Jet plot well planned, amateurishly executed

The failed attack on a US airliner last week was professionally prepared but carried out amateurishly.

THE HAGUE, December 30, 2009 (AFP) - The failed attack on a US airliner last week was professionally prepared but carried out amateurishly, Dutch Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst said Wednesday.

The method and the explosives used were similar to those employed in earlier attacks, she told a press conference, adding that the explosive was not easy to make.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, is accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines Airbus as it was landing at Detroit on December 25 after a flight from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

"The preparation of the failed attack against passenger flight NW 253 Amsterdam-Detroit was fairly professional, but its execution was amateurish," Horst said.

"The explosive used is not easy to make and its production is not without risk," she added, quoting findings of the probe launched by Dutch authorities.

"The modus operandi and explosive are similar to earlier attacks," she said, without giving further details.

According to charging documents, Abdulmutallab tried to bring down the Airbus A330 with 290 people on board using a device containing the explosive pentaerythritol.

He was tackled by passengers and crew as he was injecting a substance from a syringe into the explosives reportedly sewn into his underwear, preventing a deadly blast.

The minister also said that Dutch airports would install body scanners for all transatlantic flights within three weeks, after the usual security measures failed to detect the explosives.

An Al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian peninsula claimed Monday it was behind the failed bombing and threatened new attacks on the West.

In an Internet posting the group said a "technical fault" caused the plot's failure.