Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab lived a life of extraordinary privilege before he turned to terror.
The son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, Abdulmutallab was educated at top schools in Africa and Britain – and dwelled in homes worth millions, his relatives said.
The baby-faced extremist’s last known address was a $4 million flat in one of London’s poshest neighborhoods.
Police in London scoured the swanky apartment Saturday in search of clues as to what – or who – might have led Abdulmutallab, 23, to try to blow up a packed jet over Detroit.
The flat, in London’s West End, is surrounded by several of the city’s best-known tourist haunts, including Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.
Historic theaters, expensive hotels and exclusive retail stores are all within walking distance of Abdulmutallab’s former pad.
He reportedly hails from a far more humble place, the Nigerian border town of Katsina.
Abdulmutallab’s father, Dr. Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, was a government minister during the 1970s and went on to become the head of the First Bank of Nigeria.
As a teen, Abdulmutallab attended the British International School in Lome, Togo, a Nigerian paper reported.
There, he quickly acquired a reputation as a devoted Muslim.
“At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called ‘Alfa,’ a local coinage for Islamic scholar,” according to The Day.
After his secondary school, Abdulmutallab went to the prestigious University College London in 2005 to study engineering. He graduated three years later.
Abdulmutallab was apparently sent to Dubai by his father after finishing his education in London.
CNN reported he fled to Yemen, a hotbed of militant activity, soon after and cut off all communication with his family.
Who Abdulmutallab met with in Yemen remains unclear. But by the time he left the country, he had apparently become a radicalized extremist bent on inflicting carnage in the West.
This past May, he reportedly tried to return to Britain for a six-month program, but his visa application was denied by the United Kingdom Border Agency.
An official told the Times of London “he was applying to study at an educational establishment that we didn’t consider to be genuine.”
Seven months later, Abdulmutallab completed his descent from the promising child of a wealthy family to a brazen terrorist when he tried to set off an explosive inside Northwest Flight 253.
Passengers help foil attack on detroit-bound plane
[AP UPDATE – In Nigeria, a prominent banker said Saturday that he was meeting with security officials there because he feared his son was the suspect. Alhaji Umaru Mutallab told The Associated Press said his son was a one-time university student in London who had left Britain to travel abroad. He said his son hadn’t lived in London “for some time” but he wasn’t sure exactly where he went to.
“I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that,” the elder Mutallab said. He said he would provide more details later Saturday as he learned more from authorities.]
ROMULUS, Mich. (Associated Press) – An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke — sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. “First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke.”
Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.
The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers.
Multiple law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday’s attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. He was described as Nigerian.
One law enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaida to detonate the plane over U.S. soil, but other law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently — inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.
The man was being questioned Friday evening. An intelligence official said he was being held and treated in an Ann Arbor, Mich., hospital. The hospital said one passenger from the flight was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, but referred all inquiries to the FBI.
Melinda Dennis, who was seated in the front row of the plane, said the man involved was brought to the front row and seated near her. She said his legs appeared to be badly burned and his pants were cut off. She said he was taken off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher.
One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mutallab’s name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but he was not on a watch list or a no-fly list.
The flight began in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route to Detroit, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Committee. A spokeswoman for police at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam declined comment about the case or about security procedures at the airport for Flight 253.
Schiphol airport, one of Europe‘s busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags. After the attempted attack, passengers to the U.S. were being frisked at the gate as an added security measure, said KLM spokeswoman Mirjam Snoerwang.
A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Akin Olukunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened before boarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagos cleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
“We had a pass mark,” Olukunle said. “We actually are up to standards in all senses.”
Delta Air Lines Inc., which acquired Northwest last year, said a passenger caused a disturbance, was subdued, and the crew requested that law enforcement officials meet the flight.
Passenger Syed Jafri, a U.S. citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said the incident occurred during the plane’s descent. Jafri said he was seated three rows behind the passenger and said he saw a glow, and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, “a young man behind me jumped on him.”
“Next thing you know, there was a lot of panic,” he said.
Federal officials said there would be heightened security for both domestic and international flights at airports across the country, but the intensified levels would likely be “layered,” differing from location to location depending on alerts, security concerns and other factors.
Passengers can expect to see heightened screening, more bomb-sniffing dog and officer units and behavioral-detection specialists at some airports, but there will also be unspecified less visible precautions as well, officials said.
The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued an intelligence note on Nov. 20 about the threat picture for the holiday season, which was obtained by The Associated Press. At the time, officials said they had no specific information about attack plans by al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
President Barack Obama was notified of the incident and discussed it with security officials, the White House said. Officials said he is monitoring the situation and receiving regular updates from his vacation spot in Hawaii.
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Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes in Baghdad, Iraq, Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, Arthur Max in Amsterdam, and Larry Margasak and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
