on what you know, this is what I would term a one off, there's no others behind him in an expanding plot?

SCHOEN: Well, I'm not so sure. Let us all, of course, hope there won't be anything further and hope this is a one off. But we have seen unfortunately in the past that al Qaeda, among its hallmarks, one is simultaneous attacks and the other one is several attacks in a row or attempted in a short period of time. Think about the bombings in London in 2005 and two weeks later more attacks. We saw the same thing in Madrid. They were plotted three or four more attacks in the Madrid area but were not carried out because the people were caught.

So we have seen this pattern several times over. And it's definitely a concern, and one of the reasons why clearly authorities are now taking so much sharper action on the security threat.

GRFFIN: Glenn Schoen joining us from New York. Thanks, Glenn.

Investigators are now asking the same questions you are, right, who dropped the ball? How did explosives get on that plane? The biggest worry, can these attacks be stopped?

Some people are calling Jasper Schuringa the hero of flight 253. We're going to tell you why after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: We'll talk more about the suspect and the investigation into the attempted terror attack on northwest flight 253.

Joined by Thomas Fuentes, a CNN contributor, former FBI assistant director of international operations joins me from San Francisco.

Tom, Africa is no stranger to you. You have been all over that country in a law enforcement capacity. I wonder if you can just tell us where the FBI, where the U.S. officials would begin this investigation as they try to find out just what I was asking Glenn Schoen, did he have help? How did he get this stuff? Where were the warning signs that may have been missed so we can learn about preempting this the next time?

THOMAS FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Hi, Drew. Well, of course, the U.S., the FBI in particular, have no authority to conduct investigation in these countries, whether it be Nigeria, Yemen or in the United Kingdom. With regard to Nigeria, the FBI offices in Lagos and the capital of (INAUDIBLE) would be requesting the assistance of the Nigerian authorities to provide as much background information as possible as to who the subject was, where he lived, phone records, e-mail accounts, all of the usual investigation that would be requested, would have to go through the Nigerian authorities. They would have to actually conduct the investigation, provide the results of it to the U.S. investigators to be sent back to the United States for either evidence or additional intelligence.

GRIFFIN: Is that something that's easily done?

FUENTES: Well, it's more difficult than doing it here in the United States. Obviously, you have to work -- you don't have the ability to send as many investigators as you might like to provide assistance to the local authorities. And they may not have the resources to accomplish that investigation as quickly as we would like. You're also dealing with that country's telephone service, Internet service providers, other corporations that -- that may not have the same requirements for record keeping that a U.S. company might normally have. So when you subpoena records or when the local authorities subpoena those records in their country, you don't know how quickly they'll be received, how complete they will be, what the process will be to -- to turn over the information that you need as quickly as you need it.

GRIFFIN: And that's in Nigeria. When -- most definitely this investigation moves no Yemen, you're talking about a pretty unstable state, if you will. I'm certain the FBI can't just go waltzing around Yemen to try to find out where or how this guy picked up the material.

FUENTES: Yes. As I mentioned earlier today, the Yemeni officials have confirmed to me that the investigation is ongoing now, the joint investigation in Yemen with their authorities and with U.S. investigators, the FBI. So the investigation in Sanaa, Yemen, is well under way. And I was assured by the Yemeni official that the partnership will be very aggressively pursued, that they will provide as much information as quickly as they can get it to the FBI to be added to this investigation.

GRIFFIN: We're learning about the charges now and some of the details of the charges. I just want to ask you quickly, Tom, he has this material, PETN, he's got a syringe, and apparently he's got some sort of plan as to where he may be seated in the plane, how he carries this off, when he carried it off in the 20 minutes prior to landing. What does that say to you in terms of how well trained or how well at least thought out this plot was?

FUENTES: Well, it says that he possibly wanted to be over the wings, which have the fuel tanks and fuel lines in an aircraft like that, so that if he was able to generate an explosion or a large fire that it possibly could have ignited the rest of the fuel tanks in that aircraft to make it crash. The choice to do it close to landing and over U.S. air space indicates to me that he wanted that plane to crash on soil and not disappear into the ocean depths, so that literally the media, CNN, could come and photograph the results and display that for the rest of the world to see his accomplishment in having that aircraft go down and crash in the U.S.

GRIFFIN: All right, Tom Fuentes joining us from San Francisco tonight. Thanks, Tom.

Quick thinking passengers and crew members, they may have saved nearly 300 lives when they sprang, literally, into action aboard that flight.

Just ahead, CNN's exclusive interview with one of the people we're calling a hero tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Well, as if the terrorism news wasn't bad new, listen to this. According to research, the holiday season is also the worst time of the year for people with heart problems.

In today's "Fit Nation," CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, offers advice on avoiding holiday heart attacks.

(FIT NATION)

GRIFFIN: We're continuing coverage. The breaking news coming out of Ann Arbor, where the suspect in yesterday's failed attempt to blow up an airliner is now officially charged. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)