The “Underwear Bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab began trial today Oct. 4 in Detroit.
The attempted terrorist yelled “Anwar is alive,” according to American news outlet ABC News, “The mujahedeen will wipe out the U.S. – the cancer U.S.”
Al-Awlaki played a vital role in the Christmas 2009 attack by personally guiding and instructing Abdulmutallab on how to carry out the terror plot.
“Al-Awlaki actually helped get him in a jihadi camp, helped him get access to the underwear bomb and then actually walked him through [it],” Seth Jones, terror analyst at the RAND Corporation and U.S. government consultant, said in another ABC News article. “He wanted [Abdulmutallab] to wait to explode [the bomb] over American airspace.”
Abdulmutallab is pleading not guilty to the eight charges against him. These charges include conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
On Dec. 25, 2009, Abdulmutallab tried to detonate plastic explosives that were hidden in his underwear while onboard Northwest Airlines 253 leaving from Amsterdam to Detroit.
The chemicals did not detonate and passengers jumped onto Abdulmutallab after seeing flames. Abdulmutallab suffered severe burns to his groin.
The aircraft was carrying 279 passengers plus a crew of 11.
The 24-year-old arrived in the courtroom today wearing an oversized T-shirt and was quickly ordered to change into more appropriate clothing.
Initially, he had requested to wear a “Yemeni belt with a dagger.”
Abdulmutallab’s past was not one of oppression and sorrow. He came from a wealthy family with a sturdy background.
His father’s career in business and banking, with a position as Chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria, was extremely lucrative. Abdulmutallab was raised in an affluent neighborhood in Kaduna city in Africa.
He attended an expensive private school and was well educated. The family had enough money to finance a local mosque and to hire their own personal imam.
Yet Abdulmutallab greatly disagreed with his father’s profession because he believed it went against the Islamic creed. He slowly took on more extremist views.