A Nigerian man accused of attempting to blow up a US-bound plane on Christmas Day was recruited by al-Qaida in London and may have met a radical Islamist cleric linked to the Fort Hood mass shooting, Yemen's deputy prime minister said today.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was indicted yesterday on charges including attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill nearly 300 people aboard the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
He has reportedly told US intelligence officials that he was trained in Yemen, raising fears about the spread of extremism in the country.
"The information provided to us is that Umar Farouk joined al-Qaida in London," Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen's deputy prime minister for defence and security, told a news conference.
Senior British counterterrorism officials dismissed the claims, saying there was no evidence to back them up. Sources in the UK said Abdulmutallab's radicalisation began at his school in Togo and peaked in a six-month period in Yemen before the attempted bombing.
He came to MI5's attention during the three years he studied mechanical engineering at University College London, because of his internet activity and contacts with certain websites, security sources said. That information was passed to US agencies but there was nothing to suggest Abdulmutallab was a terrorist threat, they added.
"As far as we can see, while in the UK he expressed an interest in radical Islamism and reaching out [to it]," said a well-placed security source. However, MI5 did not consider Abdulmutallab to be a threat to national security by the time he left Britain.
Alimi said that during Abdulmutallab's stay in Yemen, he may have met the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and al-Qaida leaders. Awlaki gained notoriety last year when it emerged that he exchanged dozens of emails with Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at the Fort Hood army post in Texas on 5 November. The cleric is popular among al-Qaida sympathisers for his calls for holy war.
Alimi said Yemen had arrested and was interrogating a number of al-Qaida elements who had contacts with Abdulmutallab.
Yemen's foreign minister, Abubakr al-Qirbi, said today that fighting militants was the country's "priority", despite facing a Shia revolt in the north and simmering separatist sentiment in the south, but rejected foreign intervention.
"I think the US, as well, have learned from Afghanistan and Iraq and other places that direct intervention can be self-defeating," he told CNN.
Barack Obama is due to disclose more information about the failed airline bomb plot today and detail the steps he is taking to prevent future terrorist attacks. The White House is making public a declassified account of the incident and the US president will address the nation about its findings and recommendations.
On Tuesday, Obama criticised intelligence agencies, saying the system "has failed in a potentially disastrous way". But he is not expected to announce any firings as a result of the security failings.
Abdulmutallab's father had warned US officials that Abdulmutallab had drifted into extremism in Yemen, but that threat was never identified fully by intelligence officials.
The Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, reported last night that US border security officials learned of Abdulmutallab's alleged extremist links while he was en route to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed. The Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment.
The president's comments today will be the sixth time he has spoken publicly on the incident. He is eager to provide the public with reassurances while at the same time moving public attention back to the administration's efforts to expand healthcare and boost the economy.
A grand jury in Detroit heard yesterday that Abdulmutallab intended to destroy the plane by injecting chemicals into a package of pentrite explosive concealed in his underwear "at a time of his choosing". He was indicted on six counts and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
