Delta Terrorist Bomber Connection With Ft. Hood Jihadist's Imam? Explosive PETN Used in Attempted Attack

Rep. Pete Hokestra has suggested that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the terrorist who attempted to blow up a US jetliner yesterday, may have had ties with a radical imam who was connected with the Ft. Hood Jihadist, Nidal Malik Hasan.

Suspected terrorist Umar Abdul Mutallab, who attempted to blow up Delta/Northwest Airlines flight yesterday.

"He may have been in contact with the American imam al-Aulaqi," Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Congress for Michigan, told AFP.

"There are reports that he had contact and that he was recently in Yemen. The question we'll have to raise is was this imam in Yemen influential enough to get some people to attack the US again."

First reports said the terrorist was on a "no-fly" list, which turns out not to have been the case. Today, some news authorities are saying the US knew for two years this students was a possible terror threat. Abdul Mutallab's father apparently warned authorities months ago about his son.

The suspect used an explosive called PETN in the attempted bombing and it is suspected it was carried in a condom as a way of seeing if it could be snuck aboard the plane (CBS).

A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect apparently used a syringe to inject a chemical into the powder, which was located near his groin. It is a technique not seen in previous attempted attacks and it's possible that this incident was a test of whether the materials could pass screening and how effective they might be at causing damage, the source said.

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, PETN is a highly explosive, colorless organic compound, and is related to nitroglycerin. Introduced as an explosive after World War I, PETN is "valued for its shattering force and efficiency ... and is the least stable of the common military explosives but retains its properties in storage for longer periods than nitroglycerin or cellulose nitrate (nitrocellulose) does."

PETN is also used in heart medication as a stimulant.