Underwear Bomber Sentenced to Life Without Parole

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man known as the “Underwear Bomber,” has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for trying to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.

FOX News Radio’s Jennifer Keiper reports from the Federal Courthouse in Detroit:

The device in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s underwear didn’t work as planned, but still produced flame and panic.  One of the five passengers giving impact statements tells the Nigerian man his actions may have been bold, but she’s not afraid, and then hands him a rosary.  He’s then given the maximum sentence.  U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says the message today…

(McQuade) “As one of the victims so eloquently put it, al-Qaeda has lost once again, America has won, once again.  We always do.”

Abdulmatallab’s standby attorney says he expects an appeal to be filed.

At the Federal Courthouse in Detroit, Jennifer Keiper, FOX News Radio.

Abdulmutallab surprised the courtroom by pleading guilty on the second day of his trial last fall, admitting to hiding explosives in his underwear on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.  As the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight near its destination, Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate the bomb, but the explosives failed, causing severe burns to the bomber’s groin.  Passengers pounced and held him in custody until the plane safely landed.

The attempted bombing was given the green light by American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki during a 3-day visit to Yemen.  Awlaki and the bomb’s maker were killed in a drone strike just days before Abdulmutallab’s trial got underway.

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