The New York Times described the father who turned his son into the CIA as “a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official!”
According to “THISDAY” family sources said Mutallab has been uncomfortable with his son’s extreme views and had six months ago reported his activities to United States Embassy, Abuja, and Nigerian security Agencies.
This is basically how the Main Stream Media has reported it. They paint the father as a “credible” and prominent individual that wanted help to find and return his “poor misguided radical son” who had traveled recently to Yemen.
Now a deeper look into the senior Mutallab will paint a more nuanced character that may or may not be as credible as the “first glance” portrait.
As stated the Main Stream Media has painted the father in a broad stroke that gives the impression he is a “wealthy capitalist banker” and former Government official which to the layman indicates everything radical Islam, is not! After all, if the father turned the son into government intelligence agencies he surely is not on the side of radical Islam in fact it would indicate otherwise.
It is true that senior Mutallab is the pinnacle of Nigerian Banking as he has worked in the top echelons of 2 of the 3 major banks there (the United Bank of Africa & Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria which he left on December 13, 2009).
Further more the Main Stream Media mentioned (almost in passing) that the senior Mutallab was a former government official. Again, this is true, but his survival in government has been remarkable given the multiple leadership changes over the years. In the 1960’s he became “Chief Accountant/Acting General Manager, Defense Industries of Nigeria. This position was brief because “shortly thereafter” he became Financial Controller of the company that he served during multiple “regime changes”, over the years in multiple roles such as a Minister and member of the Federal Executive Council which is the highest policy decision making body in Nigeria.
There has been much criticism heaped upon US intelligence agencies for failing to connect dots given that such a prominent man had come to them with this information. There is one main question on the minds of many in the Nigerian Intelligence Community though that ask why, a former government official since the 1960’s did not go to the correct intelligence agency within the Nigerian government to report his son. The elder Mutallab surely knew which agency would be most effective in handling this information, yet he went to a lower agency to report it.
The Guardian newspaper reported that Nigerians President (like Obama) has launched a comprehensive probe of the incident. “The probe, which promises to be far-reaching, began in earnest on Monday morning when the “National Security Advisor Abdul Sarki Mukhtar issued a strongly worded query to the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) entitled “Alleged Involvement of Umar Farouk Mutallab in the Attempt to Bomb a U.S. Airliner” (dated December 28, 2009). The National Security Advisor indicated that the National Intelligence Agency had prior knowledge of a report said to have been deposited with it on the suspect.
According to the query:
“From all indications, it seemed that your Agency had prior knowledge of a report, said to have been made by Alhaji Umar Mutallab about the tendencies of his son, Umar Farouk, towards radicalization, which was manifested in the incident leading to his arrest in the U.S.
It is really unfortunate and sad that knowledge of such an important intelligence issue could not be brought to the attention of this office, or the weekly Intelligence Community Committee Meeting (ICCM). It was this failure that led to the unfortunate incident we are grappling with now.
The report if circulated within the ICC would have alerted the Security Agencies at our Travel Control Points (TCP’s) to take appropriate required action that would have led to his arrest, before boarding the KLM flight from Nigeria, thereby pre-empting the sad incident.”
The NSA query ends with “Failure to do so has not only led to this rather unfortunate international embarrassment to the Nigerian nation, but also depicted our country as a haven for terrorists. You are therefore to explain what led to this failure of intelligence, and the persons therein involved. Your explanation, should reach me on or before Tuesday, December 29, 2009.”
Once again, why did the elder Mutallab report his son to the wrong agency when he surely had extensive knowledge of the correct Intelligence Agency in which to do so?
Further more, after the failed bombing on Christmas day the senior Mutallab told the Associated Press that “he did not know exactly where his son was”.
It has been learned that the son attended secondary school prior to attending the University College, London from September 2005 through 2008. It was at this secondary school (British International School in Lome, Togo) that his family was aware of his “extreme religious views” as he was known, by his classmates, to preach Islam and was called “alfa” (a local coinage for Islamic Scholar). It is intriguing that Togo, Lome’s “Sister City” is Bay City, Michigan (Detroit, MI was his “final destination” on Christmas Day).
The elder Mutallab has known about his son’s extremist views before 2005. The brother of the Christmas Day bomber indicated that “We know Farouk’s extreme views and were always apprehensive of where it may lead him to. In fact, during the last Boko Haram crisis, we were afraid he may be involved, but he didn’t.”
Boko Haram
Boko Haram (literally, Western or non-Islamic education is a sin) is a Nigerian militant Islamist group that seeks to wage religious war to impose Shariah law throughout Moslem and non-Moslem communities in all 36 states of Nigeria. The group is hostile to democracy and the secular education system, vowing that "this war that is yet to start would continue for long".
The group was founded in 2002 by an individual named Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. The group includes members who come from neighboring Chad and speak only Arabic. The group set up a base called "Afghanistan", and was reported as refusing to mix with local people.
Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well. In a 2009 BBC interview, Boko Haram founder, Yusuf stated that the belief that the world is a sphere is contrary to Islam and should be rejected, along with Darwinism and the theory that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun.
Boko Haram group was kidnapping Christians, Christian’s pastors and priests and tortured them into converting to Islam; and those who refused to renounce Christianity and convert to Moslem were lined up in public gathering and slaughtered for the rest to see.
Many complaints from community leaders, organizations, religious bodies and security officials to Nigerian authorities on the activities of Boko Haram were reportedly ignored.
In July 2009 the Nigerian police started investigating the group following reports that the group was arming itself in preparation for attacks including the police. Several leaders were arrested, sparking deadly clashes with Nigerian security forces which led to the deaths of an estimated 700 people.
In some places, fighters reportedly "used fuel-laden motorcycles" and "bows with poison arrows" to attack a police station.
Having attacked the police and army the same way they had been attacking defenseless civilians and Christians, Nigerian government sent the army which went after the group members, captured many including the founder Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf and other leaders, and handed him over to the police for investigation and prosecution.
Police interrogated them for few hours possibly to verify and ascertain their identity and killed them inside its station, sparking nationwide and international uproar. The police hierarchy told reporters that they received order to kill the leaders immediately. Killing the leaders of the group was effective way of covering-up detail information about the group members, supporters, financiers/sponsors and its murderous activities which the leaders would have provided at some point had they been alive and prosecuted in court.
Reports have it that the radicalized extremist group was actually supported and financed by very powerful people in and outside Nigeria, officials of federal, state and local governments, wealthy folks, and institutions in and outside Nigeria.
The question now is whether the system that developed, nurtured, incubated, and promoted Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram and other radicalized extremists invariable produced this 23 years old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab that on December 25, 2009 exported and internationalized the same terror being meted to non-Moslems in Nigeria.
I wrote a recent article that connected the Christmas Day “mission” of the son with Barack Obama (here). In this article I connect the dots with the founder of the “United Bank of Africa” was the same man (Khalid al-Mansour) who was instrumental (at the request of Bill Ayers) with Obama’s entrance into Harvard Law School.
The elder Mutallab was the Director of the United Bank of Africa from 1978-1988. It is quite plausible that our own intelligence agencies would been following this bank for quite some time as the FBI had an extensive interest in the Black Panther Party during the 60’s which al-Mansour was directly responsible for the creation of by financing them as well.
It is also important to remember that 3 of the 9/11 hijackers, Ft. Hood terrorist and Mutallab’s son was in direct contact with the radical Islamic Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Before I go on to explain the simultaneous “missions” that the father and son had, a more detailed background is in order on the elder Mutallab which I am afraid will not be “politically correct” as it profiles him regarding his own Islamic ties.
The elder Mutallab is married to a woman from Yemen.
The elder Mutallab, since 2003 has created Nigeria’s first full Islamic Bank (sharia) that was slated to open in early 2010.
Father & Son - Mission Coincidence
“Investigation reveals that in 2003 Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallah assembled a group of Nigerian Moslem mega-billionaires comprising of present and past government officials and business moguls and started setting up Nigeria's first fully fledged Islamic bank, Jaiz Bank International Plc (JBI). Information on the bank’s website indicates that the bank will be launched and open shop before the end of this year (2009).
Also on its website is information that, “the proposed Jaiz Bank International Plc which has been given a green light by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to set up a non interest bank has recently received a boost from reputable national and international investors.” The national investors were named but the international investors were not named.
It is probably a coincidence that one of Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutalla’s sons decided to blow up US airline on about the eve of launching of Jaiz Bank International Plc (JBI), Nigeria's first fully fledged Islamic bank. An event such as launching of first fully fledged Islamic bank in Nigeria is a mega-significant and monumental event that within Nigerian socio-cultural and socio-political context is a celebratory event.
It is probably a coincidence also that one of Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutalla’s sons decided to blow up US airline on Christmas day, the most joyous day for people of Christian faith all over the world.
Understanding of Nigerian socio-cultural peculiar situations, cues and nuances, as well as penchant for symbolism, idioms, peer pressure, and religious dynamics would put things and meanings into perspectives.
Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallah has reached the pinnacle of Nigerian commercial banking industry; his new mission now appears to be advancing the cause of Islam through noble business of banking in a way never done before in Nigeria. It is also probably a coincidence, even though a disquieting one, that his son’s (Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab) chosen mission appears to be advancement of Islam through violent attack on United States.”
It is now obvious that the senior Mutallab appears to distance himself of his son’s Islamic views yet he himself is at the center of this new Sharia bank adventure, the first of its kind in Nigeria.
We know the elder Mutallab states he did not know his son’s whereabouts in Yemen, yet he is married to a woman of Yemeni descent.
If the elder Mutallab surely wanted to find and rescue his son from the clutches of the evil Islamic brainwashers, 6 months prior to the attack then why did he go to inferior intelligence agencies in Nigeria (where he was aptly familiar with through his extensive government service)? Why didn’t he utilize his great wealth and influence to hire a private security firm to find and rescue him as other wealthy individuals do in similar situations that require cross country snatch and grabs?
Finally, I believe that it is prudent for the elder Mutallab to be fully investigated for these lingering questions about his own views of Radical Islamic religious views given he is the founder of the first Sharia bank in his country.
A lot of questions to be answered including our own failures to connect dots of critical information that were in our own possession.
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