The Nigerian man accused of trying to bring down a US airliner cut off contact with his family and disappeared from their lives until they awoke to news of the attempted Christmas Day attack, his family said today. A statement from the family of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab said his disappearance caused them to alert first Nigerian and then American authorities because it was completely out of character. "Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern."
US authorities said that in November, Abdulmutallab's father visited the US embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss his concerns about his son's religious beliefs. Abdulmutallab told US officials who arrested him on the Detroit-bound airliner that he had sought extremist training at an Islamist hotbed in Yemen. "We were hopeful that they would find and return him home," the family said.
(More Northwest Flight 253 stories.)
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