Defendant in airline attack case won't speak to jurors as trial opens

By Ed White Associated Press DETROIT (AP) -- A man charged with trying to destroy a Detroit-bound flight with a bomb will not speak to jurors when trial opens this week. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is acting as his own lawyer and had indicated that he wanted to give the opening statement today. But his standby attorney, Anthony Chambers, said last Friday that won't happen. Chambers says he's been authorized to give the opening remarks in federal court in Detroit. Abdulmutallab is a 24-year-old from Nigeria who suffered severe burns on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight on Christmas 2009. The government says he was trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear on behalf of al-Qaida. Published: Tue, Oct 11, 2011