"Underwear Bomber" Wants To Represent Himself
A Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up an international flight near Detroit on Christmas has fired his lawyers and suggested he wants to plead guilty to some charges.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds advised Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab not to get rid of his attorneys, but he insisted. Edmunds then granted his request and asked if he had anything further to say.
Abdulmutallab responded with, "If I want to plead guilty to some counts ... basically, how would that go?''
Edmunds told him she couldn't advise on such matters.
Under the law, any criminal defendant can elect to defend themselves in their cause. But whether or not its a good idea to do it is another matter.
WWJ and Fox 2 legal analyst Charlie Langton said it's clear Abdulmutallab isn't grasping the seriousness of the case.
"These are life felonies -- mandatory 30-years for many of them. I mean, it just seems to me that this entire 23-year-old really is not thinking logically," Langton said.
Langton said he thinks Abdulmutallab doesn't want to go to trial.
Abdulmutallab's appearance at the federal courthouse Monday is his first since January. He's being held on charges that include attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Asked for comment on Monday's developments, Miriam Siefer, who headed Abdulmutallab's defense team, said: "Mr. Abdulmutallab has the right to represent himself, and he's exercised that right.''
Passengers who saw flames pounced on Abdulmutallab, subdued him and forced him to the front of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit Metropolitan Airport carrying nearly 300 people last Dec. 25. Authorities say he was trying to set off explosives hidden in his underwear.
The incident exposed flaws in security and intelligence. Abdulmutallab's father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son had drifted into extremism in Yemen, but he never was added to the ``no-fly'' list, which would have kept him off the plane.
The White House in January said the U.S. government had enough information to potentially disrupt the plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula but failed to connect the dots.
Abdulmutallab has not been silent while in custody. In February, law enforcement officials said he had turned against Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born Yemeni radical who claims to be his teacher, and had helped the U.S. hunt for him.
Edmunds spent several minutes Monday asking Abdulmutallab whether he understood each of the six counts against him and if he knew the federal rules of evidence and procedure. She suggested he try out a new lawyer, even for a month.
Abdulmutallab refused, and the judge told him his decision was "unwise,'' in part because he is "not familiar with the law.''
Edmunds said the yet-unnamed stand-by counsel would appear with Abdulmutallab at a court conference scheduled for Oct. 14.
(Copyright 2010 WWJ Radio. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
