Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
Remember that god awful film that came out in 2002 about the 11 year old boy born with two stomachs which enabled him to produce enormous farts, which led to him fulfilling his life long dream of becoming and astronaut? Well have you ever thought that perhaps that is where Umar Faroul Abdul Mutallab got his idea from?
On a Christmas day transatlantic flight, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab carried explosives in his underwear onto the airplane and tried to set them off over Detroit.
Today, photographs and footage of the underwear which carried the explosives have been released. The Nigerian was apparently carrying about 80g of PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate- which forms the core of a detonating fuse) in his underwear.
It was on Christmas day that the Nigerian tried to kill 278 passengers. He would have succeeded in his horrendous act if it were not for one brave passenger who noticed him trying to ignite powder strapped to his leg with a chemical-filled syringe.
The courageous passenger was Dutch video director Jasper Schuringa, who is now being hailed as a hero. He claimed that he was “shaken up” but fine.
Mutallab is now being held in a federal prison in Michigan, he claimed that the explosives he carried came from Yemen and his orders came from Al-Qaida.
President Barak Obama interrupted his Christmas holiday to give a speech addressing the attack as Mutallab said that there are “more people just like him”.
Obama said that "We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.”
