Author: AFP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 4, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Christmas-bomber-was-my-student-Yemeni-cleric-Awlaqi-/articleshow/5532847.cms
Radical Yemeni cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi has
praised a Christmas Day attempt to blow up a US airliner and said the man
accused in the attack was his "student," according to an interview
published by Al-Jazeera.
The militant religious leader, accused of
links to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said he supported the attack.
He described alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
who reportedly received training in Yemen, as his "student," but
said that he did not direct the young Nigerian to launch the attack.
"I support what Umar Farouk did,"
he added, citing the deaths of Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan,
as well as drone strikes in Yemen, to justify the foiled attack against a
Northwest Airlines plane as it prepared to land in Detroit on Christmas Day.
"In my tribe, American missiles and raids
killed 17 women and 23 children. So don't ask me if Al-Qaeda has killed or
blew up a civilian plane after all of that. Three hundreds Americans are nothing
compared to the thousands of Muslims they killed."
Abdulmutallab has been charged with attempting
to bring down the jet carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew by detonating explosives
hidden in his underwear.
The explosive device failed to properly ignite
and the 23-year-old was quickly overwhelmed by passengers and crew aboard
the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group
affiliated with Al-Qaeda and based in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the
attack shortly afterwards and Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden praised Abdulmutallab
as a "hero."
Awlaqi shot to prominence last year after
it emerged he had communicated extensively by email with Major Nidal Hasan,
a US Army psychiatrist who opened fire on his colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas,
killing 13.
Awlaqi, who was born in the United States
and is accused of having had ties to the September 11, 2001 hijackers, praised
the Fort Hood attack and said Muslims like Hasan should only serve in the
US military if they planned to carry out similar attacks.
