Underpants bomber is arraigned

His arraignment took place in a conference room at the U. of Michigan Hospital:

Mr. Abdulmutallab smiled briefly but said little in the arraignment. One of his burns was visible. His left hand was cuffed to a wheelchair, and he had bandages on his left thumb. His right hand was bandaged, as was his right thumb and right index finger. He was slender in frame, with tight cropped curls and a baby face unharmed by the explosives.

According to two pool reporters, he was asked how he was feeling and he responded: “I’m doing better.” He added that he felt “better than yesterday.” [. . .]

Investigators are now examining how Mr. Abdulmutallab, at age 23, apparently rebelled against this privileged upbringing to pursue an extremist goal. It was while still in high school that Mr. Abdulmutallab began preaching to fellow students about Islam, according to a report in ThisDay, a Nigerian newspaper.

Mark Steyn:

So once again we see the foolishness of complaceniks who drone the fatuous cliches about how "in this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs". The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don't look to "assimilation" to work its magic, either. We're witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.

RTR.

The hero:

[Jasper] Schuringa dove over four passengers to reach Abdul Mutallab’s seat. The suspect had a blanket on his lap. "It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs."

"I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs."

The unassuming hero ripped the flaming, molten object — which resembled a small, white shampoo bottle — off Abdul Mutallab’s left leg, near his crotch. He said he put out the fire with his bare hands.

Schuringa yelled for water, and members of the flight crew soon appeared with fire extinguishers. Then, he said, he hauled the suspect out of the seat.

"I took him in a choke to the first class and all the people were like, ‘What’s going on?!"

"I don’t feel like a hero," Schuringa told the Post as he recuperated with pals. "It was something that came completely natural ... It was something where I had to do something or it was too late."

How about a medal for this man?

On those who minimize the threat, see William Jacobson.
On the security implications of explosive underwear, Ed Morrissey.

Most recent posts here.