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Christmas bomber allegedly recruited by al-Qaeda in London
So says Yemen, which also confirmed that 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to detonate a plastic-explosive device in his underwear on a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, met with cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in the Arabian country.
Yemen, which is taking heat from the international community for the al-Qaeda cells on its soil, also said Thursday that Abdulmutallab got the explosives in Nigeria before leaving on a flight to Amsterdam and then the United States.
However, British Interior Minister Alan Johnson told parliament this week that, even though Abdulmutallab attended college in London between 2005 and 2008, "during this time he was known to the Security Service but not as somebody engaged in violent extremism.
"His family and friends have stated their belief that he turned to this during his time in Yemen," Johnson said.
Abdulmutallab attended an Arabic-language school in Yemen for a year before earning an engineering degree in Britain. In early 2009, he attended a master's degree program in the United Arab Emirates (during which time he tried unsuccessfully to re-enter the UK on the premise of attending a school that didn't exist), and later in the year Abdulmutallab went back to the school in Yemen. His father warned the U.S. Embassy of his son's extremist views on Nov. 19.
Yemen may be trying to bat the blame over to Britain, but it's not as if the UK hasn't had problems with Islamic extremism. The 7/7/05 tube bombings were carried out by four British Muslim men previously unknown to authorities, and al-Qaeda-supporting cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri (who was indicted for allegedly trying to open terror training camps in Oregon) is currently in prison in the UK for preaching hate.
Yemen's finger-pointing comes just before the White House is set to release a report on the details of the Christmas bombing attempt.
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