The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a United States airliner on Christmas Day has provided “useful, actionable” intelligence to US authorities after the FBI flew his relatives to America to urge him to co-operate, officials said.
Top US intelligence officials, testifying on Capitol Hill about the attempted bombing and other security threats, said al-Qaeda and its allies were “certain” to try to attack US territory again within the next six months.
The bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (23), started talking again after FBI agents brought family members from Nigeria to help convince him to provide information about how the botched December 25th bomb plot was arranged and whether further attacks were in the works, a senior US official said.
Abdulmutallab is alleged to have mounted the attack with help from a Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch. “I’m confident he’s going to continue to co-operate,” the official said, declining to say whether Abdulmutallab had been offered a plea deal or leniency in exchange for answering questions.
Prosecutors charged Abdulmutallab with trying to blow up the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with a bomb sewn into his underwear, drawing further criticism from some lawmakers, who said he should face a special military tribunal instead and questioning by intelligence operatives instead of the FBI.
“Abdulmutallab is talking and has been talking since last week, providing useful, actionable and current intelligence that we’ve been actively following up on,” a US law enforcement official said, declining to be named because the investigation is ongoing.
If convicted, Abdulmutallab could spend the rest of his life in prison, a fate that may provide an incentive for him to co-operate with FBI investigators interrogating him with support from CIA agents. President Barack Obama was kept “fully apprised” on his change of heart, the official said.
In the days following the attempted bombing, two FBI agents flew to Nigeria and gained help from Abdulmutallab’s family members, who then proved “instrumental” in winning his co-operation, the senior administration official said.