 AT least 150 bodies have been recovered from wells following Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria. The estimated death toll from the clashes already stands at more than 300, a village head and volunteers say. "So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing,'' Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village near the city of Jos, said today. "We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps, and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for,'' he added. Head of the Muslim volunteer team in the village, Mohammed Shittu, said further searches would be carried out today. "Now we have 150 bodies in all, taken from the wells as from Thursday. We are still going back there today to comb the bush around the village to search for more bodies,'' he also said. "We believe there are more bodies in the wells but the degree of their decomposition makes it difficult to continue the retrieval operation. We have therefore decided to sand-fill all the wells,'' Baza said. The state government has given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out last Sunday in Jos, capital of Plateau State and later spread to nearby towns and villages. Religious leaders and medical workers said they had counted about 300 bodies by Wednesday. Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) today urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to order "an immediate criminal investigation into credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents of a town in central Nigeria''. HRW said in a statement received in Lagos that witnesses said groups of armed men - believed to be Christians - attacked the largely Muslim population of Kuru Karama on Tuesday morning. "After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive,'' the statement said. The Australian
 Up to 18,000 people are homeless after days of fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Nigerian city of Jos. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that people have been sheltering in colleges, hospitals and schools since clashes began in the capital of the central Plateau state on Sunday. More than 460 people in and around Jos are thought to have been killed as of Thursday. Nigerian authorities relaxed a 24-hour curfew to allow thousands of residents whose houses have not been destroyed, to return home. The strong presence of troops and police helped restore a measure of calm in Jos on Thursday. But Andrew Simmons, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Abuja, said: "There has been a fresh outbreak of violence on the outskirts of Jos in a place called Bakuru. "Six people have been treated for gunshot wounds. And a Red Cross [ICRC] official has confirmed that a woman was attacked by a gang who snatched her baby, twisted the baby's nose and broke it. "We've had persistent reports saying gangs have been using police uniforms, knocking on door by door, masquerading as security forces and then killing people in their homes. It's a grim situation. "But in Jos itself, the focus [on Thursday] was on the funerals of the hundreds of people who have been killed." Earlier, Rob Waudo, from the ICRC in Kano, told Al Jazeera that since the military came in, the situation has been calm. "[The arrival of soldiers] has allowed us to survey what the needs are. Many people have been able to leave the camps and return home," he said. "There are so many people that need clothing, food and water. The Red Cross is focusing on those injured and referring some to hospital." Mosque officials have estimated the number of dead Muslims since Sunday to be about 400. US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday said at least 65 Christians had died. Official government figures were significantly lower at 75 dead, more than 200 injured and 200 arrested. HRW called for the Nigerian military to show restraint as additional soldiers were ordered onto the streets of Jos. "Nigeria should ensure that its security forces use restraint and comply with international standards on the use of force in responding to the latest deadly outbreak of inter-communal violence," HRW said. Charles Dokubo, from the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera: "There is more than the religious aspect of it. There are two communities - one that call themselves settlers and one that call themselves indigenous communities. "The crisis in the north started with the creation a local government." Dokubo said Muslim settlers wanted to manage the government, which was unacceptable to the indigenous Christian community who regard the former as non-citizens. "The main cause of the crisis is about administration and the place where people belong," he said. The fighting erupted on Sunday in a Christian area due to a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said. Jos, which is home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years. In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian-dominated People's Democratic Party. Al Jazeera 
 Sporadic violence has countinued around the central Nigerian city of Jos after four days of fighting between groups of Christians and Muslims. A 24-hour curfew was in place in the city on Wednesday but gunfire could be heard in neighbouring areas in Plateau state. "The fighting has stopped in Jos, but we can hear gunshots in other communities in the outskirts of the city," Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organising mass burials, said. More than 150 citizens have died in the fighting, according to a mosque official, and streets have been left deserted and businesses closed. "We are expecting more corpses to be brought in from surrounding communities later today," Shittu said. The government said that only 20 people had been killed in the fighting, with 40 more injured, while leaders of both sides said nearly 300 people have died. Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international rights watchdog, called for the Nigerian military to show restraint as the government ordered additional soldiers onto the streets of Jos, the state capital, to keep control. "Nigeria should ensure that its security forces use restraint and comply with international standards on the use of force in responding to the latest deadly outbreak of inter-communal violence," HRW said. Charles Dokubo, from the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera: "There is more than the religious aspect of it. There are two communities - one that call themselves settlers and one that call themselves indigenous communities. "The crisis in the north started with the creation a local government." Dokubo said that Muslim settlers were to manage the government, which was unacceptable to the indigenous Christian community who consider them non-citizens. "The main cause of the crisis is about administration and the place where people belong." Dokubo said that disputes over jobs may also be contributing to tensions between the two groups, with indigenous peoples' fears that settlers in government would give jobs only to other settlers. The fighting erupted on Sunday in a Christian area due to a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said. Jos, which is home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years. In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian dominated Peoples Democratic Party. Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faiths. More than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side in the West African country, although one million people were killed in a civil war between 1967 and 1970 and there have been outbreaks of religious unrest since then. Al Jazeera
 Troops are patrolling the northern Nigerian city of Jos after clashes between Christians and Muslims left at least 26 people dead and injured around 100 more, officials said. Violence erupted on Sunday over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in 2008 clashes between the two religious groups, residents said, although reports as to why the latest round of fighting broke out varied. According to the Associated Press, Muslim youths set fire to a church filled with worshippers, starting a riot that saw mosques and homes burnt. But the AFP news agency said the unrest was sparked by youths protesting the building of a mosque in a predominantly Christian area. Police said on Monday that the situation was under control and an evening curfew was in place. "Security personnel have succeeded in quelling the unrest and restoring calm in the affected area of the city," Mohammed Lerema, Plateau State police spokesman, told AFP. "We have cordoned the Nassarawa Gwom district as a strategy to prevent the violence from spilling over to other parts of the city," he said. Jos, capital of Plateau state and home to 500,000 people, along with other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years. In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in Jos in two days of fighting triggered by a rumour that the mainly Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the Christian dominated Peoples Democratic Party. State officials put the death toll at about 200 but other sources gave a toll twice that figure. Last month, at least 40 people were killed in clashes between security forces and members of an Islamist sect in the northern Bauchi State. Nigeria has roughly the same number of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faiths. Al Jazeera
 SAN'A, Yemen—For 10 days this summer, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab took language classes in this ancient city on the Arabian Peninsula. He lived in student housing, appearing to his fellow students to be devout, friendly and generally content. Then, he was gone. New details in the case of Mr. Abdulmutallab, charged with attempting to bring down Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253, have emerged suggesting that it was around this time that the young man met with the radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, according to a person familiar with intelligence shared among Arab states and a U.S. official.
The person familiar with Arab intelligence says Mr. Abdulmutallab met with a mysterious Saudi operative of al Qaeda. A few months later, on Christmas Day, he boarded the plane for Detroit, with 76 grams of explosives allegedly sewn into his underwear. Investigators in the U.S. and Yemen believe the meetings marked a critical turning point in Mr. Abdulmutallab's gradual transformation from pious Muslim to alleged terrorist. How and when his relationships were initially forged with al Qaeda and Mr. Awlaki, who has surfaced in multiple terror probes, is at the heart of the global scramble to trace Mr. Abdulmutallab's "radicalization"—and to determine how authorities could have missed the warning signs. Through most of his life, the Nigeria-born Mr. Abdulmutallab came off as a religious and inward young man, so opaque as to be virtually unknowable. He was intense and serious about Islam, but in a way that acquaintances judged to be within the mainstream. People familiar with the investigation say he began to quietly reach out to political extremists as a college student in London from 2005 to 2008, then apparently embedded more deeply with them as he hop-scotched around Africa and the Middle East. They say it was during his time in London that he was likely first exposed to Mr. Awlaki via the cleric's rabble-rousing anti-Western sermons on the Internet. He is believed to have reached out to the cleric at some point, but it couldn't be learned when that first contact was attempted or whether Mr. Awlaki responded. This account of Mr. Abdulmutallab's childhood and journey over the past few years is based on several dozen interviews with friends and associates, as well as government officials examining his movements in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Abdulmutallab, 23, is the son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, recently retired chairman of First Bank of Nigeria PLC and one of the country's most prominent businessmen. People who encountered Mr. Abdulmutallab at various stages of his life describe him as a young man who studied Islam, prayed frequently and radiated loneliness. As a boy in Kaduna, Nigera, Mr. Abdulmutallab earned the nickname "ustaz," or "scholarly man." He steered clear of the country-club parties and polo matches frequented by other wealthy kids. He was "a nice boy who had no friends," recalls Musa Umar Dumawa, director of the Islamic school Mr. Abdulmutallab attended in Kaduna. Yet in Internet postings attributed to him as a teenager, he also fretted about his isolation: "Either people do not want to get close to me as they go partying and stuff while I don't, or they are bad people who befriend me and influence me to do bad things." From childhood on, Mr. Abdulmutallab was exposed to circumstances that could have shaped his political views. Kaduna was home to growing anti-Western sentiment among Muslims, fueled in part by clashes with Christians that erupted in 2000, when the local governor considered imposing Sharia, or Islamic law. After a few years at boarding school in Togo, Mr. Abdulmutallab in 2004 ventured to Yemen, where a growing number of Islamic extremists have been relocating from Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. From fall 2004 to spring 2005, he studied at the San'a Institute for Arabic Language, according to Mohammed Al-Anisi, the institute's director. "He knew how to read and write in Arabic because he had learned to read the Quran being a Muslim, but his speaking abilities were very limited," recalls Mr. Anisi. Mr. Abdulmutallab began his year in San'a shortly after Mr. Awlaki, the radical cleric, returned to the city after 14 years in the U.S. and London. While Mr. Abdulmutallab was studying Arabic in San'a's Old City, Mr. Awlaki was making a name for himself as a vibrant newpreacher. He gave regular Friday sermons at the Yehya al-Ghader mosque on the city's Western periphery. He lectured at the Al Iman University, founded by Sheikh Abdel Majeed Zindani in 1995, who both the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.N. Security Council have named as an affiliate of al Qaeda. There is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Abdulmutallab ever attended Mr. Awlaki's sermons or lectures or met the cleric during this period. Mr. Abdulmutallab harbored dreams of studying engineering in the U.S. at Stanford University or the California Institute of Technology, but in the fall of 2005, he enrolled in the mechanical engineering program at University College London. Internet postings from early 2005 that appear to have been written by Mr. Abdulmutallab show a craving for the fellowship of a student Islamic society. At UCL, he quickly hooked up with the university's Islamic group. There, Mr. Abdulmutallab was often seen dressed in traditional white robe and skull cap. He arrived at class on his own, says Derek Wong, a fellow student. Others recall he was friendly but declined invitations to drink or socialize. Michael Kangawa, a student, says Mr. Abdulmutallab invited him to talks on Islam, none of which "sounded sinister in the slightest." Through the UCL Islamic Society, for which he served as president in 2006 and 2007, Mr. Abdulmutallab became involved in politics. One former student recalls that in the summer of 2006 Mr. Abdulmutallab solicited signatures for a petition against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and against Western support for Israel. "He was very passionate and very articulate," this person says. Qasim Fariq, Mr. Abdulmutallab's predecessor as the society's president, says he saw no signs of a budding militant. "If he'd had radical views, that would have raised a question mark about his suitability to be president," says Mr. Fariq. "He never expressed any extremist inclinations." U.K. intelligence agencies, now combing through his history, say that Mr. Abdulmutallab was flirting with a more radical form of Islam. While a student, people familiar with the matter say, he made contact with several extremists who were being monitored by the security services. Yet security agencies have so far found no evidence that he was contemplating violence while in the U.K. or posed a threat to national security. "It looks pretty aspirational, and it doesn't look as if he got particularly far," a British official says. While in the U.K., he gave the impression of "a young guy who's trying to start out on a journey.... We see many people who start out on that journey and very few of them reach the point where they are willing to blow up people on tube trains." Mr. Abdulmutallab's movements became harder to track after he graduated from UCL in June 2008. He appears to have cut himself off from college acquaintances. "In December, I sent him an instant message when I saw he was online, but he never replied," says Mr. Fariq. "I was surprised he'd cut off contact so abruptly." Mr. Abdulmutallab bounced around the world. His application to obtain a visa to travel to the U.S. raised no red flags, and he visited Houston—home to an estimated 100,000 Nigerian immigrants—in August 2008. He stayed for about two weeks, attending an Islamic seminar run by a nonprofit educational group called the Al Maghrib Institute and staying at a Sheraton hotel on the outskirts of downtown. In October, he turned up in Nigeria. There, he approached Abdulkareem Durosinlorun, the director of a small Islamic primary school in Kaduna, with a proposal to teach a course on Prophetic medicine, the ways of healing according to the Prophet Muhammad. "He spoke about combating demons of power, or money," says Bilquees Abdul Azees, who attended the two-day course. "His solution was that if you have faith in Allah, you will persevere." In January 2009, Mr. Abdulmutallab arrived in Dubai with his father, according to a person familiar with intelligence shared between Arab governments investigating the Nigerian's movements. He applied for a student visa and enrolled at University of Wollongong, the Dubai-based campus of the Australian institute, to pursue a degree in international business, which involves courses in finance, accounting and human resources. He lived in student housing, played basketball on the side, and struck fellow students and faculty as diligent and quiet. University President Robert J. Whelan says Mr. Abdulmutallab was a "hard-working" student who scored "above-average" grades. In April 2009, he applied for a visa to attend an eight-day course provided by Discovery Life Coaching based in east London. The U.K. Border Agency refused the application because Discovery Life didn't hold valid accreditation as an educational institution and wasn't eligible to sponsor international students in Britain. Attempts to find a company called Discovery Life in that area were unsuccessful. He completed only two semesters in Dubai, failing to pay his fees for what would have been his third and final semester before graduating. During his final days in Dubai in early August, he sent his father an SMS text saying he was headed to Yemen to study Arabic, according to the person familiar with Arab intelligence sharing. He left the country Aug. 4 "and never showed up again" in Dubai, this person said. Near the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Aug. 22, Mr. Abdulmutallab returned to the language institute in Yemen where he had studied as a teenager. Mr. Anisi, the institute's director, says the young man appeared more serious, withdrawn and pious than the student who had left four years earlier. People who were there say he stayed no more than 10 days before leaving. "He said it was Ramadan and he wanted to focus on praying," said one student. Matthew Salmon, a 27-year-old Canadian student, lived next door to Mr. Abdulmutallab in this period. They talked about religion, with Mr. Abdulmutallab gently proselytizing and focusing on Quranic verses that spoke of tolerance for Christians and Jews. "More than anything else, he seemed like someone who had found some peace in the religion he subscribed to. ... He was honest, he was happy, and there was absolutely no malice in the guy that I could detect." In early September, Mr. Salmon had a final conversation with him. "I asked him how long he planned on staying in Yemen, and he said a month or two depending on how long the money held up and how his studying progressed. The next day he was gone, his room was empty and that was the end of it." Yemeni officials say Mr. Abdulmutallab left San'a and traveled to the rugged tribal-controlled southern province of Shabwa, where al Qaeda has a strong presence and where Mr. Awlaki has lived at least the past two years. There, Mr. Abdulmutallab met with al Qaeda leaders in Yemen and "likely" Mr. Awlaki, according to Yemen's government. The person familiar with intelligence sharing among Arab states and a U.S. official say Mr. Abdulmutallab met face-to-face with Mr. Awlaki, but it's unclear where or when. This person says Mr. Abdulmutallab befriended an al Qaeda operative while attending a mosque in downtownSan'a. A U.S. security official says the mosque has been frequented by al Qaeda members. "Slowly, slowly, he started liking them, and he got their trust," this person said of Mr. Abdulmutallab. His precise itinerary after leaving Yemen is in dispute. What is known is that he arrived in Ghana in early December, staying about two weeks and buying an airline ticket for travel later in the month, according to the Ghana government. On Dec. 24, he flew to Lagos and proceeded to Amsterdam after a brief stopover. On Dec. 25, he boarded Flight 253 in Amsterdam, headed for Detroit. WSJ
 A noted Saudi preacher has called on Arabs to stop flying to the United States, in protest of “enhanced screening” procedures aimed at catching terrorists, the Dubai business website Zawya.com reported. Muslim preacher Sheikh Sulaiman al Dowaish has urged Saudi authorities to consider the travel ban following an announcement by the United States that “enhanced screening" measures will be put into place for passengers from 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia. The extra steps were taken after last month’s attempt by a Nigerian Muslim to detonate a bomb on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry has asked the Obama administration for clarifications regarding the new security measures.
Officials said the oil-rich kingdom would not tolerate security procedures that tarnish the honor and dignity of Saudis. The website noted that 22,000 students from Saudi Arabia are learning at American universities Saudi security researcher Sultan Al Anqari blasted the new U.S. regulation, telling GulfNews.com that the Obama government is resorting to a form of political blackmail against Saudi Arabia because of the country’s anti-Israeli policies. "It is part of a collective punishment against the Saudis, who are also victims of the wrong doing of some deviant people," he said. INN
 TERROR suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded not guilty on Friday in a federal court in Detroit on a six-count indictment for allegedly attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound plane and murder its 279 passengers and 11 crew members. Mr Abdulmutallab entered the courtroom just before 2 pm Friday shackled by his feet and wearing a white T-shirt, khaki pants and blued shoes. He is accused of strapping explosives in his pants that failed to detonate and instead set him on fire on a Christmas day Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. His trip originated in Nigeria, where his father had earlier alerted authorities to his radical turn US officials had information that could have led them to block Mr Abdulmutallab from boarding the plane, Obama administration officials said yesterday, but intelligence analysts failed to assemble the picture of the plot. Representatives of the militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, have claimed credit for organising the attack. When asked, he told a judge he had taken pain medication in the last day Mr Abdulmutallab made his first appearance in court amid crowds of journalists. Scores of Muslim Americans held up anti-terrorism mantras on posters and waved large American flags outside the coutroom. A handful of Nigerian-born Americans joined in, with signs such as “Nigerians Are Against Terrorism.” Mr Abdulmutallab will remain detained but has the right to a hearing on the matter. His next appearance in court was not immediately set Friday. No new details were provided in an indictment earlier this week as to how the suspect was able to board a plane in Amsterdam with two types of explosives hidden in his pants, or how he gained a US visa. The Australian
 BARACK Obama is right to say the buck stops with him for the failures of his intelligence services. He is right to call a spade and a spade and declare the US is indeed in a war against terrorist groups such as al-Qa'ida. But in his White House address yesterday, the President seemed at times more like a divisional manager than the leader of the free world. His downbeat response to the aborted Christmas Day terror attack on a Detroit-bound aircraft did not truly acknowledge the shocking failure of American security and the potentially devastating fallout from those mistakes.
The President identified the failures to "connect and understand" information collected by agencies on the young Nigerian who almost blew up a plane.
But no individuals were identified publicly as being responsible for these operational failures. No heads have rolled. The President initially reacted cautiously to the Christmas Day incident. He took two weeks to respond in detail. Such a measured response may have been calculated to calm American nerves - and deny the terrorists the reaction they seek. But the failure of American intelligence in this case, eight years after September 11, is a cause for deep dismay.
Mr Obama must juggle several imperatives in dealing with this issue, including the need to ensure Americans do not lose faith in the intelligence services.
Equally, he cannot allow terrorists to believe the services are vulnerable. But Americans need to know their President is serious about fixing the security gaps. It is not just that the buck stops with Mr Obama - the ball is now truly in his court. The Australian
 How courageous is Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the father of terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab? If, as it is argued, the Islamic world sees the War on Terror as a War on Islam, it must have been quite intimidating to walk into the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. It must have been terrifying to walk to the front desk and ask to see the man in charge. It must have been a father's worst nightmare: not only to turn his son over to the authorities, but also to know that Guantanamo may have been in the boy's future. Did Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, though a wealthy and respected banker, fear that he, too, might find himself on the business end of an American rifle? One does not casually discuss actionable information on terrorism with American officials and not expect a hard look and maybe a little roughing-up. The White House Review of the Christmas Day terrorist attack reads like a game of Clue, in reverse. From the start, we knew the killer, we knew his location, and after sixty years of aircraft hijackings and Al Qaida's record, we had a pretty good idea of the weapon of choice. We even had a motive and a witness.
The White House blames Abdulmutallab's success on a failure to "connect the dots," but, in fact, the dots were already connected. There were no dots. We already had all the information necessary to shut down Abdulmutallab. No secret missions were in order. No covert bribes in cash-stuffed briefcases needed to change hands at disused bus stops. Delta operatives didn't have to to kick down doors, and there was no need to dust off the waterboard to draw out a name.
We knew everything.
In a press conference, President Obama said that our failure to stop the terrorist incident was "not the fault of a single individual or organization."
But that's not true. The minute Abdulmutallab's father walked into a U.S. Embassy with news that his son was a potential terrorist, the official in charge was duty-bound to see this through. Every scrap of paper and every byte of data on the suspect should have been called up and frozen. That's why we have embassies. When the information was passed to the first special agent at the CIA, he or she was duty bound to see it through. When the information was passed to the first administrator at the National Counterterrorism Center, he or she, too, was duty bound to see it to the end.
Everyone who read the name "Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab" prior to December 25, 2009 should be reprimanded and fired.
The White House findings state that, "Mr. Abdulmutallab possessed a U.S. visa, but this fact was not correlated with the concerns of Mr. Abdulmutallab's father about Mr. Abdulmutallab's potential radicalization." It's an embarrassing sentence of bureaucratese in its own right, but more so when considered in context. The State Department didn't revoke Abdulmutallab's visa because an office clerk misspelled his name in a database.
Has no one in the intelligence community ever used Google? When "Abdulmutalab" was typed in, did the computer not ask, "Did you mean 'Abdulmutallab'?"
Another admission that crosses the threshold of bewildering into the realm of criminally negligent: the National Counterterrorism Center has a database of all known and suspected international terrorists. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was added to that database.
But that database does not feed directly into the TSA No-Fly List.
Who more than known terrorists belong on the No-Fly List? There should be no human involvement required here. One line of SQL database code could have averted disaster.
According to the White House, when the CIA and NCTC got the name of a radicalized militant from the militant's own father, and a warning that he was planning an attack, they did not search "all available databases to uncover additional derogatory information." How many databases are there? And how many terrorist databases must one appear in before he or she is considered a threat to U.S. national security?
This wasn't a ticking time bomb situation involving a lone wolf under the radar. Such a terrorist will succeed, and there's nothing we can do about it, aside from remaining vigilant. But the United States already knew about Abdulmutallab, and learned of his intentions on November 18th -- a month before he struck.
Most grating in the White House report is the repeated notion that Abdulmutallab's plot failed. It didn't. Nine years after 9/11, and after billions of spent dollars in needless security, confiscated fingernail clippers, and dumped breast milk, he succeeded in smuggling explosives onto an airliner destined for American soil. He succeeded in igniting the explosive. If not for dumb luck involving bad chemistry and a brave Dutch film director, there might today be a smoldering crater in Detroit.
After the attack, President Obama remained in Hawaii and enjoyed a Christmas vacation on the golf course. After the attack, National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter took a six-day skiing holiday. After the attack, CIA director Leon Panetta remained in beautiful Monterey, California. The nation, the administration claims, can be governed from afar, and that's probably true. But when terrorists attempt a major strike on U.S. soil, isn't it a good idea to have someone in the White House situation room above the rank of janitor?
When National Security Advisor James Jones warned that the White House review of the Christmas Day terrorist attack would bring "a certain shock," one expected to learn of political intrigue and a mishandling of delicate scraps of questionable intelligence. But rather, Mr. Jones must have been referring to the Obama administration's hubris in this matter, which is the most shocking revelation of all.
D.B. Grady is the author of Red Planet Noir. The Atlantic 
 Yemeni police have captured an al-Qaeda commander said to be behind the security threats that resulted in the closure of foreign embassies, officials say. Mohammed al-Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a raid by security forces in Arhab, 40km north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded. "Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran [province], north of Sanaa," the official told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. They were found in a hospital in Reedah, in Amran, he said. The US embassy, which had closed for two days due to security concerns over an al-Qaeda threat, cited "successful" security operations north of the capital as it reopened on Tuesday. The British and French embassies, which also closed their doors, resumed operations on Wednesday. The French embassy remained closed to the public on Wednesday but the ambassador and staff reported for duty. The French foreign ministry announced the move on Tuesday night, saying: "We decided on the closure as a security measure after threats made public by known terrorist groups." Concerns that Yemen, a country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has become a haven for armed groups were thrown into sharp focus when a Nigerian man allegedly trained in Yemen was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet. The botched Christmas Day attack was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which also urged attacks on Western interests in Yemen. In the wake of the failed attack, General David Petraeus, the US regional military commander, travelled to Sanaa for talks with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president. At the same time, Yemen sent army reinforcements to the eastern provinces of Abyan, Bayada and Shawba, where al-Qaeda fighters have hideouts, and raised the alert level in those regions. Al Jazeera
 US authorities have tightened security measures for all US-bound airline passengers, including enhanced mandatory screening of travellers from countries deemed to sponsor terrorism. Ten days after a failed Al-Qa'ida bid to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, US transport officials said the new measures were part of a drive to put in place “long-term, sustainable security measures”. All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening or so-called “threat-based” screens, the Transport Security Administration said in a statement. But it further mandated that “every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening”. He boarded the flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after flying in from Lagos, Nigeria. Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are currently the only four countries deemed by the State Department to be state sponsors of terrorism. But a senior administration official told the Politico daily that all passengers from other countries of interests “such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen will receive full body pat-down and physical inspection of property”. “These are changes that weren't widely in place for all carriers or countries on 12/24,” the official told Politico, quoted on its website. Such screening “could also include explosive detection technology or advanced imaging technology where it's available”. TSA said the new measures were being introduced “because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners”. The increased screening came as the United States and Britain closed their embassies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa over security fears, as President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism advisor warned Al-Qa'ida could be planning another attack. There were “indications that Al-Qa'ida is planning to carry out an attack against (a) target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy,” advisor John Brennan told CNN. Obama directly linked Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemen-based cell of Osama bin Laden's group, to the failed bombing of the Northwest jet carrying 290 people. He has ordered two reviews into the security lapses which nearly led to another tragedy in a nation still scarred by the Al-Qa'ida attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr Obama, who is due to end his Christmas vacation in Hawaii today to return to Washington, will huddle with his top security advisors tomorrow to review the findings of the investigations. The Australian
 BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called an international meeting on combating extremism in Yemen, after an alleged attempt to blow up a US airliner threw the spotlight on militancy there. Brown's office said the meeting would take place in London on January 28, running "in parallel" with a conference on Afghanistan which is expected to be attended by senior ministers or leaders from about 43 nations.
Long-standing concerns that Yemen has become a haven for Islamic terror groups were thrown into sharp relief when a Nigerian man allegedly trained in the Gulf State was charged with trying to blow up a US airliner on December 25.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen for his alleged mission to blow up the plane as it came into land in Detroit, sparking a major international security scare.
 In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for having "refocused the fight - bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks". He then told people to remember that "our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans", before decrying "fear and cynicism" and "partisanship and division" - the code phrases for horrid Republicans used during his 2008 election campaign. Complacency, faux moralising and partisan shots at Republicans. It was a neat summary of where Obama is going wrong after the Christmas Day debacle when the Nigerian knicker bomber managed to waltz onto a Detroit-bound flight. For a man who campaigned denouncing the politicisation of national security under President George W Bush, it is worth noting how intensely political Obama's treatment of what might henceforth be known as Underpantsgate has been. His White House recognised its political vulnerability more readily than it comprehended the level of danger faced by Americans. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father had courageously contacted the American Embassy in Abuja in November and met the CIA station chief to tell him that his son was involved with fundamentalist elements in Yemen. American intelligence had also intercepted discussions in Yemen about a possible attack by "the Nigerian". The Obama administration knew most, if not all, of this by last Sunday, 48 hours after the attack was thwarted. But the priority in Obamaland was to play things down and take pot shots at the Bush administration. Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security chief – who prefers the term "man-caused disasters" to "terrorism" - blithely stated that there was "no indication that it is part of anything larger". She then insisted that the "system is working". Although Napolitano has taken a lot of flak for these comic utterances, she was not "misspeaking" but trotting out the agreed talking points of the day. Robert Gibbs, Obama's chief mouthpiece, also stated that "in many ways this system has worked" and would say nothing about a possible wider plot. In Hawaii, where Obama was holidaying, Gibbs's deputy Bill Burton told the press that "we are winding down a war in Iraq that took our eye off of the terrorists that attacked us" and that Obama was reviewing "procedures that have been in place the last several years" (i.e. Bush instituted them). He added, without apparent irony, that "the President refuses to play politics with these issues". Meanwhile, the White House was working overtime to build a case against Bush. A source in the White House counsel's office told The American Spectator of memos frantically seeking information that would "show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could". Republicans smell blood. There is a pattern in the Obama administration of dismissing Islamist terrorist attacks as regrettable random acts. In his radio address after Major Nidal Hassan's slaughtered 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama made no mention of terrorism or militant Islam, instead blandly promising that the "ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy" would "look at the motives of the alleged gunman". Hassan was a committed Islamist who had corresponded with the fanatical Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki. In June, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Muslim convert being watched by the FBI and who had previously travelled to Yemen, murdered a US Army recruit in Arkansas. That rated only a tepid statement by Obama about a "senseless act of violence". But the violence wasn't senseless, it had a calculated objective - just as Abdulmutallab was not, as Obama described him, an "isolated extremist".
No wonder many Americans want to grab Obama by the lapels and scream: "It's the Jihad, stupid." Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, clearly struck a nerve when he charged last week that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war". More at the Telegraph
 On the rubble-strewn outskirts of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, is a religious university, al-Eman, notorious among US intelligence officials for its suspected links to terrorism. Last September, sitting quietly among the ranks of young men was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man now accused of trying to kill almost 300 people by blowing up a transatlantic passenger jet. According to his visa documents, the 23-year-old Nigerian should have been studying Arabic at an institute a few miles away. But the University College London graduate was already a fluent Arabic speaker and was interested in a far bigger agenda. “He told me his greatest wish was for sharia and Islam to be the rule of law across the world,” said Achmed Hassan, a classmate at the language institute. Abdulmutallab was routinely skipping his Arabic lessons for lectures at the al-Eman University. American authorities say the university’s founder, Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, is a “global terrorist” who acts as a recruiting sergeant for Al-Qaeda training camps. He denies the claim. An alumnus of the university murdered three American missionaries in Yemen in 2002. Abdulmutallab was particularly interested in one of the university’s firebrand speakers, the American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose lectures, it has now emerged, Abdulmutallab attended during a visit to Sana’a in 2005. Awlaki is part of a new generation of internet-savvy preachers and has been linked to several terrorists, including some of the 9/11 hijackers, and the US army major charged with shooting dead 13 people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. Awlaki described the gunman as a “hero”. Six weeks after he arrived in Yemen last year, Abdulmutallab left his Arabic classes. It was later said he had travelled to Hadramawt, a poor eastern province that is an Al-Qaeda stronghold. On Christmas Eve, this previously pious student re-emerged with murderous intent, boarding Northwest Airlines flight 253 bound for Detroit. About 80 grams of a highly explosive chemical, PETN, was carefully sewn into his underpants. It was only a technical glitch, as Al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen later put it, that stopped the bomb going off 20 minutes from landing. Relief that a fresh atrocity on American soil was narrowly averted on Christmas Day was rapidly overtaken by questions about intelligence failures.
There were a number of significant warnings about Abdulmutallab’s intentions. Last night it emerged that during his time in London, Abdulmutallab had come onto MI5’s radar because of his “multiple communications” with extremists in the UK, including several radical figures at mosques. One Whitehall official said: “This was a young man who while he was in the UK was starting his journey and was exploring an interest in radical Islam. He was making contact and reaching out to people who were MI5’s targets of interest.” MI5 concluded that Abdulmutallab did not pose a threat to national security. Officials believe he decided to become a suicide bomber only after leaving UCL last year and travelling to Yemen. They also think that up to a dozen young British Muslims are receiving terrorist training in that country. Read it all at TimesOnline
 If this anonymous piece is accurate, maybe he was just practicing damage control when he notified the authorities about his son's "extremism" -- as Creeping Sharia puts it, daddy "threw his son under the bus to protect himself and his own Islamist interests." But it looks as if Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a chip off the old block. It's overheated, yes, and the English is faulty, but the most important question here is, Are these charges true?
"Nigerian Muslim Jihadist and Al Qaida Ties Started Long Ago with Alhaji Mutallab,,.The Father As a Leader of Sharia Movement In Nigeria," from Africa Today, January 1 (thanks to Creeping Sharia): Let the world not be fooled by the diguised of Northern Nigerian Religious extremism muslim as represented by their leaders like Yaradua Family, Mutallab Family, Sanusi Family, Bayero Families, Yerima family, Babangida family, Abdulsalam, family, Abacha, Jubril Aminu family, Atiku Family etc. and all of the emires and Ulamas and Northern Nigeria leaders and muslim families AND FOLLOWERS for they all have ties to Muslim Wahabism extremisism in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Dubai, Yemen, Egytp etc and with the world jihadist movement and the world is just now waking up to it and the facts has been there for a long time and now they are exporting terrorism, jihadism, wahabism and Al Qaida to the world. They are all part and parcel of this problem because they planted this it but it is now known and let the world not be fooled. Like all of the muslim Northern Nigerian leaders, DR. Mutallab the father of the terrorist who is now shedding crocodile tears because he is one of the leaders who groom the Wahabism in Nigeria.
Alhaji Dr. Mutallab the father also groomed Sharia law in Katsina State, Alhaji DR. Mutallab Groom Sharia in Kaduna State,Alhaji Dr. Mutallab groomed Sharia in Kano State, Most of the extremism Ulama in Northern Muslim Nigeria are benefactors of Alhaji Mutallab, Dr. Mutallab groomed extreme Muslim businesses in Saudi Arabia, He has extreme business in Dubai and he has extreme religious business in Yemen and he has business and property in Yemen.
Alhaji Mutallab is the owner of the only Islamic Bank in Nigeria, Alhaji Mutallab has ties and interest in almost all the extremist muslim religious groups in Nigeria. He is a top leader of the Sharia movement COUNCIL in Nigeria. This guy is dangerous and he has gotten it hot and thats why he is running from pillar to post because he destroyed Nigeria with his corrupt ways and his muslim jihadist ideas for long time. Dr. Mutallab the father of the terrorist was just covering his ass because he does not want to loose his investment in the Westen World and he does not want his family to be place on the no fly list as he wants to still enjoy his vacation and western women and western wine and drinks in Engalnd, Europe and America while still using extremism and corruption to maintain their corrupt hold in Nigeria by stealing from their people, thats thats why he reported his son to America, because he and most of the Muslim leaders in Nigeria knows more and they are part of the sponsors of world wide jihadism wahabism from Saudi Arabia, Sudan,Dubai, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan etc.... With thanks to JihadWatch
  Jasper Schuringa, the man who jumped and subdued the Muslim terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day flight NW253.
 The accused "underwear bomber" made a dramatic final call to his father that he found so alarming, the father approached Nigerian officials who took him directly to the CIA's station chief in the Nigerian capital, sources told ABC News. Current and former officials of the Nigerian government, including a source close to the suspect's family, say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, called his father from Yemen with the warning that it would be his last contact. It has previously been reported that the man's father, prominent Nigerian banker Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, went to Nigerian and American officials Nov. 19 to warn them that his son had been radicalized by Islamic militants in Yemen. Details have emerged about Abdulmutallab's final phone call that highlight President Obama's statement that there were "systemic failures" of the country's security system. ABC News' sources said that during Abdulmutallab's final call, he told his father the call would be his last contact with the family. He said that the people he was with in Yemen were about to destroy his SIM card, rendering his phone unusable. The next day the embassy sent out a thin report to U.S. embassies around the world warning Adbulmutallab may be associating with extremists in Yemen. The CIA official compiled two more robust reports following the meeting with the suspect's father. One was sent back to CIA's Langley, Va., the other remained in draft form in Nigeria and was not circulated until after the attempted attack on Christmas Day, according to a U.S. official. In what has been seen as a possible failure to stop the bomber from boarding a U.S.-bound plane, the alert prompted counterterrorism officials to put Abdulmutallab's name into a database of more than half a million others that the U.S. suspects of ties to terrorism, but they did not put him on the country's no-fly list. The information also was not shared with Yemeni intelligence officials, the Yemen government has said. The president was expected to receive preliminary reviews on the security failure today. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly indicated details of the review would not be released. He said, however, "Details of embassy Abuja's meeting with Abdulmutallab's father are of the review, and we are not in a position to comment on it at this time." Abdulmutallab told federal officials after his capture that he spent a month at the home of an al Qaeda official in Yemen while he was trained for jihad, officials have told ABC News. He left Yemen Dec. 7 and weeks later was aboard a Northwest Airlines flight that stopped in Amsterdam and then continued on to Detroit. More at ABC
 That's what voters say, according to today's Rasmussen survey: Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure. There's this, too: Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22% say it should be handled by civilian authorities as a criminal act, as is currently the case. My conclusion: the debate is over, and Dick Cheney won it. PAUL adds: I would waterboard the guy only as a last resort. Does that make me a moderate on this issue? Power Line
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AT least 150 bodies have been recovered from wells following Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria. 
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