The Nigerian suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher and has helped the US hunt for the radical preacher, an official said on Thursday.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for days, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al-Qaeda affiliate that operates there.
His cooperation talking about US-born Yemeni radical Anwar 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 as a prominent al-Qaeda recruiter and has been tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November’s deadly shooting rampage in Texas.
The law enforcement official would not say what information Abdulmutallab provided, but al-Awlaki himself said in a recent interview that he and Abdulmutallab had kept in contact. A senior US intelligence official said al-Awlaki represented the biggest name on the list of people Abdulmutallab might have information about. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive ongoing investigation.
Abdulmutallab’s cooperation with US authorities is at the center of a political dispute in Washington. Democrats say it proves the administration of US President Barack Obama was correct to handle the case as a criminal matter. Republicans accuse the administration of leaking details for political purposes.
Abdulmutallab agreed to cooperate after FBI agents flew to Nigeria and returned to the US with Abdulmutallab’s family members. In a federal prison outside Detroit, Abdulmutallab’s father and uncle persuaded him to cooperate with the FBI, said a US official briefed on the talks, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.
A month before the attack, Abdulmutallab’s father warned the US embassy in Nigeria that his son might be dangerous, a warning that officials failed to connect to other evidence that intelligence officials had gathered. Obama has said the US 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 on Thursday that he taught the Christmas bomber and supported his efforts, but did not call for the attack.
“Brother mujahid 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 on Tuesday. “We had kept in contact, but I didn’t issue a fatwa to Umar Farouk for this operation.”
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