Bomb Suspect from Elite Family, Schools

(CBS/AP)  As a member of an uppercrust Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London.

But the education he sought was of a different sort: Nigerian officials say his interest in extremist Islam prompted his father, the former CEO of one of Nigeria's largest banks, to warn U.S. authorities. As Abdulmutallab was being escorted in handcuffs off the Detroit-bound airliner he attempted to blow up on Christmas Day, he told U.S. officials that he had sought extremist education at an Islamist hotbed in Yemen.

A portrait emerged Sunday of a serious young man who led a privileged life as the son of a prominent banker, but became estranged from his family as an adult. Devoutly religious, he was nicknamed "The Pope" for his saintly aura and gave few clues in his youth that he would turn radical, friends and family said.

"In all the time I taught him we never had cross words," said Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught history at the British International School in Lome, Togo. "Somewhere along the line he must have met some sort of fanatics, and they must have turned his mind."

Abdulmutallab would seem to be the latest in a growing list of well educated, and well-to-do young men who have turned to radical Islam and then terrorism, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

"People have been working for a long time to try to understand the process of radicalization, why it happens, why people at certain times in their lives suddenly find themselves attracted into extremist circles leading on sometimes to violent extremism," said Peter Clarke, a CBS News consultant and former head of counterterrorism at London Metropolitan Police

Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to destroy a Northwest flight on Christmas Day with 278 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The detonator on his explosive apparently malfunctioned and he was subdued by other passengers.

Ken Wainstein, who became the first Assistant Attorney General for Homeland Security in 2006, told CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller that Abdulmutallab represents the kind of operative who could be "a goldmine" for al Qaeda.

Wainstein points out that Abdulmutallab speaks English, is Westernized, has multiple entry visa to the U.S. and can "fly under the radar."

Through an official, Abdulmutallab's father "expressed deep shock and regret over his son's actions."

More Coverage from CBSNews.com:

Plot Forces Flight Security Crackdown
Obama Orders Airport Screening Review
Expert: Yemen Ties Could be "Game Changer"
Latest on the Investigation
Official: U.S. Knew of Suspect for 2 Years
Report: Father Warned of Bomb Suspect Son
Official: Explosive PETN Used in Attack
Jasper Schuringa ID'd as Flight 253 Hero
Safety in the Air
Fight 253 Terror Scare

His family home sits in the city of Funtua, in the heart of Nigeria's Islamic culture. Religion figured into the family's life: His father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who had a successful career in commercial banking, also joined the board of an Islamic bank - one that avoids the kind of interest payments banned by the Quran.

The large house, surrounded by a wall and a metal fence just off the main road running through the city, stood empty, a common occurrence for a jet-set family that sought an education abroad for Abdulmutallab. Family members told The Associated Press they could not comment but expected the family to issue a statement.

Mutallab was working with the FBI and not expected to grant media interviews, Information Minister Dora Akunyili said.

The elder Mutallab was "a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit," she said. He had been estranged from his son for several months and alerted U.S. officials last month about the youth's growing hard-line Islamic religious beliefs.

A close neighbor told the AP he believed Abdulmutallab did not get his extremist ideas from his family or from within Nigeria.

Basiru Sani Hamza, 35, said Abdulmutallab was a "very religious" and a "very obedient" to his parents as a boy in the well-to-do banking family.

"I believe he must have been lured where he is schooling to carry out this attack," Hamza said. "Really, the boy has betrayed his father because he has been taking care of all their needs."

Rimmer, a teacher at his high school in West Africa, said Abdulmutallab had been well-respected.

"At one stage, his nickname was 'The Pope,"' Rimmer said from London in a telephone interview. "In one way it's totally unsuitable because he's Muslim, but he did have this saintly aura."

But Abdulmutallab also showed signs of inflexibility, Rimmer said.

In a discussion in 2001, Abdulmutallab was the only one to defend the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Rimmer said. At the time, Rimmer thought the boy was just playing the devil's advocate.

He also noted that during a school trip to London, Abdulmutallab became upset when the teacher took students to a pub and said it wasn't right to be in a place where alcohol was served.

Rimmer also remembered the youngster choosing to give 50 pounds to an orphanage rather than spend it on souvenirs in London.

Rimmer described the institution - an elite college preparatory school, attended by children of diplomats and wealthy Africans - as "lovely, lovely environment" where Christians often joined in Islamic feasts and where some of the best Christmas carolers were Muslims.

Abdulmutallab showed no signs of intolerance toward other students, Rimmer said, explaining that "lots of his mates were Christians."

The Briton noted that he has not seen or heard from his former pupil since 2003 when he was still a teenager.

Abdulmutallab went on to study engineering and business finance at the University College London, where he graduated last year, the college confirmed.

Students at his prestigious university in London, where Abdulmutallab lived in a smart white stone apartment block in an exclusive area of central London, said Abdulmutallab showed no signs of radicalization and painted him as a lax student with deep religious views.

"We worked on projects together," Fabrizio Cavallo Marincola, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering student at University College, told The Independent newspaper. "He always did the bare minimum of work and would just show up to classes. When we were studying, he always would go off to pray.

"He was pretty quiet and didn't socialize much or have a girlfriend that I knew of. I didn't get to talk to him much on a personal level. I was really shocked when I saw the reports. You would never imagine him pulling off something like this."

Marincola declined further comment when contacted by the AP.

[winslowe1]

Now I don't know what to believe. One article says he's a Muslim, another says he's religious. Sure is a stretch to draw any kind of comparison there.

[PatDaddy67]

Rich elite Nigerian banker??? I wish he'd quit sending me email. :)

[from_the_north]

Money doesn't have anything to do with intelligence person!!!!! Expensive schools don't make any difference on mentally handicapped brains.

[Kufr_Akbar]

A rich "banker" in Nigeria is probably just another Nigerian commercial criminal. And even if he's honest, money alone certainly does not make a person "elite" in any sense that I would ever use that word.

[nowhiningallowed]

His elite upbringing doesn't change the fact that he's a Muslim terrorist who tried to murder nearly three hundred innocent people Christmas Day.

[fedupwithlies2]

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a young man trying to assist Obama destruct the world. I predict we will seee this often. obama has already been hail as the "WORLD" Leader. Yep; he is out to destroy the United States by his Stalin 5 year plan. The media are to blame for being silly and not investigating the truth ggressively and reporting it; they were so intent on the first black president. Now the "first" black president has ruined it for everyone; his destruction will never be forgotton.
De-port Obama.

[fedupwithlies2]

This chaos is what Obama ordered.Obama from Kenya wants to destroy the United States. He will make these targets easy. Obama is another Josteph Stalin to instill pandemonium in the United States of discription and confusion; his 5 years medical care reform is a blueprint already in operation.
De-port Hussein Obama II. He will be jailing those he think is agasint him, just like Stalin did in Communist Russia. He is bringing it to the United States. The Supreme Court Justices are helping Obama trick the United States of America. He has for months been trying to erase the Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of the Press; the media have done a good job accomodating Obama.

[kamsack50]

Pensacola
As someone who's not a Christian, let me say that young radicals do not develop their hatred of America over Christianity or any other religion, but rather from the lack of it - from the secularism and the atheism, that secularism is a cover for, and the garbage entertainment which is a result of the society which has resulted from it.

[pensacola8-2009]

Our problem here is the extremist conservative and Christian rhetoric that flies through the airwaves un-censored in the name of liberty and patriotism. Young listeners are very impressionable and can't pull their sails down when strong unfavorable winds of rhetoric fly into their ears. Many become disoriented very fast and conger up ideas out of anxiety and fear of their own imminent danger, whether real or imagined.

The drumbeats of war on the airwaves and the uncivil rants from conservative TV an Radio are inflaming hostilities against the USA. Abuse of the first amendment needs to be dampened voluntarily.

The Federal Supreme Court already ruled that yelling "Fire" in a theatre, when there is no fire is not defended by first amendment constitutional guarantees....and it dismays me how hateful rhetoric from talk radio and TV personalities can hide behind first amendment constitutional guarantees when they essentially produce enemies of the USA with their own hateful and mean-spirited content.

Young adults of elite families in Nigeria and other nations do have access to the broadcasts of the USA and take great offense.

What we have to own up to...is that allowing TV and Radio to go out of control, exposes our own troops and citizens to additional hostilities and perpetuates the war, because more recruits to oppose the USA are easily found when while the USA media drumbeats are loud and hateful.

[6591Hou]

pensacola8-2009 - Do you have any proof to offer that indicates the jihadists are soley reacting to conservative broadcasting? Where are the news reports that the nations listening in are "taking great offense", the comments from world leaders regarding this "hateful rhetoric"? I would think our biggest media export is still our movies and music.

You're proposing censorship in the hope that people outside of this nation will take a kinder view of us? How about the glorification of sex, materialism, and drugs and alcohol our movies and popular music project? There have been reports about how other countries don't want us to export our culture into their respective cultures (remember how strongly France resisted Euro-Disney?) - are we going to have to censor those areas as well in order to not offend?

I don't know what airwaves you're hearing "drumbeats of war" on, but they couldn't be that many nationwide or that frequent and I assume you're referring to Iran. as far as "uncivil rants" go - did you pay attention to this website and other sites (like Slate) throughout the entire Bush administration? There was a massive amount of "uncivil rants" going on against "repuglicans" "bushies" and "conservitards" etc. What is your definition of "uncivil rant"? Ranting against what or whom? From what I've seen over the years, the conservatives and their opponents have been equally vocal in their polarizing generalizations and over-simplifications.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Funny...the way the jihadists always explain it it is more the likes of Howard Stern and the uber liberal left that they have a problem with. The lifestyles that the jihadists consider to be sinful and perceive to be being shoved in their faces is one of the excuses they always use for their idiotic attempts.

[joetheplumer]

No one should or can blame Islam, Christianity or Judaism for the evil acts committed by some ill individuals. There always will be people who find sense in life by committing atrocities against innocent people. They will use their races, their tribes, their political affiliation and their sick ideology to do so. Religion has always been the easiest way to unite and to unite people for the good and, unfortunately, for the BAD.