“AQAP [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] was responsible for the attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. The Nigerian suicide bomber [Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] failed to detonate his bomb as the plane was descending over southern Ontario and a Dutch tourist alertly raised the alarm. The attempt showed that al Qaeda remains fixated on the airline industry as a prime target.”
– Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 103