Airliner suicide mission blessed by imam

The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki, the Muslim imam suspected of radicalizing the Fort Hood shooting suspect, a U.S. intelligence source has told The Washington Times.

The intelligence official, who is familiar with the FBI’s interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said the bombing suspect has boasted of his jihad training to the FBI and has said it included final exhortations by Mr. al-Awlaki.

“It was Awlaki who indoctrinated him,” the official said. “He was told, ‘You are going to be the tip of the spear of the Muslim nation.’ ”

Mr. al-Awlaki, an American-born imam who once led a large Northern Virginia mosque but now lives in Yemen, has gained notoriety in recent months because of his influence on Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim accused of killing 13 people at the Texas military base.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit Monday for the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Airlines 253, an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight. The al Qaeda group and U.S. officials both say that Mr. Abdulmutallab was able to smuggle explosive powder in his underwear and only a detonator failure prevented him from blowing up the plane and killing almost 300 passengers and crew.

On Tuesday, President Obama made his second public address on the attack, saying there had been a “systemic failure” in intelligence-sharing among U.S. agencies.

He characterized the lapse as “totally unacceptable,” distancing himself further from Sunday’s widely derided comments by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that “the system worked.”

Also Tuesday, Democrats reacted to criticism that the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees U.S. flight security, still does not have a top administrator. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, vowed to ensure confirmation of Eroll Southers and blamed Republicans for holding up the nomination.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he has learned of personal ties between Mr. Abdulmutallab and Mr. al-Awlaki, though he said he could neither confirm nor deny that the two men had been in the same Yemeni prayer room.

“From what I’ve heard, the relationship would have been closer than what Awlaki had with Hasan,” Mr. Hoekstra told The Times. “He trusted [Mr. Abdulmutallab] more.”

Mr. al-Awlaki had e-mail contact with Maj. Hasan as many as 20 times between December 2008 and the shootings at Fort Hood. Mr. al-Awlaki praised Maj. Hasan as a “hero” and said all Muslims in the U.S. military should “follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.”

Monday’s al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula statement spoke similarly, calling on every “soldier who works for the crusader armies” to “emulate the example of the heroic [mujahedeen] brother, Nidal Hasan.”

According to the U.S. intelligence official, Mr. Abdulmutallab cited Maj. Hasan in his interrogations, but only to cite him as “an example of how Islam accepts even American soldiers.” Mr. Abdulmutallab did not show any operational knowledge of the Army major or the Fort Hood attack.

In his FBI interrogation, according to the U.S. intelligence official, Mr. Abdulmutallab spoke of being in a room in Yemen receiving Muslim blessings and prayers from Mr. al-Awlaki, along with a number of other men “all covered up in white martyrs’ garments,” and known only by code names and “abu” honorifics.

The official said such clothing and the lack of familiarity among the men suggests that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula intends to use the men in that room in suicide missions.

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