By Laolu Akande
IT is a study in the
psychology of a young, well-trained engineer from an affluent background
turned terror mind. Psycoanalysts and allied professionals would do well to
pour over it now, not for its author's sake for he may well be beyond helping
in the hands of an unmovable justice system and a people braying for his blood,
but for many young minds on the same path of needless waste of their God-given
potentials and sure destruction in Nigeria, yes Nigeria, and some far-flung
places across the world. In flawless prose which bore a mark of his formal education in some of the best schools around, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian accused by the United States (U.S.) of attempting to blow up a U.S. jetliner on Christmas Day in December 2009 has disclosed publicly for the first time, details of his conspiracy against the U.S. and why he decided to become a terrorist against that country. America.
The disclosures were in the prepared statements he made at the U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michigan, transcripts of which were just released by the court, after Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty and ended the trial abruptly.
The trial ended suddenly last Wednesday in Detroit, when Abdulmutallab decided to plead guilty after the prosecution laid out the evidence against him and called its first witness.
The self-confessed terrorist may have decided to plead guilty suddenly on the second day of the trial because he was dazed by the extent of evidence laid out against him by the prosecution, according to the U.S.-based Nigerian lawyer, Kayode Oladele, who represented the Federal Government of Nigeria in a watching brief at the trial.
In the transcripts of his statement, released by Judge Nancy Edmund's court officials, Abdulmutallab, in pleading guilty warned the U.S. that God may directly strike and disclosed publicly for the first time how and why he chose to attack the U.S.
According to him, "in late 2009, in fulfillment of a religious obligation, I decided to participate in jihad against the United States. The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah, those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them, some parts of the Koran say, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
He continued: "I had an agreement with at least one person to attack the United States in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel and in retaliation of the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Palestine, especially in the blockade of Gaza and in retaliation for the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond, most of them women, children, and noncombatants."
Abdulmutallab went on to say that as a result of his determination, " I travelled to Yemen and eventually to the United States, and I agreed with at least one person to carry an explosive device onto an aircraft and attempt to kill those onboard and wreck the aircraft as an act of jihad against the United States for the U.S. killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters around the world."
Before he went on to concede to all the eight counts against him, Abdulmutallab also disclosed that he was "greatly inspired to participate in jihad by the lectures of the great and rightly guided Mujahedeen who is alive, Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, may Allah preserve him and his family and give them victory, Amen, and Allah knows best."
He was referring to the same al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born terrorist killed by U.S. drones last month in Yemen. .
Abdulmutallab continued: "Participation in jihad against the United States is considered among the most virtuous of deeds in Islam and is highly encouraged in the Koran; however, according to U.S. law, which is unjust and oppressive according to the Koran, my actions make me guilty of a crime in the United States."
He then addressed each of the counts against him specifically, and pleaded guilty to them all.
source: guardian
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