All Africa: Umaru Mutallab's Son Identified As Delta Airline Attempted Bomber
The young man, who yesterday night attempted to ignite an explosive device aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan in the United States has been identified as Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, former First Bank chairman. Mutallab, a former minister (Cabinet level Official of the Nigerian Gov't) and prominent banker recently retired from the bank's board.
The older Mutallab, as at the time of filing this report, had just left his Katsina hometown for Abuja to speak with security agencies, family sources say. According to the family members, Mutallab has been uncomfortable with the boy's extreme religious views and had six months ago reported his activities to United States' Embassy, Abuja and Nigerian security agencies....
The family home of the Mutallabs in Central London, is currently being searched by men of the Metropolitan Police.
THISDAY checks reveal that the suspect, Abdulfarouk Umar Muttalab who is an engineering student at the University College, London had been noted for his extreme views on religion since his secondary school days at the British International School, Lome, Togo.
At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called "Alfa", a local coinage for Islamic scholar. After his secondary school, the young man, family sources said went to University College London to study engineering and later relocated to Egypt, and then Dubai. While in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, he declared to his family members that he did not want to have anything to do with any of them again.
AP Report "Son of prominent Nigerian Banker"
VIDEO: Detroit terror attack: 'He was screaming about Afghanistan'
CNN VIDEO: Dutch Videographer Jasper Schuringa tackles Islamist terrorist
AP Report:
U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of Al Qaeda when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., identified the suspect as Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian. King said the flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit.
One of the U.S. intelligence officials said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid. It failed when the passenger tried to detonate it.
The passenger was being questioned Friday evening.
Steve Emerson, IPT: VIDEO
“Government officials have confirmed to me that his name was known to them in the last month as somebody who was affiliated with al-Qaeda.…They didn’t have enough information detailing his ties to al-Qaeda….”
“Its not a coincidence that this plot occurred right now two days after the airstrike (on the Ft Hood shooter's Imam, Awlaki in a Yemeni cave).” (See: Exterminated: Ft Hood shooter's favorite Imam? )
The materials for the attack are believe to have come from Yemen.
ABC News:
The man said he was directed by al Qaeda to explode a small device in flight, over U.S. soil, ABC News has learned. Authorities have no corroboration of that information, and the credibility of the suspect's statements are being questioned, officials said....
(A flight from Amsterdam to Detroit would only cross over from Canada to "US soil" in the last few minutes of the flight.)
The suspect was identified as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who according to federal documents is an engineering student at University College of London.
He was flying from Nigeria to the United States for a religious ceremony, according to his entry visa, which was issued June 16, 2008 and was good until June 12, 2010....
(From the al-Qaeda p.o.v., blowing up an airplane IS a "religious ceremony".)
The suspect had been in a law enforcement-intelligence database but was not on the government's no-fly list, according to a law enforcement official.
CBS News:
U.S. officials say a Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria said he was acting on behalf of al Qaeda when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit....
A senior U.S. counterterror official says Mudallad was planning to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 carrying 278 passengers, but the explosive device failed. Mudallad reportedly ignited powder attached to his leg and was severely burned in the incident, CBS News reports....
President Barack Obama ordered the Department of Homeland Security to raise the terror threat level from elevated to high for all domestic and international flights. The national threat level is set to elevated.
The White House is calling the incident an attempted terrorist attack. The FBI is investigating....
The flight left Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport at 8:45 a.m. local time Friday morning and arrived in Detroit a 12:01 p.m. CST....
Detroit Free Press:
But later, Syed Jafry of Holland, Mich., a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, emerged from the airport and said he was a passenger on the flight. He said people ran out of their seats to tackle the man.
Jafry was sitting in the 16th row when he heard "a pop and saw some smoke and fire." Then, he said, “a young man behind me jumped on him.”
Jafry said there was a little bit of commotion for about 10 to 15 minutes.
He said the way passengers responded made him proud to be an American.
But passenger Richard Griffith of Pontiac said he was unaware of the incident until departing the plane.
He said he was sitting in the back of the plane and did not “see or hear anything.”
His wife and daughter, who had been waiting for him at the airport since about 11:40 a.m., said they saw a person they believe to be the suspect being transported from the airport. Dawn Griffith said he was “young looking” and was handcuffed to a stretcher, with his hands bandaged.
FOX News:
A federal judge has told a Nigerian man that he is charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day.
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his charges in a conference room on Saturday at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, where he is being treated for burns.
Agents brought Abdulmutallab into the room in a wheelchair. He had a blanket over his lap and wore a green hospital robe.
The judge asked Abdulmutallab if he understood the charges against him. He responded in English: "Yes, I do."
The judge told Abdulmutallab that he will be held until his next court appearance on January 8.
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