Umar Farouk

The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship, writing in an online forum that he was "lonely" and had "never found a true Muslim friend." "I have no one to speak too [sic]," read a posting from January 2005, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was attending boarding school. "No one to consult, no one to support me and I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems."

The Nigerian man who tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison. Speaking briefly in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Thursday, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, called his sentencing "a day of victory" and said he was "proud to kill in the name of God," according to wire service reports. A criminologist who analyzed the transcripts of the FBI interrogation of Abdulmutallab wrote in a report submitted to the judge that the would-be bomber was unrepentant.

The family of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man charged with attempting to destroy a transatlantic airliner, expressed shock at his actions in a statement released Monday, adding that they were thankful no lives were lost. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, is a wealthy former Nigerian banker, who recently retired as chairman of First Bank and was a government minister under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. A statement signed "The Mutallab Family" described the family's alarm in recent months as Abdulmutallab, known to friends and family as Farouk, cut off contact and disappeared.

Anwar Awlaki, the U.S. citizen killed last year in a CIA drone strike in Yemen, was instrumental in the failed plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009, according to a Justice Department court document filed Friday. A sentencing memorandum for Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who pleaded guilty in October to attempting to down the jetliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear, makes public for the first time some of the evidence that led President Obama to order a lethal strike against Awlaki, the Al Qaeda-linked cleric who was born in New Mexico.

A senior Yemeni official downplayed his nation's connection to the Nigerian Islamic militant suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, saying the man became an Al Qaeda militant in Britain, even though he met with a radical cleric in Yemen shortly before allegedly undertaking his alleged mission. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab joined Osama bin Laden's group while living in Britain from 2005 to '08, Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Rashad Alimi told reporters Thursday in Sana, the capital.

British investigators are hunting for signs that a Nigerian terrorism suspect could have had contact with London's extremist underworld before the attempted plane bombing over Detroit on Christmas Day, counter-terrorism officials said Tuesday. But so far, an investigation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's time as a student in London from 2005 to 2008 has not revealed links to known Islamic ideologues or operatives there, British officials said. It is not yet clear where he may have become radicalized or established contact with Al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen, the network suspected of masterminding the plot, officials said.

President Obama's deputy national security advisor accused Republicans on Sunday of using national security as a "political football" and of being disingenuous in criticizing the treatment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Christmas Day airliner attack. On NBC's "Meet the Press," John Brennan was asked about GOP criticism that the Obama administration was treating the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane as a routine criminal case rather than a terrorist plot.

U.S. counter-terrorism agencies are investigating whether an American-born Islamic cleric who has risen to become a key figure in the Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen played a role in the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing over Detroit, intelligence and law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Intercepts and other information point to connections between terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Anwar al Awlaki -- who also communicated with the accused U.S. Army gunman in last month's attack on Ft. Hood, Texas, that left 13 people dead.

The alleged Christmas Day airline bomber had purchased a round-trip ticket -- not a one- way fare, as has been widely reported -- the Obama administration told congressional aides in a closed briefing Tuesday. According to a person who attended the meeting, the administration also said it was not unusual for international air travelers to buy their tickets using cash, as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had done. Up to 20% of overseas flights are cash transactions, Department of Homeland Security officials told House and Senate aides.

In his first public defense of the arrest of a Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airplane on Christmas Day, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that he personally made the decision to prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and that no one in the Washington intelligence community objected that the alleged Al Qaeda operative should instead be turned over to military interrogators as a prisoner of war. Holder also applauded the work...

The terrorism trial of the man accused of trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to blow up an international flight to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 has ended with the Nigerian defendant accepting responsibility but justifying his failed attack on the United States. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab abruptly pleaded guilty to eight felonies Wednesday, halting the trial of the confessed Al Qaeda operative whose attack on a jetliner carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew members embarrassed the Obama administration and led to heightened security at many airports.

On Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab flew into Detroit allegedly trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear in what authorities said was a terrorist mission inspired by Anwar Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim radical killed last week in a U.S. missile strike. On Tuesday, as jury selection began in his federal trial, Abdulmutallab shouted in court, "Anwar is alive!" Abdulmutallab, 24, is the latest foreign radical to be tried in a U.S. courtroom under American laws they reject.

President Obama's deputy national security advisor accused Republicans on Sunday of using national security as a "political football" and of being disingenuous in criticizing the treatment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Christmas Day airliner attack. On NBC's "Meet the Press," John Brennan was asked about GOP criticism that the Obama administration was treating the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane as a routine criminal case rather than a terrorist plot.

In his first public defense of the arrest of a Nigerian man accused of trying to bomb an airplane on Christmas Day, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that he personally made the decision to prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and that no one in the Washington intelligence community objected that the alleged Al Qaeda operative should instead be turned over to military interrogators as a prisoner of war. Holder also applauded the work...

The Nigerian man arrested on Christmas Day for allegedly trying to explode a bomb on a plane arriving in Detroit has begun talking again to authorities, officials said Tuesday, a development that is likely to ratchet up the debate over whether he should be tried in federal court or before a military tribunal. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, confirmed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had changed his mind and was speaking to federal agents again.

The decision to advise the accused Christmas Day attacker of his right to remain silent was made after teleconferences involving at least four government agencies -- and only after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stopped talking to authorities, according to knowledgeable law enforcement officials. Among those involved in the hastily called teleconferences were representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, along with officials from the State Department and the CIA. "It was a [law enforcement]

Offering new details into the Christmas Day attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner, President Obama on Saturday said a Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda trained, armed and directed the Nigerian accused of trying to detonate an explosive onboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253. The president vowed retaliation against the global terrorist group, and he gave a full-throated defense of his administration's anti-terrorism efforts in the face of Republican criticism....

The Nigerian man who tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison. Speaking briefly in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Thursday, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, called his sentencing "a day of victory" and said he was "proud to kill in the name of God," according to wire service reports. A criminologist who analyzed the transcripts of the FBI interrogation of Abdulmutallab wrote in a report submitted to the judge that the would-be bomber was unrepentant.

The alleged Christmas Day airline bomber had purchased a round-trip ticket -- not a one- way fare, as has been widely reported -- the Obama administration told congressional aides in a closed briefing Tuesday. According to a person who attended the meeting, the administration also said it was not unusual for international air travelers to buy their tickets using cash, as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had done. Up to 20% of overseas flights are cash transactions, Department of Homeland Security officials told House and Senate aides.

A senior Yemeni official downplayed his nation's connection to the Nigerian Islamic militant suspected of trying to bomb a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, saying the man became an Al Qaeda militant in Britain, even though he met with a radical cleric in Yemen shortly before allegedly undertaking his alleged mission. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab joined Osama bin Laden's group while living in Britain from 2005 to '08, Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Rashad Alimi told reporters Thursday in Sana, the capital.