His daddy tried to warn us
Posted by Richard on December 27, 2009
The initial reports of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 apparently got the perp's name wrong. It's not Abdul Mudallad, it's Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, and there's some interesting information about him at Gateway Pundit. It seems that Abdulmutallab is the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab. Reportedly, he was a student at University College London and lived in a $2.5 million apartment there belonging to his family.
Just another disadvantaged third-worlder driven to radical Islam by hopelessness and despair, right?
But here's the real kicker — daddy tried to warn us that his son was dangerous:
… 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 older Mutallab was said to be devastated on hearing the news of Abdul Farouk’s attempted bombing arrest. A source close to him said he was surprised that after his reports to the US authorities, the young man was allowed to travel to the United States.
Ah, but in this era of hopenchange, Mr. Mutallab, US authorities have no doubt been cautioned not to profile Muslims with "extreme religious views."
Airport security is being tightened, though. So I'm sure TSA will redouble its efforts to prevent the boarding of six-year-old kids with the same name as someone on the "no fly" list.
David Bryant said
The account you’re giving of what the father said to people at the U.S. Embassy is at variance with the story people at the Embassy are telling.
I heard an interview with the Embassy employee who took the father’s report, and he says the father said nothing about the kid being an extremist. Rather, he had gone missing, and his father wanted help finding him. This Embassy employee added the kid’s name to a list, but did little else — he told the interviewer that he didn’t think the U.S. government should get involved in helping a Nigerian father find his 23-year-old son.
I’m not certain which account is correct; I’m just reporting what I heard on NPR.
rgcombs said
It’s not my account, David, it’s the father’s — as reported by AllAfrica.com, apparently the continent’s leading online news service. According to that report and others, daddy asked for help finding his son ”’in Yemen, where he might be involved with a terrorist group.”’
The President seems to believe that account. After being briefed, he abandoned his “isolated extremist” stance and seemed persuaded that the information from the elder Mutallab went well beyond a request for help finding his son:
””It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect’s name on a no-fly list,” said the President.”
…
”Two days ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed that the information provided by the suspect’s father was insufficient to put the son on the no-fly list.”
”The President flatly rejected that explanation. “Even without this one report,” said President Obama, “there were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have and should have been pieced together.””
One of those additional bits of information appears to be this:
”The New York Times reports the United States government “had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas that leaders of a branch of Al Qaeda there were talking about ‘a Nigerian’ being prepared for a terrorist attack.””
There seems to be a lot of finger-pointing and CYA in the various bureaucracies, with anonymous sources in the administration putting the blame on the CIA, and the CIA claiming they did everything right and others failed.
I’m not certain, either. But if I were betting, I’d put my money on the father, who seems to have nothing to gain, not on the potentially self-serving statements of some CIA or State Dept. employee.