DETROIT (AP) - A Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009 told authorities in the hours after the attack he was working for al-Qaida and offered details of his "mission, training and radicalization," prosecutors said in court documents filed Friday.
In a 20-page filing seeking a judge's permission to use the statements as evidence at the fall terrorism trial, the government said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made incriminating statements to U.S. customs agents at the plane and to FBI agents a few hours later at University of Michigan hospital, where he was being treated for severe burns.
U.S. officials in Washington have long said they believed Abdulmutallab was working for al-Qaida, but the court filing was the first time prosecutors in Detroit publicly said he confessed to it.
Abdulmutallab, 24, is accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, which had nearly 300 people on board, seven minutes before arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Airport by igniting explosives in his underwear. He wants the statements thrown out because he was not read his Miranda rights against self-incrimination.
The government, however, said there's a long-established U.S. Supreme Court exception to Miranda if authorities believe there may be an immediate threat to public safety. A hearing is set for Sept. 14.