Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, A Nigerian Citizen, Reportedly Tried to Blow Up Delta Airlines Flight 253 From Amsterdam to Detroit

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a Nigerian, attempted to blow up Northwest Flight# 253 Friday from Amsterdam to Detroit. According to media reports, U.S. officials Mutallad claimed he was acting on behalf of al-Qaida when he tried to blow up the flight. 

Rep. Peter King, (R-N.Y.) said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit. The explosive was reportedly described by a U.S. intelligence official as a mix of powder and liquid. When it failed, he reportedly tried to detonate it. There are reports that several passengers were injured.

Rep. Peter King, ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit. There were 278 passengers aboard the Airbus 330.

There was nothing out of the ordinary until the flight was on final approach to Detroit, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. That is when the pilot declared an emergency and landed without incident shortly thereafter, Cory said in an e-mail message. The plane landed at 11:51 a.m.

The passenger created a disturbance by lighting what was reported to be firecrackers -- or perhaps a "powdery substance" -- onboard the flight, injuring himself and several other passengers, according to Delta Airlines (which merged with Northwest Airlines). Source: Detroit Free Press

Here's what I would really like to understand. How could this man's name be on the U.S. government's no-fly list of suspected terrorists and was still able to book a flight, get on a plane to come to the United States?

 Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, father of alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab

UPDATE#1:  Alhaji Umaru Mutallab reported to the U.S. embassy in Nigeria six months ago that his son had left London to travel and he did not know where to, but he was concerned that his views had become extremist. According to the NY Post, a source close to the father reportedly said he was shocked that his son was allowed to travel to this country after he’d reported his extreme views. Mutallab is an engineering student at London's University College and is known to have preached Islamic teachings while in school, where he was called "Alfa," which is slang for Islamic scholar, according to the NY Post.  After enrolling at the University College, he relocated to Egypt and then to Dubai, where he told his family that he no longer wanted contact with them, the Post reported. Of course, the blame game has begun and it is being pinned on the Obama administration.

UPDATE#2: Here is an excerpt from an article on Newsweek's website -- "US Approved Flight 253 Passenger List, Source Says." It sheds some light the information coming out of Amsterdam about the security screening and the fact that the list of passengers on the flight were cleared by the United States.  

Judith Sluyter, spokeswoman for the NCTB, the office of Holland's national counter-terrorism coordinator, said that before Flight 253 left Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, the passenger list was transmitted in full to U.S. authorities for review. Under procedures negotiated between the United States and various foreign countries, U.S. agencies -- particularly an interagency "Terrorist Screening Center" run by the FBI with input from others including the Homeland Security Department and the intelligence community -- are supposed to run the names through American counter-terrorism databases to see if any would-be passengers present potential threat.