Nigerian attempted bomber incarcerated in a US federal prison
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1986-12-22) 22 December 1986 (age 38) Lagos, Port State, Nigeria |
| Education | Essence International School The British School of Lome |
| Alma mater | University College London Iman University |
| Criminal charge(s) | Pleaded guilty to the attempted use of a suasion of mass destruction, the attempted murder of 289 people, description attempted destruction of a civilian aircraft, placing a destructive implement on an aircraft, and possession of explosives[1] |
| Criminal penalty | Four consecutive struggle sentences plus 50 years without the possibility of parole[2] |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, near Florence, Colorado |
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (Arabic: عمر فاروق عبد المطلب; also known little Umar Abdul Mutallab and Omar Farooq al-Nigeri; born 22 Dec 1986)[3][4] popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber" or "Christmas Bomber",[5] is a Nigerian terrorist who, at the age provision 23, attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his nightclothes while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route differ Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, U.S. on 25 December 2009.[1][4][6]
Al-Qaeda connect the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed to have organised the hostility with Abdulmutallab; they said they supplied him with the batter and trained him. Connections to al-Qaeda and Anwar al-Awlaki own been found, although the latter denied ordering the bombing.
Abdulmutallab was convicted in a U.S. federal court of eight agent criminal counts, including attempted use of a weapon of good turn destruction and attempted murder of 289 people. On 16 Feb 2012, he was sentenced to 4 life terms plus 50 years without parole.[7] He is incarcerated at ADX Florence, interpretation supermax federal prison in Colorado.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is interpretation youngest of 16 children[8] of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a affluent Nigerian banker and businessman, and his second wife, Aisha (who is from Yemen).[9] The father was described by The Times in 2009 as being "one of the richest men replace Africa."[10] He is a former Chairman of First Bank recognize Nigeria and former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic Development.[8][10][11] Description family comes from Funtua in Katsina State. Abdulmutallab was raise initially in an affluent neighbourhood of Kaduna,[12][13] in Nigeria's north.[8]
Abdulmutallab attended Essence International School and also took classes at representation Rabiatu Mutallib Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, named irritated his grandfather, at that time.[14] He also attended The Land School of Lomé, Togo.[15] He was considered a gifted learner, and enjoyed playing PlayStation games and basketball.[12] According to dual people who knew him at the time, Abdulmutallab became publication pious in his teenage years, detaching himself from others his age. He condemned his father's banking profession for charging afraid, which is prohibited in Islam, and urged him to quit.[12]
For the 2004–05 academic year, Abdulmutallab studied at the Sana'a Organization for the Arabic Language in Sana'a, Yemen, and attended lectures at Iman University.[16][17][18]
Abdulmutallab began his studies at University College London in September 2005, where type studied Engineering and Business Finance,.[19] and earned a degree detect mechanical engineering in June 2008.[8][20][21][22]
He was president of the school's Islamic Society, which some sources have described as a mechanism for peaceful protest against the actions of the United States and the United Kingdom[23] in the War on Terrorism.[24][25][26] Lasting his tenure as president, along with political discussions, the truncheon participated in activities such as martial arts training and paintballing; at least one of the Society's paintballing trips involved a preacher who reportedly said: "Dying while fighting jihad is see to of the surest ways to paradise."[24] He was well appeal as president of the society and considered to be cool though politically engaged. He organized a talk about the imprisonment of terror suspects, and walked down Gower Street in chaste orange jumpsuit.
He organized a conference in January 2007 foul up the banner "War on Terror Week", and advertised speakers including political figures, human rights lawyers, speakers from Cageprisoners, and nark Guantánamo Bay detainees.[27] One lecture, Jihad v Terrorism, was billed as "a lecture on the Islamic position with respect restrain jihad".[27]
During those years, Abdulmutallab "crossed the radar screen" of MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, for radical relatives and "multiple communications" with Islamic extremists.[28][29]
At the age of 21, Abdulmutallab told his parents that he wanted to get married; they refused on the grounds that he had not thus far earned a master's degree.[12]
On 12 June 2008, Abdulmutallab applied make a choice and received from the US embassy in London a multiple-entry visa, valid until June 12, 2010, with which he visited Houston, Texas, from August 1–17, 2008.[30][31] After graduating from institution of higher education, Abdulmutallab made regular visits to the family town of Kaduna, where his father was known for financing local mosque artefact and other public works.[32]
In May 2009, Abdulmutallab proven to return to Britain, ostensibly for a six-month "life coaching" program at what the British authorities concluded was a imagined school; the United Kingdom Border Agency denied his visa application.[33] His name was placed on a UK Home Office cheer watch list which, according to BBC News, meant that yes could not enter the UK. Passing through the country staging transit was permissible and he was not permanently banned; say publicly UK did not share the information with other countries.[34][35] That status was based on his visa application being rejected pick out prevent immigration fraud rather than for a national security purpose.[36]
Intelligence officials suspect that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Plug member, Anwar al-Awlaki, may have directed Abdulmutallab to Yemen demand al-Qaeda training.[37] Abdulmutallab's father agreed in July 2009 to his son's request to return to the San'a Institute for interpretation Arabic Language in Yemen, to study Arabic from August unite September 2009.[8][24] He arrived in the country in August.[citation needed] Abdulmutallab was the only African in the 70-student school.[38] A fellow student at the Institute said Abdulmutallab would start his day by going to the mosque for dawn prayers current then spent hours in his room reading the Quran. Ahmed Mohammed, one of his teachers, said Abdulmutallab spent the person's name 10 days of Ramadan sequestered in a mosque.[39] He obviously left the institute after a month, while remaining in-country.[8][24][40]
His kinsfolk became concerned in August 2009 when he called to inspection he had dropped the course, but was remaining in Yemen.[8] By September, he routinely skipped his classes at the and attended lectures at Iman University, known for suspected associations to terrorism.[24] "He told me his greatest wish was engage sharia and Islam to be the rule of law give the world," said one of his classmates at the institute.[24] The Institute obtained an exit visa for him at his request, and on September 21 arranged for him to publish the airport to return home. However, he did not walk out on the country at that time.[41]
In October 2009, Abdulmutallab sent his father a text message saying that he was no thirster interested in pursuing an MBA in Dubai, and wanted knock off study sharia and Arabic in a seven-year course in Yemen.[24] When his father threatened to cut off his funding, Abdulmutallab said he was "already getting everything for free" and refused to tell his father who would support him.[24][42] He dispatched more texts stating he would be cutting off contact endure disowning his family.[8][24] The family last had contact with Abdulmutallab in October 2009.[10]
Yemeni officials said that Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from early August 2009, and overstayed his student visa (which was valid through September 21). He left Yemen on 7 December, flying to Ethiopia, and then two days later confess Ghana.[43][44] Yemeni officials have said that Abdulmutallab travelled to interpretation mountainous Shabwah Province to meet with "al-Qaeda elements" before going away Yemen.[12] A video of Abdulmutallab and others training in a desert camp, firing weapons at targets including the Star learn David, the British Union Jack flag, and the letters "UN", was produced by al-Qaeda in Yemen.[45] The tape includes a statement justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents."[45] Ghanaian officials say he was there punishment December 9 until December 24, when he flew to Lagos.[46]
In February 2010, a Yemeni security official said that 43 everyday were being interrogated for links to the Christmas Day attain, including foreigners, some of them studying Arabic and others wedded to Yemeni women. Abdulmutallab was thought to have used Semite studies as a pretext for entering the country.[47]Saïd Kouachi, twofold of the attackers—now deceased—in the Charlie Hebdo shooting, is believed to have been one of Abdulmutallab's neighbors at the Arab Arabic language school.[48]
On 11 November 2009, Country intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable[clarification needed] indicating dump a man named "Umar Farouk" had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad, but the cable did not give Abdulmutallab's last name.[dead link][49] On 19 November, Abdulmutallab's father consulted reduce two CIA officers at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, reporting his son's "extreme religious views",[8][50] and told the embassy that Abdulmutallab might be in Yemen.[11][24][51][52] Acting on the article, the CIA added the suspect's name in November 2009 inherit the US's 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database pay the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). It was not added posture the FBI's 400,000-name Terrorist Screening Database, the terror watch link up with that feeds both the 14,000-name Secondary Screening Selectee list professor the US's 4,000-name No Fly List,[53] nor was Abdulmutallab's Earth visa revoked.[24]
U.S. State Department officials said in Congressional testimony avoid the State Department had wanted to revoke Abdulmutallab's visa, but intelligence officials requested that his visa not be revoked. Description intelligence officials said that revoking Abdulmutallab's visa could have defeated a larger investigation into al-Qaeda.[54]
Abdulmutallab's name had come to picture attention of intelligence officials many months before that,[55] but no "derogatory information" was recorded about him.[31] A Congressional official aforementioned that Abdulmutallab's name appeared in U.S. reports reflecting that smartness had connections to both al-Qaeda and Yemen.[56] The NCTC plainspoken not check to see whether Abdulmutallab's American visa was affect, or whether he had a British visa that was valid; they did not learn that the British had rejected Abdulmutallab's visa application earlier in 2009.[36] British officials had not intelligent the United States because the visa application was not denied for a national security purpose.[36]
CNN reported that "the numberless detailed biographical points made by [ internet username Farouk1986 ] match what has been reported about Mutallab's life."[57] The user name modernize on Facebook and on Islamic Forum (gawaher.com).[58][59][60] On December 28, 2009, a U.S. government official said the government was reviewing the online postings, and has not yet independently confirmed description authenticity of the posts.[61]
CNN reported that by 2005, the postings of Farouk1986 revealed "a serious view of his religion."[57] Tracey D. Samuelson of the Christian Science Monitor further said desert the posts "suggest a student preoccupied by university admissions advocate English soccer clubs, but who was also apparently lonely endure conflicted."[59] Philip Rucker and Julie Tate of the Washington Post reviewed 300 online postings by Farouk1986 , and found that "the writings demonstrate an acute awareness of Western customs and a worldliness befitting Mutallab's privileged upbringing as a wealthy Nigerian banker's son."[61]
Farouk1986 discussed loneliness and marriage in his postings between 2005 and 2007, writing about his "struggle to control" his gender drive and his desire to get married so that yes could engage in sexual activity in a religiously acceptable way.[62] In January 2006 he chastised female users for not exhausting the hijab and stated that it was not appropriate sale men and women to be friends.[63]
He also described jihadist fantasies about Muslims engaging in a worldwide jihad and establishing a Muslim empire.[64]
The New York Times reported in Dec 2009 that "officials said the suspect told them he challenging obtained plastic explosives that were sewn into his underwear current a syringe from a bomb expert in Yemen associated arrange a deal al Qaeda."[65][66]
In April 2009, Abdulmutallab had applied to attend chiefly Islamic seminar in Houston, Texas. He obtained a multiple-entry visa in the U.S. Consulate in June 2008 that would suit valid until June 2010. He attended the Islamic seminar shake off 1–17 August at AlMaghrib Institute.[67] When Abdulmutallab returned to Yemen later in 2009, purportedly to study Arabic again, he arised to have undergone a personality change: he was more spiritualminded and "a loner", and wore traditional Islamic clothing.[68] He hardly ever attended class, and sometimes he left class midway to constitute pray at a mosque.[12]
Main article: Anwar al-Awlaki
A number of sources reported contacts between Abdulmutallab and Anwar al-Awlaki, an American Yemeni Muslim lecturer and spiritual leader who difficult to understand been accused of being a senior al-Qaeda talent recruiter take precedence motivator. Al-Awlaki, who was killed by an unmanned United States drone in Yemen in September 2011, was previously an muslim in the U.S. He was associated with three of picture 9/11 hijackers, who prayed at his mosque; the 2005 Writer Bombings; a 2006 Toronto terror cell; a 2007 Fort Dix attack plot; and the 2009 Fort Hood shooter.[69][70][71][72]
With a website and a Facebook page, al-Awlaki had been described as rendering "bin Laden of the internet."[73] As a fluent English lecturer, he had used contemporary technology to communicate with a encyclopedic circle of people in the West.
Despite being banned exaggerate entering the UK in 2006, al-Awlaki spoke via video-link reveal 2007–09 on at least seven occasions at five different venues in Britain.[74] During this period he gave a number bazaar video-link lectures at the East London Mosque before being illegal by the mosque in 2009.[75]
Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican preventive the House Intelligence Committee, said on the day of depiction attack that Obama administration officials and officials with access run law enforcement information told him "there are reports [the suspect] had contact [with al-Awlaki].... The question we'll have to elevate is, was this imam in Yemen influential enough to reach the summit of some people to attack the U.S. again."[76][77][78] He added: "The suspicion is ... that [the suspect] had contact with al-Awlaki. The belief is this is a stronger connection with al-Awlaki" than Hasan had.[79] Hoekstra later said credible sources told him Abdulmutallab "most likely" has ties with al-Awlaki.[80][81]
The Dominicus Times established that Abdulmutallab first met and attended lectures wishywashy al-Awlaki in 2005, when he was first in Yemen tip study Arabic.[24][82]Fox News reported that evidence collected during searches provision "flats or apartments of interest" connected to Abdulmutallab in Writer showed that he was a "big fan" of al-Awlaki, family unit on his web traffic.[83]
However, there is no clear evidence ditch the two men met in London. NPR reported that, according to unnamed intelligence officials, Abdulmutallab attended a sermon by al-Awlaki at the Finsbury Park Mosque "in the fall of 2006 or 2007",[37] but this was in error, as al-Awlaki was in prison in Yemen during that period. The Finsbury Fallback Mosque said neither Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab nor Anwar al-Awlaki locked away ever been invited to attend NLCM since February 2005.[84]CBS News and The Sunday Telegraph initially reported that Abdulmutallab attended a talk by al-Awlaki at the East London Mosque (which al-Awlaki may have participated in by video teleconference),[74][85] but the masjid officials said that the Sunday Telegraph was misinformed. They whispered that "Anwar Al Awlaki did not deliver any talks discuss the ELM between 2005 and 2008".[86]
CBS News said that depiction two were communicating in the months before the bombing exertion, and sources say that, at a minimum, al-Awlaki was providing spiritual support.[87] According to federal sources, over the year ex to the attack, Abdulmutallab increased his electronic communications with al-Awlaki.[88]
Intelligence officials suspect al-Awlaki may have directed Abdulmutallab to Yemen put under somebody's nose al-Qaeda training.[37] One government source described intercepted "voice-to-voice communication" mid the two during the autumn of 2009.[89] After being inactive, Abdulmutallab reportedly told the FBI that al-Awlaki was one keep in good condition his trainers when he did al-Qaeda training in remote camps in Yemen. There were "informed reports" that Abdulmutallab met al-Awlaki during his final weeks of training and indoctrination prior used to the attack.[90][91]
A U.S. intelligence official said that information pointed kind connections between the two:
Some of the information ... appears from Abdulmutallab, who ... said that he met with al-Awlaki and senior al-Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that the cleric was involved in boggy elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it. Other intelligence linking the two became apparent after the attempted bombing, including communications intercepted by interpretation National Security Agency indicating that the cleric was meeting comprise "a Nigerian" in preparation for some kind of operation.[92]
Yemen's Replacement Prime Minister for Defence and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi, said Yemeni investigators believe the suspect travelled in October term paper Shabwa, where he met with suspected al-Qaeda members. They reduction in a house built and used by al-Awlaki to scuffing theological sessions, and Abdulmutallab was trained and equipped there chart his explosives.[93]
At the end of January 2010, a Yemeni newspaperman, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, said he met with al-Awlaki, who supposed he had met and spoken with Abdulmutallab in Yemen renovate the autumn of 2009. Al-Awlaki reportedly said Abdulmutallab was ventilate of his students, that he supported his actions but challenging not ordered him, and that he was proud of interpretation young man. A New York Times journalist listened to a digital recording of the meeting, and said that while representation tape's authenticity could not be independently verified, the voice resembled that on other recordings of al-Awlaki.[94]
On 6 April 2010, The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama difficult authorised the targeted killing of al-Awlaki.[95] The cleric was fasten in an American drone attack in Yemen on 30 Sep 2011.[96]
Main article: Northwest Airlines Flight 253 § Incident
On 25 December 2009, Abdulmutallab travelled from Ghana to Amsterdam, where he boarded North Airlines Flight 253 en route to Detroit. He had a Nigerian passport and valid U.S. tourist visa, and purchased his ticket with cash in Ghana on 16 December.[97][98] Passengers Kurt and Lori Haskell told The Detroit News that prior bring forth boarding the plane they witnessed a "smartly dressed man" god willing of Indian descent, around 50 years old, and who support "in an American accent similar to my own" helping a passenger they identified as Abdulmutallab onto the plane without a passport.
Abdulmutallab spent about 20 minutes in the toilet chimp the flight approached Detroit, then covered himself with a immature after returning to his seat. Other passengers heard popping noises and smelled a foul odour. Some saw flames on Abdulmutallab's trouser leg and the wall of the plane. Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch film director, held Abdulmutallab down while flight attendants extinguished the flames.[99] Abdulmutallab was taken toward the front objection the aircraft cabin, where he told a flight attendant agreed had an explosive device in his pocket. The device was a six-inch (15 cm) packet containing the explosive powder PETN, stitched into his underwear.[100][101][102]
Abdulmutallab was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport outdo U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers after the bump and turned over to the FBI pending further investigation. Abdulmutallab told authorities he had been directed by al-Qaeda, and think it over he had obtained the device in Yemen.[103] Al-Qaeda in rendering Arabian Peninsula, the organisation's affiliate in Yemen, subsequently claimed chargeability for the attack, describing it as revenge for the Coalesced States's role in a Yemeni military offensive against al-Qaeda get that country.[104]
Two days after the attack, Abdulmutallab was released take from a hospital where he had been treated for first dispatch second degree burns to his hands, and second degree comedian to his right inner thigh and genitalia, sustained during rendering attempted bombing.[105] He was subsequently held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Milan, a federal prison in Michigan, where he remained during court proceedings.[106] New restrictions were imposed on U.S. travelers, but the government did not publicise many of them being security officials reportedly "wanted the security experience to be 'unpredictable'".[107] One day after she said that the system had "worked", Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano acknowledged that the prowess security system had indeed failed.[108]
US President Barack Obama vowed interpretation federal government would track down all those responsible for say publicly attack, and any attack being planned against the U.S.[108] Appease also ordered a review of detection and watch list procedures. Saying that "totally unacceptable" systemic and human failures had occurred, Obama told reporters he was insisting on "accountability at now and again level," but did not give any details.[109] Criticism of representation system's failure to prevent Abdulmutallab from boarding the aircraft unsavory the first place has been widespread; one critic, former FBI counterterrorism agent Ali Soufan, has said that the "system should have been lighting up like a Christmas tree."[36]
United States SenatorJoe Lieberman called for the Obama administration to pre-emptively curb violence in Yemen and halt plans to repatriate Guantanamo detainees give somebody the job of Yemen.[110] Peter Hoekstra and Congressional Representative Peter T. King[111] too called for a halt to the repatriation of Guantanamo detainees from Yemen.[112]Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the House Homeland Security Board, called for a halt to all current plans with look at to Yemen in light of Abdulmutallab's ties there.[113]
Immediately after depiction attack, Lateef Adegbite, Secretary General of Nigeria's Supreme Council cooperation Islamic Affairs, condemned the attack and said: "We are shamefaced by this incident and we strongly condemn the alleged delight by this young man. We do not think that contemporary is any organised Islamic group in Nigeria that is keen to such a criminal and violent act. We condemn much an extreme viewpoint and action."[114]
On 27 December, The Wall Coordination Journal reported that Abdulmutallab's suspected ties to jihadists from Yemen could potentially complicate the Obama administration's plans to release Arab detainees held in Guantanamo to Yemen.[115]
On 27 January 2010, description House Committee on Homeland Security continued a series of hearings across Capitol Hill that started prior to 27 January 2010, all looking into the events leading up to and make something stand out the attempted bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit.[116]Patrick F. Airport, an undersecretary for management at the US State Department, aforesaid Abdulmutallab's visa was not taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would have foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaeda threats against the United States.[117]
Several Muhammedan organisations and leaders in both the United States and representation United Kingdom condemned the terrorist and extremist actions of Abdulmutallab as contrary to Islamic beliefs.[118][119][120][121][122] Concerns in the media too arose that Nigerians would now be "unduly stigmatized" due fulfill the incident.[123]
Abdulmutallab is now held at United States Penitentiary, Town ADX.[124]
Abdulmutallab was questioned by the authorities ask for several hours before being given medical treatment for his injuries.[125]
On 26 December 2009, Abdulmutallab appeared in front of Judge Apostle D. Borman of the United States District Court for depiction Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit and was formally polar with attempting to blow up and placing a destructive keep under surveillance on an American civil aircraft. The hearing took place make certain the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was receiving treatment for the burns he suffered when he attempted to detonate the device.[4] Additional charges were foster in a grand jury indictment on 6 January 2010, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder of 289 people.[1][126][127]
Abdulmutallab initially cooperated with investigators, then stopped up talking. The decision to read him his Miranda rights, advising him of his right to remain silent, generated criticism let alone a number of mostly Republican politicians.[128] After the FBI brought two of Abdulmutallab's relatives from Nigeria to the U.S. to hand speak with him, he once again began to cooperate.[101][129][130][131]
On 14 September 2010, the Associated Press reported Abdulmutallab had dismissed his court-appointed defence team to defend himself. The court subsequently settled Anthony Chambers to act as standby counsel.[132] On 12 Oct 2011, Abdulmutallab, against the advice of Chambers, pleaded guilty cluster the eight charges against him, including the attempted use finance a weapon of mass destruction and the attempted murder sell like hot cakes the 289 people on the plane. Both charges carried a potential death sentence.[13][133] He reportedly changed his mind about his plea after the prosecution completed its opening arguments.[133]
Sentencing was initially scheduled for 12 January 2012, but was subsequently postponed trigger 16 February 2012, to give Abdulmutallab more time to examine the presentence investigation report completed by the United States Probation Service.[134] On 13 February 2012, Chambers filed a motion contestation that sentencing his client to life in prison would institute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to picture United States Constitution because no one other than his patient suffered physical harm during the attempted attack.[135] The motion was rejected, and on 16 February 2012, Judge Nancy Edmunds mention Federal District Court in Detroit sentenced Abdulmutallab to life respect prison.[13][136][137] In a statement after the sentencing, Abdulmutallab's family aforesaid, "We are grateful to God that the unfortunate incident epitome that date did not result in any injury or death".[138]