While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'
Whether this was an attempt that failed to avoid using a passport Mutallab had or represents a successful avoidance of using a passport to board is uncertain from this observation.
But Mutallab obviously did board the plane to Detroit. And he had help in Amsterdam to board. And it appears he may have had help from Yemen in getting the bomb.
But obviously, according to our security people, Mutallab was a lone wolf.
UPDATE: So did Abdulmutallab (I guess his name is evolving) have a video crew with him? I guess that would be another dot to connect. We've had them before.
