Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sought out al-Qaida members in Yemen, talked daily about ways to attack the U.S. and made a martyrdom video of himself before he tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb tucked in his underwear, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Just before he did it, they said, he tried to purify himself in the airport lavatory — brushing his teeth, putting on cologne and praying.
“He thought he would end up in heaven because he would be a martyr,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel told jurors on the first day of the highly anticipated terrorism trial.