Abdulmutallab: Cleric Told Me to Bomb Jet
Updated 4:37 a.m. EST
The suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt told federal investigators that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki directed him to carry out the attack, CBS News has learned.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for about a week, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al Qaeda affiliate that operates there.
Abdulmutallab has turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher, al-Awlaki, and has helped the U.S. hunt for him in Yemen, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
Abdulmutallab's cooperation in discussing al-Awlaki is significant because it could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has emerged has a prominent al Qaeda recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
Al-Awalki appears to be in a leadership role when it comes to directing terrorist operations and selecting targets for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a law enforcement source told CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton. He had previously been viewed as a behind-the-scenes supporter, providing religious guidance and justification for attacks. He is now said to be an active operations player picking targets and suggesting schemes.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports that al-Awlaki's U.S. citizenship - he was born in New Mexico - will have little bearing on American military and intelligence efforts to locate and kill him.
U.S. officials, both current and former, tell Logan that if an individual is deemed to be part of a terrorist network that is a threat to American security in any way, they can be targeted legitimately.
"If you can show al-Awlaki is part of the network, and you are targeting the infrastructure of that network, then anyone that is in your way and part of that network can be considered 'collateral damage' and you do not require special permission or legal requirements to go after them," explains Logan.
According to the source, Abdulmutallab told investigators he obtained the powerful explosives PETN and TATP in Yemen and was left on his own to decide when and how to bring down a plane, Milton reports. Abdulmutallab has apparently disclosed to investigators he picked Northwest Flight 253 because of its availability.
The source said Abdulmutallab told investigators he was guided by al-Awalki to detonate the bomb over U.S. soil, unlike the failed British bomber plot in 2006 when the bombers were instructed to detonate bombs on airliners over the ocean on the way to the U.S. so that there would be no evidence left behind.
Al-Awlaki himself said in a recent interview that he and Abdulmutallab had kept in contact. A senior U.S. intelligence official said al-Awlaki represented the biggest name on the list of people Abdulmutallab might have information against. Both spoke on condition anonymity to discuss the sensitive ongoing investigation.
Al-Awlaki was born in the United States. Since leaving in 2002, he has mainly lived in Yemen, where Abdulmutallab also spent several months last year.
The Yemeni government said Jan. 7 that it is certain that al-Awlaki and Abdulmutallab met in Yemen.
Al-Awlaki reportedly corresponded by e-mail with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov.5.
Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood
Al-Awlaki denied inciting the army psychiatrist to carry out last November's deadly shootings at Fort Hood, instead pointing the finger of blame at the United States for creating conditions that led to the attack.
Al-Awlaki earned degrees in engineering at Colorado State and in education leadership at San Diego State, according to his Web site. He was an imam at mosques in San Diego and Northern Virginia.
U.S. counterterrorism officials have closely watched him after finding evidence of contacts he had with three of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Abdulmutallab's cooperation with U.S. authorities is at the center of a political dispute in Washington. Democrats say it proves the Obama administration was correct to handle the case as a criminal matter. Republicans accuse the administration of leaking details for political purposes.
The Obama administration has drawn criticism for its handling of the Christmas Day attack. Republicans say it showed terrorist suspects can't be treated like criminals.
Attorney General Eric Holder took on those charges in a scathing letter to Republican lawmakers (PDF) Wednesday.
The attorney general wrote that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.
Holder said that the possibility of detaining Abdulmutallab in the U.S. military system under the law of war was explicitly discussed in the days following the arrest, including at a Jan. 5 meeting that included President Obama and senior members of the national security team.
"No agency supported the use of law of war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued," the attorney general wrote.
He added that the decision to charge Abdulmutallab in federal court is "fully consistent with the long-established and publicly known policies and practices of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the United States Government as a whole, as implemented for many years by Administrations of both Parties."
"Those policies and practices, which were not criticized when employed by previous Administrations, have been and remain extremely effective in protecting national security," Holder wrote.
Abdulmutallab agreed to cooperate after FBI agents flew to Nigeria and returned to the U.S. with Abdulmutallab's family members. In a federal prison outside Detroit, Abdulmutallab's father and uncle persuaded him to cooperate with the FBI, according to a U.S. official briefed on the talks who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.
It appears that Abdulmutallab began talking about a week ago after reaching a plea agreement with the government, but that has not been officially confirmed.
A month before the attack, Abdulmutallab's father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son might be dangerous, a warning that officials failed to connect to other evidence that intelligence officials had gathered. President Barack Obama has said the U.S. had enough information to prevent the attack.
Al-Awlaki, who once preached in mosques in California and northern Virginia and posted fiery English-language Internet sermons urging Muslims to fight in jihad, said in an interview released Thursday that he taught the Christmas bomber and supported his efforts but did not call for the attack.
"Brother mujahed Umar Farouk - may God relieve him - is one of my students, yes," al-Awlaki said in the interview, which Al-Jazeera reported on its Web site Tuesday. "We had kept in contact, but I didn't issue a fatwa to Umar Farouk for this operation," al-Awlaki was quoted as saying.
Understanding Al-Awlaki's connection to Abdulmutallab and to al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is a key to the U.S. investigation of the attack and its effort to disrupt other plots.
On Nov. 11, British intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable revealing that a man named Umar Farouk had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad, or holy war. The cable did not contain Abdulmutallab's last name, an omission that made it harder for analysts to connect it to the warning his father would make one week later.
The contents of the cable were described by intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
There were other early warnings, too. A U.S. wiretap referred to a Nigerian being trained for a special mission. And another intercept mentioned "some type of operation on December 25th," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said.
Awlaki's family and many members of his powerful Awalik tribe deny the 38-year-old is a member of al Qaeda. They depict him as a victim of Yemeni and U.S. persecution. The Yemen government, which is increasingly working closely with U.S. intelligence, is negotiating with tribal leaders, trying to persuade them to hand over al-Awlaki, tribal members have said.
While officials are concerned about the eloquent cleric's ability to recruit internationally, U.S. authorities have been especially concerned about his ability to inspire within the United States.
According to a January 2009 intelligence document obtained by The Associated Press, about 11 percent of visitors to al-Awlaki's Web site are in the United States. In December 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a computer disk full of lectures that his wife sent to an Islamic publishing house in Denver.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt told federal investigators that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki directed him to carry out the attack, CBS News has learned.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for about a week, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al Qaeda affiliate that operates there.
Abdulmutallab has turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher, al-Awlaki, and has helped the U.S. hunt for him in Yemen, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
Abdulmutallab's cooperation in discussing al-Awlaki is significant because it could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has emerged has a prominent al Qaeda recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood.
Al-Awalki appears to be in a leadership role when it comes to directing terrorist operations and selecting targets for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a law enforcement source told CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton. He had previously been viewed as a behind-the-scenes supporter, providing religious guidance and justification for attacks. He is now said to be an active operations player picking targets and suggesting schemes.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports that al-Awlaki's U.S. citizenship - he was born in New Mexico - will have little bearing on American military and intelligence efforts to locate and kill him.
U.S. officials, both current and former, tell Logan that if an individual is deemed to be part of a terrorist network that is a threat to American security in any way, they can be targeted legitimately.
"If you can show al-Awlaki is part of the network, and you are targeting the infrastructure of that network, then anyone that is in your way and part of that network can be considered 'collateral damage' and you do not require special permission or legal requirements to go after them," explains Logan.
According to the source, Abdulmutallab told investigators he obtained the powerful explosives PETN and TATP in Yemen and was left on his own to decide when and how to bring down a plane, Milton reports. Abdulmutallab has apparently disclosed to investigators he picked Northwest Flight 253 because of its availability.
The source said Abdulmutallab told investigators he was guided by al-Awalki to detonate the bomb over U.S. soil, unlike the failed British bomber plot in 2006 when the bombers were instructed to detonate bombs on airliners over the ocean on the way to the U.S. so that there would be no evidence left behind.
Al-Awlaki himself said in a recent interview that he and Abdulmutallab had kept in contact. A senior U.S. intelligence official said al-Awlaki represented the biggest name on the list of people Abdulmutallab might have information against. Both spoke on condition anonymity to discuss the sensitive ongoing investigation.
Al-Awlaki was born in the United States. Since leaving in 2002, he has mainly lived in Yemen, where Abdulmutallab also spent several months last year.
The Yemeni government said Jan. 7 that it is certain that al-Awlaki and Abdulmutallab met in Yemen.
Al-Awlaki reportedly corresponded by e-mail with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov.5.
Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood
Al-Awlaki denied inciting the army psychiatrist to carry out last November's deadly shootings at Fort Hood, instead pointing the finger of blame at the United States for creating conditions that led to the attack.
Al-Awlaki earned degrees in engineering at Colorado State and in education leadership at San Diego State, according to his Web site. He was an imam at mosques in San Diego and Northern Virginia.
U.S. counterterrorism officials have closely watched him after finding evidence of contacts he had with three of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Abdulmutallab's cooperation with U.S. authorities is at the center of a political dispute in Washington. Democrats say it proves the Obama administration was correct to handle the case as a criminal matter. Republicans accuse the administration of leaking details for political purposes.
The Obama administration has drawn criticism for its handling of the Christmas Day attack. Republicans say it showed terrorist suspects can't be treated like criminals.
Attorney General Eric Holder took on those charges in a scathing letter to Republican lawmakers (PDF) Wednesday.
The attorney general wrote that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.
Holder said that the possibility of detaining Abdulmutallab in the U.S. military system under the law of war was explicitly discussed in the days following the arrest, including at a Jan. 5 meeting that included President Obama and senior members of the national security team.
"No agency supported the use of law of war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued," the attorney general wrote.
He added that the decision to charge Abdulmutallab in federal court is "fully consistent with the long-established and publicly known policies and practices of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the United States Government as a whole, as implemented for many years by Administrations of both Parties."
"Those policies and practices, which were not criticized when employed by previous Administrations, have been and remain extremely effective in protecting national security," Holder wrote.
Abdulmutallab agreed to cooperate after FBI agents flew to Nigeria and returned to the U.S. with Abdulmutallab's family members. In a federal prison outside Detroit, Abdulmutallab's father and uncle persuaded him to cooperate with the FBI, according to a U.S. official briefed on the talks who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.
It appears that Abdulmutallab began talking about a week ago after reaching a plea agreement with the government, but that has not been officially confirmed.
A month before the attack, Abdulmutallab's father warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son might be dangerous, a warning that officials failed to connect to other evidence that intelligence officials had gathered. President Barack Obama has said the U.S. had enough information to prevent the attack.
Al-Awlaki, who once preached in mosques in California and northern Virginia and posted fiery English-language Internet sermons urging Muslims to fight in jihad, said in an interview released Thursday that he taught the Christmas bomber and supported his efforts but did not call for the attack.
"Brother mujahed Umar Farouk - may God relieve him - is one of my students, yes," al-Awlaki said in the interview, which Al-Jazeera reported on its Web site Tuesday. "We had kept in contact, but I didn't issue a fatwa to Umar Farouk for this operation," al-Awlaki was quoted as saying.
Understanding Al-Awlaki's connection to Abdulmutallab and to al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is a key to the U.S. investigation of the attack and its effort to disrupt other plots.
On Nov. 11, British intelligence officials sent the U.S. a cable revealing that a man named Umar Farouk had spoken to al-Awlaki, pledging to support jihad, or holy war. The cable did not contain Abdulmutallab's last name, an omission that made it harder for analysts to connect it to the warning his father would make one week later.
The contents of the cable were described by intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
There were other early warnings, too. A U.S. wiretap referred to a Nigerian being trained for a special mission. And another intercept mentioned "some type of operation on December 25th," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said.
Awlaki's family and many members of his powerful Awalik tribe deny the 38-year-old is a member of al Qaeda. They depict him as a victim of Yemeni and U.S. persecution. The Yemen government, which is increasingly working closely with U.S. intelligence, is negotiating with tribal leaders, trying to persuade them to hand over al-Awlaki, tribal members have said.
While officials are concerned about the eloquent cleric's ability to recruit internationally, U.S. authorities have been especially concerned about his ability to inspire within the United States.
According to a January 2009 intelligence document obtained by The Associated Press, about 11 percent of visitors to al-Awlaki's Web site are in the United States. In December 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted a computer disk full of lectures that his wife sent to an Islamic publishing house in Denver.
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This technique came out of the office of Strategic Services' OPERATION PAPERCLIP after World War II. The US Senate had tried to shut it down, but merely drove it underground.
The founder of Scientology, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, accidentally uncovered the programme in 1950, and even wrote about it in one of his books (SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL: The Prediction of Human Behavior).
He was working with optimizing the conscious mind by making people systematically recover their lost memories, and stumbled upon a considerable number of people who testified to remembering being MK-ULTRA processed, and rigged with Handler Triggers. Some were ordered to spy join groups and befriend people, only to spy upon them and report their findings- with no memory of having done so afterward.
There was inadequate public response to this, and afterward, L. Ron Hubbard was attacked, and his books and apparatus seized by unauthorized government agents. To protect himself and his discoveries, L. Ron Hubbard was forced to declare his system a religion, and demand constitutional protection in 1954, creating SCIENTOLOGY. Therefore, they have been the victims of every sort of infiltration, frame-up, set-up, propaganda smear and what-have-you, to remove from public use the one system that could expose and counteract use of Mind-Kontrol Ultra hypnotism on unsuspecting members of the public.
This system has been used on your American, United Kingdom, and Australian citizens at various times, to turn them into suicide-soldiers acting completely out of character to viciously murder friends and neighbours, schoolmates and co-workers, and then murder themselves too, so there would be no explanation later. These formed the prtext for government gun-grabbing, which has always preceded successful dictatorship. The FBI has a track-record of offering guns and bombs to people who didn't have any, and may have just been a little free in the mouth, so that it can arrest them and claim to have done great work uncovering a "new Domestic Terrorist Plot."
For instance, in the 1992 Ruby Ridge seige of Mr. Randy Weaver, who was made a fugitive because he had had a sawn-off shotgun that was about an inch shorter than the legal limit, it emerged that the "friend" who sawed it for him was the FBI asset who turned him in.
Over this, their sniper, one Lou Horiuchi, shot his wife between the eyes, for coming out holding that most deadly weapon of all- a baby.
In the 1993 Branch Davidian siege at Waco, Texas,it turned out that they also had an inside informant, and that they even shot their own agents to blame it on the church, whose members were massacred by the FBI/BATF after weeks of torture, and the crime scene bulldozed to hide the evidence.
While I just want to say, that the USA is bringing this Circus of Death to my country, on my watch, over my dead body, given what happened to the man who put me on to some of this information- Mr. William Cooper- who was shot min his own home on his doorstep, the Police falsely claiming that they had pursued him in a running gun battle- a man who had only one leg- things do not look so good for my side!
The American government was interested in the work of JOSEF 'The Butcher of Auschwitz" MENGELE, who tortured Concentration camp prisoners in the effort to develop "The Perfect Soldier." One who would carry out orders with perfect obedience and disregard for personal safety, right or wrong. This research was completed in Canada, with the torture of "expendable" orphans, until the Canadian government became officially aware, and had to shut the programme down.
By 1950, the Office of Strategic Services, which became the Central Intelligence Agency, had developed the technique to the point of being able to kidnap anyone off the street or from their doorsteps, inject them with a swift-acting knockout drug, then whisk them off to some secret hideout, where they were carefully tortured, so as to leave no marks, which entailed beating them with rubber, or loading weights onto their chests, injected with hypnosis-inducing drugs, and then given hypnotic commands. The pain and the drugs drove the hypnosis deeper than was previously possible, so that, unlike in conventional hypnotism, which can not make a person act contrary to their fundamental character, THIS form of hypnotism can make ANYONE do ANYTHING.
They were ordered to forget being kidnapped and hyponotized, but to still obey the orders given. They were told to lie about the missing time they were being processed. They were told to respond to whoever spoke or showed them a command signal. They were returned to where they were kidnapped from to await activation.
This was uncovered by the American Mental Health researcher, L. Ron Hubbard, who used a therapy he had developed that recovered hidden memories. It therefore came to light that the US Government was kidnapping taxpaying citizens and turning them into slave drones.
There was a brief outcry, which soon abated, then the evil government element proceeded to attack Mr. Hubbard's organisation, with a view to destroying it. In self-defense, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard declared his system a religion, and claimed Constitutional protection. This was how The Church of Scientology was formed in 1954.
The CIA was allowed to keep this super weapon its arsenal.
They continued to use it. It was called "OPERATION: MIND-CONTOL ULTRA." The Senate attemped to shut it down, but met with lack of cooperation from the Director of the CIA, who had destroyed much of the documentation.
The business of people running amok for no good reason and killing off friends, schoolmates, and co-workers has to be MK-ULTRA.
Unlike what the movies portray (e.g. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and CONSPIRACY THEORY,) it does not take months and months of work and millions of dollars worth of sophisticated equipment to make someone into a potentially "postal" "Manchurian Candidate."
It needs only a few hours.
Therefore, the CIA can create any sort of criminal suspect it likes, to implicate entire nations. Potential threats can be turned into suicide-assassins, automatically disposing of themselves. There are religious fanatics stupid enough to commit suicide on the theory that they are going to enter "Paradise." But it would appear that a lot less are able to do this without being forced.
Reverend Wright?
You are urged - STRONGLY URGED - to learn about the Apocalypse, the Iranian Ayatolla-flavored NUCLEAR Apocalypse, which is being planned and calculated for you, for other Islamofascist supporters, and for all non-Moslems.
The current Iranian leaders pray to 'achieve' EXACTLY that at ALL COST - ESPECIALLY BY NUCLEAR WAR!
Only THEN will The Mahdi, or Moslem Messiah arrive!
Woe is to you if you are not able to finally grasp these religious fanatics' plans.
So Obama is a owned & operated by Jews?
And you still carry the Obama banner high?
For someone that has such a low opinion of Jews I'm surprised that you continue to fully support someone who doing the bidding of his Jews masters.
ALL of America' political system is controlled by big business and the pro-Israel / pro-religion lobby.
Why do you think that we've VOLUNTARILY stayed mired in Israel's internal affairs for so long?
hungry1968
Its obvious that President Obama is strengthening our defences in Iraq in anticipation of an Isreali attack on Iran. You know as well as everyone else with half a brain that Isral cannot do this without refueling either in Iraq or American KC-135's. Will you support President Obama when he authorizes support for the Isreali mission?
Why do you think they need to refuel from OUR planes?
You've asked this same stupid question DOZENS of times, and each time I've asked you why you think that Israel has ZERO tankers to refuel their own jets, and each and every time, you CANNOT answer.
And this doesn't even BEGIN to address the issue of "what legal justification would Israel have to launch a strike against Iran?"
You seem to think that Israel can attack anyone that they wish, just because they attack the Palestinians on a regular basis, but Iran IS NOT the Palestinians - they are a sovereign nation. So how or why could Israel just "attack them" without provocation?
So why is Obama deploying anti-ballistic missles to Iraq in the middle of the night then hungry1968?
He - like ALL of our politicians - are being led around by the nose, by Israel.
Iran has NEVER said that they're going to attack ANYTHING or ANYONE, but Israel keeps trying to convince EVERYONE that it's true.
And since Israel controls the most money in our political system, they control our politicians as well.
Its obvious that President Obama is strengthening our defences in Iraq in anticipation of an Isreali attack on Iran. You know as well as everyone else with half a brain that Isral cannot do this without refueling either in Iraq or American KC-135's. Will you support President Obama when he authorizes support for the Isreali mission?
Who is is Cleric? Reverend Wright?