US Approved Flight 253 Passenger List, Source Says

American security agencies reviewed the passenger list for Northwest Airlines flight 253 before it left Amsterdam for Detroit on Christmas day and informed the airline that the flight was cleared to take off for the U.S., a Dutch government spokeswoman tells NEWSWEEK.
 
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.
 
In the case of Flight 253, U.S. authorities informed the airline before the flight took off that the passenger list did not reveal any threats which would prevent the plane from taking off, according to Sluyter, and so the flight left Amsterdam for Detroit. A 23-year-old Nigerian man, identified in news reports as Abdul Mudallad, was arrested by U.S. authorities when the plane landed at Detroit after passengers reported that he tried to set off some kind of explosive device as the plane was making its descent. Rep. Peter King, top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, has said in media interviews that Mudallad's name was listed in U.S. counter-terrorism databases, but was not specifically listed on an official U.S. government "no fly list" which the government uses to completely ban passengers from flying into the United States.
 
NEWSWEEK contacted the relevant U.S. officials Saturday about the Dutch account (an official communique (Dutch only) has been released), but there was no immediate comment.
 
Sluyter said that not only did the airline have the Flight 253 passenger list reviewed and cleared by U.S. authorities, but also Mudallad went through some kind of security screening at Schiphol Airport after his arrival on a connecting flight from Lagos, Nigeria, and before he boarded Flight 253 for the U.S. She said she could not provide full details of the kind of screening that Mudallad passed at Schiphol, but said she believed it involved at least some basic physical search. She said she could not confirm at this point how thorough the physical search might have been.
 
U.S. officials and eyewitness accounts from passengers on Flight 253 have said that as the plane descended towards Detroit, Mudallad apparently tried to start mixing some kind of chemical and liquid in his lap, which at some point ignited and started making noises like exploding firecrackers. The suspect was subdued aboard the plane and apparently may have suffered burn injuries.
 
Nigerian Airports historically have been known for their lax security but Amsterdam Schiphol is one of Europe's most modern airports with sophisticated security systems. However Sluyter said that different levels of screening are applied to passengers changing planes at the airport depending upon where the passengers have flown in from. Passengers changing planes which flew in from European destinations are subjected to less screening than passengers from destinations outside the European Union. Mudallad was subjected to some screening at Schiphol because he had flow in from outside Europe.
 
Sluyter said she was unaware as to whether Mudallad was listed in any Dutch counter-terrorism database and a spokesman for the AIVD, Holland's intelligence agency, said that he had no information on this.
 
U.S. officials are not denying that Mudallad was listed in their counter-terrorism databases. Some reporting from the United Kingdom indicates his name may have appeared in similar databases there. One U.S. official said that American agencies are now conducting a thorough inquest into how a plane carrying someone listed as suspicious in U.S. and possibly allied databases was still given official U.S. government clearance to take off on a trans-Atlantic flight.