US bomb accused 'had broken off family contact'

The young Nigerian man who allegedly tried to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight broke off contact from his worried parents only a few months before the attack, they said today in a statement.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told his family he would abandon the life that took him from an expensive private school in Togo to a degree at an illustrious London university. That message pushed his father, a prominent banker from Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated north, to contact state security officials and later the US Embassy in hopes of someone bringing home his missing son.

“We provided them with all the information required of us to enable them do this,” a family statement read today, without elaborating.

Instead, the family said they awoke to news of the attempted Christmas Day attack on the Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew members.

His family’s wealth made Abdulmutallab an educated Nigerian expatriate, and he continued to travel after he allegedly turned to extremism. The 23-year-old told US officials who arrested him after the failed alleged attempt to bring down the plane that he had sought extremist training in Yemen.

Abdulmutallab had graduated from University College London in 2008 before heading to Dubai and later cutting his ties with his family, leaving them struggling to learn how he had allegedly turned to extremism.

“From very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern,” the family’s statement read.

A university campus in Dubai said today that the young man had been attending the school from January through the middle of this year.

University of Wollongong in Dubai Vice President Raymi van der Spek said that Abdulmutallab took classes for “about seven months” before leaving the Australian public university. His whereabouts from then until December have not been confirmed. Abdulmutallab’s father, Umaru Abdulmutallab, previously said he thought his son travelled to Yemen before the attack.

It was also a mystery what Abdulmutallab did over the eight days – including his birthday on December 22 – after his ticket to Detroit was bought. On December 24, Abdulmutallab re-entered Nigeria for only one day to board a flight in Lagos, local officials said. He walked through airport security carrying only a shoulder bag, with explosives hidden on his body, they said.

Abdulmutallab is being held in a federal prison in Michigan after suffering burns in the botched bombing. US authorities have said he claimed to be carrying out an attack on orders from al-Qaida.

In a statement released to reporters today, the family said Abdulmutallab’s father reached out to Nigerian security forces about two months ago. The father followed up with officials at the US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, a month and a half ago.

“We were hopeful that they would find and return him home,” the statement read. “It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day.”

A Nigerian police spokesman declined to comment, while officials with Nigeria’s State Security Service could not be reached for comment today. A spokesman at the US Embassy in Abuja said he had no information on the father’s efforts.

A US official previously told the AP that the embassy shared the father’s fears with liaison staff from agencies like the FBI, then passed the information to the US State, Justice and Homeland Security departments. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the investigation.

The family said Abdulmutallab’s alleged attack came as a shock. As a boy, he attended the British School of Lome, a high-priced preparatory school in Togo. There, a security guard remembered him Monday as a good football player who also played basketball. Another employee could only offer compliments.

“I knew him and I even used him as a perfect example of a good student,” said Rose Amegah, who works in the school’s administration department. “Punctual, serious, but keeping to himself most of the times. Farouk was a brilliant student.”

The family promised to cooperate with Nigerian and US authorities as investigations continue.

“We, along with the whole world, are thankful to almighty God that there were no lives lost in the incident,” the statement read. “May God continue to protect us all, amen.”

Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded today that the aviation security system failed when the man on a watchlist with a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The Obama administration has ordered investigations into the two areas of aviation security – how travellers are placed on watch lists and how passengers are screened – as critics questioned how the suspect was allowed to board the December 25 flight.

A day after saying the system worked, Ms Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context.

“Our system did not work in this instance,” she said on NBC television’s Today show. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is underway.”

The White House press office, travelling with President Barack Obama in Hawaii, said early today that the president would make a statement. White House spokesman Bill Burton did not elaborate.

Billions of dollars have been spent on aviation security since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when commercial airliners were hijacked and used as weapons. Much of that money has gone toward training and equipment that some security experts say could have detected the explosive device that Abdulmutallab is accused of hiding on his body on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Investigators are piecing together Abdulmutallab’s alleged brazen attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on December 25. Law enforcement officials say he tucked a small bag holding his potentially deadly concoction of liquid and powder explosive material below his waist.

Abdulmutallab had been placed in a US database of people suspected of terrorist ties in November, but there was not enough information about his activity that would place him on a watch list that could have kept him from flying.

However, British officials placed Abdulmutallab’s name on a UK watch list after he was refused a student visa in May.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson added that police and security services are looking at whether Abdulmutallab was radicalised in Britain.

The court hearing to determine whether the government can get DNA from the suspect was later postponed.

The federal court in Detroit says a hearing scheduled for today has been delayed until January 8. No reason was given.

It was not known why the government wants Abdulmutallub’s DNA. Defence lawyer Miriam Siefer was researching whether she had a legal basis to stop it. Abdulmutallub is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan.