Terror attack: CIA, FBI quiz Farouk’s dad

TO  unravel the mystery and puzzle called Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up a US plane, the father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, was yesterday quizzed by American security operatives, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA  and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, agents in Abuja.
This is coming just as Umar Farouk’s roommates in Yemen local language institute where he was studying Arabic confirmed that he led a devout life and shunned music and women while he stayed in Yemen.

A source at the US embassy in Abuja said: “I can confirm that Umaru Mutallab was summoned to the desk office of the US embassy in Abuja where he was interrogated by men from the CIA and FBI on Monday.

CIA and FBI questioned him about his background and that of his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.’‘
The father had earlier this year warned US diplomats in Abuja that his son was an extremist threat.

Abdulmutallab led devout life in Yemen

Meanwhile, the roommate of Abdulmutallab, said the would-be-bomber led a devout life and shunned music and women while he stayed in Yemen.

Yemeni officials have confirmed that Abdulmutallab spent time in Yemen just before the attempted Christmas Day attack and that he studied Arabic at a local language institute.

His roommate, Ahmed Hassan, told The Associated Press yesterday that the Nigerian would sometimes disappear from the suite they shared without any explanation. One of the teachers at the institute, Ahmed Mohammed, said  Abdulmutallab spent the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan sequestered in a mosque and attended barely four hours of the 20-hour course he enrolled in.

US admits security failure

President Barak Obama yesterday lashed out at systemic intelligence failures over an attempted attack on a US jet. This is coming amid reports Wednesday that Washington was planning reprisal strikes against targets in Yemen. The US president was told Tuesday there had been warnings of possible Christmas holiday attacks, and information that the Nigerian would-be bomber was a threat, but the data was not properly distributed.

“A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable,” Obama said, breaking his Hawaii vacation for a second straight day as recriminations mounted over the botched December 25 attack. Obama said, “there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.”