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DETROIT, MI (AP) -- The Justice Department has charged the alleged Christmas Day terrorist with attempting to destroy an airplane.
The Justice Department says 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had a device containing a high explosive attached to his body. The government says that as the flight neared Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Friday, Abdulmutallab set off the device, but it sparked a fire instead of an explosion.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court in Detroit, a preliminary analysis of the device shows that it contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.
The government alleges that Abdulmutallab told passengers that his stomach was upset, then pulled a blanket over himself. Passengers then heard popping noises.
Abdulmutallab (OO-mahr fah-ROOK ahb-DOOL-moo-TAH-lahb) his charges in a conference room on Saturday at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for burns.
Agents brought Abdulmutallab into the room in a wheelchair. He had a blanket over his lap and wore a green hospital robe.
The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."
The government accuses him of bringing an explosive device onto Flight 253, but as the plane neared Detroit's airport, it sparked a fire instead of an explosion.
A leader of the Detroit area's large, geographically diverse Muslim community says he knows of no local connections to the suspect in Friday's attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet arriving in Detroit.
Dawud Walid (da-WEWD wah-LEED) is executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter. He told The Associated Press on Saturday that no one with whom he's spoken knows the suspect identified by authorities as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab.
Authorities say the man attempted to detonate explosive materials aboard Northwest Flight 253, which had 278 passengers aboard. The device badly burned the man but caused no explosion.
Walid says he hopes there will be no misdirected retaliation against American Muslims in the "climate of fear" generated by the incident.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
