PROFILE OF A TERRORIST

Until about two months ago, the family of the alleged American airline bomber, Faruk Abdul Mutallib, said he was just a devoted Muslim youth who was concerned about his religious duties in addition to his regular studies.

Faruk was arrested on a Delta airliner on Friday when he allegedly attempted to detonate a substance suspected to be an explosive on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, United States. 

He has been charged to a court in Detroit, accused of an attempt to destroy an aircraft and setting off destructive device on the plane.

The young man had earlier graduated with a degree in Engineering from the University College, London, and was due to complete his Master in Business Administration from a Dubai-based university this month.

Investigations by Sunday Trust revealed that his parents who had agreed  for him to do a summer course in Arabic in Yemen from around August this year sensed trouble when he suddenly called to say that he was  no longer interested in completing his MBA and instead is staying on in Yemen for the next seven years for an unclear field of study.

The signs became even more ominous when he later sent a text message seeking his parents’ forgiveness and suggesting that he was going to become unreachable from then on. Frantic efforts to communicate with him failed from then onwards.

EFFORTS TO LOCATE FAROUK IN YEMEN

Sources close to the family told Sunday Trust that, at that point, the parents who had been exploring means of going to Yemen to locate and bring him home, decided  that they needed to take a more drastic action.

After some consultations with those knowledgeable in handling such matters, they then decided to alert both local and international security authorities about their fears for their son. This, they did, through the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, and the local representatives of its American equivalent via the United States embassy in Nigeria.

Indeed, a source close to the family told Sunday Trust that even up to a few days ago, there was communication between an American security official and Alhaji Umaru Mutallab relating to Faruk. Further investigation on the matter indicated that initially the Mutallab family had no qualms about their son’s interest in going to Yemen to deepen his knowledge of Arabic as he had been there earlier on a similar summer course lasting a few months.

Sunday Trust learnt last night that the family members were surprised that Faruk was alleged to have taken a flight from Lagos to Amsterdam at the weekend considering the fact that Faruk had claimed to have relocated to Yemen.

CULLED FROM DAILY TRUST