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A NIGERIAN MAN pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to bring down an international flight over Detroit with a bomb in his underwear, saying the failed attack was retaliation for the killing of Muslims worldwide.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had never denied the accusations against him, calmly answered questions from judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty on the second day of his trial to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
He then told the court that the underwear bomb was a “blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims.”
“The United States should be warned that if they continue to persist and promote the blasphemy of Mohammed and the prophets … the United States should await a great calamity that will befall them through the hands of the mujahedeen soon,” said Abdulmutallab, who faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
“If you laugh with us now we will laugh with you later on the day of judgement,” he said.
Outside court, defence attorney Anthony Chambers said Abdulmutallab, who had chosen to represent himself and was being assisted by Chambers, pleaded guilty against the lawyer’s wishes.
“We wanted to continue the trial but we respect his decision,” Chambers said.
Abdulmutallab, 25, said he carried a bomb in his underwear onto Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009 with the intention of killing the nearly 300 people on board. The bomb didn’t work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire.
The evidence was stacked high. Abdulmutallab was badly burned on a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaida and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the US in Yemen. There were also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the US.
“Contrary to what some have claimed, today’s plea removes any doubt that our courts are one of the most effective tools we have to fight terrorism and keep the American people safe,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a Wednesday statement. “We will continue to be aggressive in our fight against terrorism and those who target us, and we will let results, not rhetoric, guide our actions.”
Passenger Lori Haskell, 34, of Newport, Mich., watched Abdulmutallab’s plea by video in an overflow room Wednesday. She called his statement in court “chilling” but not surprising.
“I’m just really relieved that it’s done with,” Haskell said.
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F#$ K OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE YE SHOWER OF LIEING THIEVING BAS#@&DS!!!!!!!
Nanny State is alive and kicking in Ireland. Tell them to FUK OFF
The taxes shall continue until moral improves!
Data Protection laws must only apply when it suits the government.
At this stage I think I will just submit a yearly diary of my life to the government.
No need to. # shatteralreadyknows
it is only a pity that landlords arent forced to give their own details to the authorities
If the new charge is 99c I’ll pay it, that’s the value I would put on RTE output.
That’s a bit of a generous valuation.
What next ,road tax payed by every household would make more sense,as everyone uses roads ,but even that’s a stupid idea.How do they deal with Orthodox Jews and others who don’t watch or listen to any media ?
Bring back the light tax… anyone availing of natural light to see should be penalised… This country Is foooked
Ckroo you are dead right all RTE put on are adds more fuc… adds and repeats!!!
Why don’t they just call it roof tax. The only fact that you live under a roof makes you liable…
Oh your actually paying your taxes? There’s a 5% tax for that.
Don’t forget the €150 paperwork charge!!
I guess the next step is having to register your laptop or smartphone for the charge grrrr.
@Ken, that is the concept!
eh,,,, Ken, that is the point of the charge!
No longer is it a “television” tax
rather a household tax relating to all devices capable of receiving a TV / radio signal.
I remember someone telling me that they are in fact going to try and bring in “Internet license” fees
You’ll need to pay to take a piss next…
Doey, the already got that covered, ye charged for the water ye flush and country folk are charged for the septic tank
Lads I know it’s the slippery slope to the Internet tax, it’s only going that way :(
You already have to pay to take a piss Doey – Sewage Tank “Inspection” registration & charges? Doesn’t apply if you’re on the mains system I know, but the entire Irish population does not live in cities
I see fat pat wants to close all doors before he gets stamped into history.
What a totally obnoxious and disgusting excuse of a human.
I prefer “overly retund slang word for sex” when describing rabbitte
Corpulent poke? I’m confused..
Commisar rabbitte at it again
I would sooner live without any tech in the woods than give in to anymore requests for my personal details from these leeches! This is only another attempt to find out who to tax next. Flip off!
Have I got this right, even if you don’t watch tv you will still get charged?? How would they know if you have watched something on your device?! :P
They consider you guilty untill you can prove your innocence. They just assume that if you are alive, then you MUST watch RTE in some way so they will charge you untill you can prove, beyond doubt that you don’t. Wonder how long it will be until they start to apply that philosophy to the court system?
I moved from an apartment where I had a TV licence to a house a good distance away, did not leave a forwarding address with my old landlord. Through some sort of witchcraft a letter arrived to my new address letting me how my TV licence had expired and encouraging me to pay it. I presume SKY gave my details because i ticked/unticked a box when signing up but it could have as easily been O2,the ESB or the letting agent. You cant hide from the f**kers anymore
Just burn it Shaun. They can’t enforce it. They may send someone around periodically but just tell him you are minding the house and Shaun is out
It’s esb or bord gás
Yes you can.Just be smarter. Irish people are I hate to say this incredibly DUMB when it comes to personal information and who gets a hold of it.You literally spew out info on surveys,free offers for this ,that and the other,tick boxes without reading the small print etc.All sorts of things can be done about this.
Probably to pay pat kenny s redundo
The next step is to take it from your wages. Water rates will be the same.
No ,take all your wages and you can fill in a weekly, 100 page form, for your pocket money.
Boot in before Tubs leaves.
I pay in excess of 50 Euro for my Sky subscription per month.
And that is fine.
But I take issue with being charged for a service I DO NOT want.
Trim down or shut RTE. huge cost savings. Then allow them advertising only. The. No need for “broadcast charge”. RTE is distorting the market for years. Time to get rid of it.
Get rid of your sky and go Netflix…you’ll be paying far less and you’ll have no adds!!
Trimming down Rte and limit to ad revenue only will give us another Tv3 or even worse – 3e! (shiver shiver)
So what Alan? Just don’t watch it.
Mayor Quimby with his ‘leaving town tax’ could not hold a candle to this shower of thieves!
I pay €30 a month for Sky, I pay €8 a month for Netflix, €40 a month to eircom for brodband and €35 per month to vodafone for my phone+data and pay VAT on each bill. I paid vat on my TV laptop and Smartphone and game console and not to mention the tax on my electricity to run all of the above.
How much more do they want. And I have no doubt they will increase it from the €160 I currently pay for my TV licence.
The dirty shower of Bast**ds………
Got rid of UPC and I now use Saorview. I am not paying the Licence fee anymore. It’s another saving.
I answer austerity with frugality.
120-odd quid a month to Sky, 40pm for broadband and now I must pay a new charge for the privilege of using my other costly devices such as laptops and smartphones. FFS!!
120 to sky. You must have the power ranger package. Do the act in your living room for that.
Sacha it’s 96 for biggest package, 15 for HD and 15 for multiroom box. Expensive expense
Crazy for 3-400 channels of nothing. I remember having a movie and sport channel package 7 years ago. Don’t actually miss it but even if I did I would never pay that money now. 1 month of that is my property tax for 6 months and sure Angela needs it more than we do.
Expensive yes, but if you work it out at about 4euro per day it’s not too bad. Although saying that, I didn’t get my four euro’s worth tonight with that match, utter rubbish. Still, better than not having it imo
Ronan you only “must” if you sign up to it, don’t! We need to all just say no… Like what can they do then?
The screw tightens further. Every drop of juice is being extracted from the Irish household and it still won’t be enough and what then when the nation is just a dried out withered lump of clay that sits off the coast of England ? Honestly at this stage you’d nearly be better off homeless and jobless because if you’ve got both if them you’re the one who has to take it furthest up the tailpipe.
I have no TV, I don’t listen to radio or watch RTE online. When I do watch something I use Netflix. WHY should I pay this new tax?????
Admit it, rte player is open in another tab!
@Cathal. To watch what exactly?
Why don’t they just Contol Access to RTE player, e.g. use TV Licence number to login to RTE player, etc.
You shouldn’t have to pay it but you have to make that stance.. We all need to just say no, it’s so easily solved just make RTE available to those who pay for it, like Sky and the likes… I am like you also I don’t have any TV channels I can’t even get “the 4 channels” I don’t choose to sign up to any TV channel provider, opting instead to pay for online services like Netflix or I search for full length documentaries on you tube.. So I won’t be paying… Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just didn’t pay! I’d love to see the interviews with government after that!
See the interviews on what. R T E ? Ah haa. They gotcha now.
Stop don’t give them shower ideas !
You wont have any choice but to pay it. People have sat back and allowed them to set a precedent with Revenue now having the right to take the Property Tax straight from your pay packet and or bank account. No reason why they wont do the same with this and every other tax they decide to inflict on us.
I have emailed Pat Rabbitte (awaiting response). They wonder why people are emigrating!! 48% of Irish who emigrated last year had jobs in Ireland and still left. We are not great protestors so instead we’ll either leave or pay.
Pat is an arse! And i know i’ve met him about as far removed from labor as a monarchist. Maybe we should eat cake instead of thinking of what is happening to our natural resources. Can’t help but think that as I am worried about the pathetic amount of escape I might get from a device that pat deems taxable.
Eating Cake eh?
You hear about the new eating cake tax :P
I think I will just give my bank account number to Kenny and be done with it to hell!!!!!
He already has it, or didn’t you know that peoples property tax will be taken from their bank accounts if they don’t pay it.
My neighbour has 3 rottweiler dogs and a few months ago the TV licence inspector came to every house without a licence bar his.
He has not had a TV licence for over 10 years….
Don’t think I’ll be paying this haven’t paid for a tv licence in 6 yrs it’s bad enough that I have to pay a licence to own a dog! Now there’s a tax because I own a house, what next?!!
Leanne… You are a cute one.. How did u manage that without doing time in jail..
Just paid my tv licence 3 months late and i’ll be livin on cornflakes for the week.. Sickened me to do it..
Ah my house is very well hidden,if anyone has called to the house I wouldn’t know about it I’m at work lol. Had no choice but to get a dog licence as the dog warden called to the house and left a note :/ paid the property tax last week I never felt so robbed of 45€
I think the Nokia 3210 might make a comeback!! saved a long time to buy an iPhone here when I could of got it abroad for 200 dollars (prob should have :P) we pay huge amounts here for our electronics and they want to charge for that privilege now! sickening!!
3120 pr not…. You still pay.
Its a household charge…. Every household will have to pay it.
what about schoolchildren and the new tablets there introducing to schools ????? who pays the licence for them !!!!
One per household I would assume.
sorry ,i should have made myself clearer ,if they are being used in the schools are the schools responsible for the licence ????
Would we be able to request under the freedom of information act a complete list of all the unique IP addresses that visit rte.ie on a regular basis to make use of the RTE player? I mean surely if so many people are watching RTE for free on their computers and tablets, they’d have no problem producing such a list to justify this broadcasting poll tax.
more divide n conquer tactics. . they say landlords will have to give details under threat of penalty. . thought all tenancy had to be registered with prtb, so they only have to check these records surely! confused.com seems to be the permanent state of those in power.
So I sit down to watch a show and then made to watch 23 mins of Adverts for a 21 minute show, that the company make millions off… so Im paying to watch adverts then? Right Ok. Netflix it is then.
Liens,Netflix is the way to go!!!
Ill pay my tv licence however I don’t agree that those who don’t have broadband or a tv etc should pay this charge. I think it is a charge too far.
Does this tax apply to a tourist staying in a B&B or a Hotel and watching TV? It seems a bit arbitrary for a service that people may not avail of at home at all.
It’s like paying motor tax because you have a driveway, but you may not ever have or need a car.
In the 80s we had a Holliday home on Achill Is. One day a loud knock came to the door, and in she came like the fire brigade, telling us we had not paid the TV tax. I thought she was daft as I had never heard of such a thing in the States, and tried to shoo her out. Now she knew she was right and wanted to search the home where we had no TV as Achill is great entertainment by itself. She had the smirk of certainty about her as she swept open closets and cabinets. Finally she demanded entry into the attic to search for an antenna to follow it to the TV. I thought about locking her up there and calling the guards as I still thought she was crazy but somewhat harmless. Down she came again gritting her teeth, and proclaimed, “I’ll be back again with electronics and find you out.” Later on we heard from a guest at our home that she did come back putting them through the same drill, with the same results. Pay 50 punts to hear the Angelus? I’d rather go to the dentist.
That really was a cheek…how dare the ignorant person do this…to go through your home …..I would have shoved her out & told her go to hell.
I wonder why our German Masters are not just telling the government to introduce similar central citizens registers as they have in Germany, where by law you have to tell your local government within 7 days when you move and register your place of residence.
We could avoid all of this fuzz about collecting information for the purpose of PSBC, Household charge, property tax etc with a nice little database containing all our data.
Its coming,and the good likkle Irish sheep will baaa abit like everything else and then sign up for it
.Instead of them all collectively saying “FK U! come and register us one by one you dictatorial bastards!We are not co- operating on this no more! Go and threaten us with fines or jail.You cant jail the entire 4million of us,unless you want to build a wall around the 26 counties.And in that case there is an indefinate general strike and retention of all taxes .We have had enough.”
Thats in an Ireland in a parallel universe,not this one here.
Why does it surprise anyone when we have the blue shirts in power. THey are only a colour away from brown and like the Nazis taking not only our dignity but now our identity away. No wonder they are cozy with Berlin. The workers flag is not only turning pink but slowly changing into a brown. The Labour party have fused into the blueshirts and we will soon be told we will be fined for not thinking like them and chanting their mantra. It really is a Brave New World and 1984 is now upon us albeit nearly 30 years late. Mise Eire- mo naire thu.
My post seems to have disappeared So I am going to try again.. Why do they have to know everything about everybody. Are they going to tax our thoughts next and turn us into a police state. It dosent surprise me that the blueshirts are pursuing this and are so cosy with Berlin but the so called Labour party take the biscuit or is it the widows mite. Either way we are now entering A Brave New World.
Lashed once again
Anyone know Who’s liable for the tv licence as it stands now? Tenant or landlord?
I would of thought whoever owns the tv is liable
That’s what I’d have thought, but a lot of people bring tv’s to an apartment, but there will already be a tv there
The tenant is usually liable.
No Orla, it’s whoever uses the TV is liable.
Tenant
Tenant. Landlord doesn’t use the TV.
Nobody, unless you sign up to this scam. Just don’t answer the door.
Google ‘rights of implied access’. They’ll have to get a court order to check!
He’s definitely targeting the younger/next generation. I would watch some TV (I prefer the radio) so fair enough I have a TV license – but my teens watch most of their programmes online.
The eldest is heading back to college shortly and like his flat mates, they all use their laptops/ipads. Will there be one charge between the 7 of them or a charge each? It’s a ludicrous idea. But why am I not surprised *rolls eyes*
I would imagine it would be one per household. But why pay it in a rented house for collage. If anyone calls just deny you live there. Sure the will only be there a maxium of 9 months( assuming the dont rent the same place next term)
Tell them to keep their money for books, stationery or food.
RIDICULOUS!!!
Can you imagine the meetings they have to discuss what they tax next. Is there anyone they haven’t hit in the community/State. I am surprised they haven’t introduced a tax on going to the pub more than once a week.
Yes Kevin – themselves and their cronies
I pay €13 a month by DD for my licence ,I don’t even notice it anymore.. If i had to pay it full i would be sick…. 100+ channels with UPC tonight and nothing but shite on the telly… so i’m chatting on The Journal instead… much better :D
Hi Lorraine I did not know that you could pay it like that!
A lecturer in my masters used to go on about how the TV licence only paid what RTÉ put on TV and not what they put on their site and delivered through the RTÉ player. The advertising and whatever other income streams there are from the site and in the player paid for that end of things for them. So if this is true (I just have his word, no actual evidence) are we now going to be paying for a service that RTÉ funds themselves? I’m not too au fait with any updates that the broadcast charge makes.
This is exactly how Nazi Germany started…
” contract.. ,contract… ,you will be in control blah blaa blaa.ho oh yyess the citizens of Irreland “bcause wee willl have a contract! Believe in yourselves, and we”ll take care of the dirty work!thank you a chairde.STOP FUC71NG WRECKING THE GAF ALREADY,ENDA STOP WILL YA,PHIL ,STOP,PLEASE.smell of shit in here now.great!bleedin politicians.
Every time you sign up for a loyalty card you given information away for free. THE points thing is a joke it is the retailer who makes on that one not the customer and meanwhile where does that data go.
Windows Tax
How exactly can they charge this tax to people who do not have the means to receive radio or tv or whatever? Couldn’t you just say you don’t have a smartphone? Oh such and such *insert sell out company you bought it from/pay monthly to* says you do. Sure I lost it!?! You have a laptop. I broke it its in the bin. No way can you justify giving this tax to everyone, and frankly shouldn’t be considering it at all for the junk they spew out on rte.
Didn’t think landlords are obliged to release information re their tenants (law or no law)….are they not bound over to confidentiality ?
Tenants have to be one of the worse people to try & get a few quid out of! Call to lots of them as regards making a collection to keep the upkeep of the area! I was looking for 50′c a week thats €25 a year! So yes, I think the should be coughing up the same as the rest of us! When a tenant takes over a property they become responsible for the up-keep of the property, that should mean TV licence, up keep for their area! After all a land lord can’t walk into a property that they have let without a request to the sitting tenant! So pay up guys & look happy!
My husband and I pay 45 euros a month for eircom and are not paying another charge as both of us are on welfare
Time to leave sunny old Ireland `i think, sink or swim at this stage.
They say they need the funding for the channels….solution: get rid of the channels they’re the greatest tonne of horse s**t anyway…..all the good programmes will have no problem in finding a platform
… look @ Father Ted
I know my right’s , legislate all you want. Notice to government ,my admin fee is €10 000000 for every meeting with the “tv license man” and €5 000000 for reading demand AKA threat letters
Bastards! After Levy, USC and Household charge now THIS?
I have some doubts whether all this is in line with constitution?
First of all, it was always the occupier to pay the tv licence, no landlord would pay for it, and secondly, the tenants names are already registered with the tenancy board. What is the fuss about a new law, which is kind of a nonsense?!
Pat & the other Lackicos in the guberment paying RTE back for their one sided politial coverage …. Havent seen Mrs Ethna Kenny debating on RTE yet, Just make me wonder about it… No one forced resigning for being drunk in the Dail which was cleartly evident on Oireactas TV, unlike Biffo for having a hoarse voice on the morning after Radio show… They are all an utter disgrace, all jobbers and gombeens dryin the marrow from our bones… Political Ireland is dead and gone!!!
No doubt there’ll be a huge wage bill to administer this proposal when the information is already available to them via the PRTB
have your say