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Rich and privileged - the gilded life of would-be plane bomber
Guardian ^ | 12/27/09 | Peter Walker, Xan Rice and Richard Norton-Taylor

Posted on 12/27/2009 12:32:26 PM PST by freespirited

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's path towards apparent Islamist militancy took him to University College London and a luxury block just off the city's Oxford Street.

But no part of his life was so seemingly anomalous to a would-be terrorist as the manicured lawns and tennis courts of the British International school in Togo, where he is believed to have first expressed extreme views.

Today, investigators were trying to establish exactly what provoked him to try to detonate an explosive device as a Northwest Airlines jet made its final descent into Detroit airport on Christmas Day.

It certainly wasn't a life of poverty. He was born in extreme privilege, of the sort few Nigerians could ever dream of, and his education reflected this. His father, Umaru Mutallab, 70, is one of the country's most respected businessmen, who retired earlier this month as chairman of Nigeria's FirstBank, the oldest bank in the country, with offices in London, Paris and Beijing.

He undertook his secondary education as a boarder at the British school in Lomé, Togo's capital, which is mostly staffed by teachers from the UK and attracts wealthy students from across west Africa. Set up in 1983, the school gives pupils a decidedly English-style curriculum, taught in air-conditioned classrooms set amid grassy grounds which also feature a swimming pool and tennis courts....

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abdulmutallab; detroitbomber; farouk; flight253
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Cant wait to hear the defense that his lefty lawyers concoct.
1 posted on 12/27/2009 12:32:26 PM PST by freespirited
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To: freespirited

Where are all the leftist geniuses to tell us how poverty and hopelessness are the cause of terrorism (and the cause of every other form of criminal behavior, also).


2 posted on 12/27/2009 12:38:35 PM PST by Will88
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To: freespirited

Wonder how he’ll decorate his cell at SuperMax .... maybe next door to Ried(sp?) the shoe bomber ....


3 posted on 12/27/2009 12:43:05 PM PST by SkyDancer ('Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not..' ~ Thomas Jefferson)
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To: freespirited
Oh, dear, it appears that even the ultra-leftist Guardian is repelled by the thought that a rich kid can become a militant, murderous Islamist.

That's a no-no in the leftist land of historic grievance.

4 posted on 12/27/2009 12:44:59 PM PST by browardchad ("Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own fact." - Daniel P Moynihan)
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To: freespirited

>>Today, investigators were trying to establish exactly what provoked him to try to detonate an explosive device

Are “investigators” really trying to establish what provoked him? I can save them a lot of “investigating”.

It’s called the Koran.

Case solved. Now they go help OJ find the real killer!


5 posted on 12/27/2009 12:45:52 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Imagine a day when the politicians have to hold a bake sale to pay for votes!)
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To: freespirited
"Cant wait to hear the defense that his lefty lawyers concoct."

His father was trying to oppress him by forcing him into a life of capitalism.

6 posted on 12/27/2009 12:48:58 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
He was oppressed because he had to be "too Western."

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

7 posted on 12/27/2009 12:52:55 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: freespirited

I’m still waiting for the $24,000,000 his father was supposed to put in my account.....


8 posted on 12/27/2009 12:53:35 PM PST by clintonh8r (Oath Keeper and Manhattan Declaration signer)
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To: freespirited
Uh oh, Dinosaur Media Template Violation Alert...

It's obvious we'll never know what motivated Ohmy Faruquing Abombohammad to attempt this terrible act, but if we do ever find out, it will be related to White imperialism.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

9 posted on 12/27/2009 12:55:32 PM PST by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: freespirited

We need to cut this crap and take the bull by the horns—there are groups of people who are not only not compatible with our way of life, but are a grave danger to our existence—they are certainly making their views known-loud and clear. We need to do them the courtesy of taking them seriously.

We need to then get these worthless animalistic vermin out of our country and out of our lives, and any action like this against us met with a response big enough and brutal enough to get through to them or else eliminate enough of the worst of the bunch so there is no more problem.

What the hell am I saying—we have a Muslim in the freaking White House, for God’s sake. BO and Atty Gen. Corn-Hole-der are probably laughing.

I can only hope we wake up and really start defending ourselves.


10 posted on 12/27/2009 12:56:31 PM PST by Mac from Cleveland ("See what you made me do?" Major Malik Hasan)
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To: Will88

No one seriously believes that anymore. One would think BIN LADEN would be one of the best counters to this insipid argument.

Not to mention, the FATHER of Terror, Robespierre, and all of his descendants (Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pol, Hitler, etc) were from fairly middle-class or even privileged backgrounds.


11 posted on 12/27/2009 1:11:41 PM PST by Skywalk (Transdimensional Jihad!)
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To: Skywalk
No one seriously believes that anymore. One would think BIN LADEN would be one of the best counters to this insipid argument.

Not to mention, the FATHER of Terror, Robespierre, and all of his descendants (Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pol, Hitler, etc) were from fairly middle-class or even privileged backgrounds. BUMP.

12 posted on 12/27/2009 1:13:38 PM PST by bootless (Never Forget. Never Again. And NEVER GIVE UP!)
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To: Skywalk
No one seriously believes that anymore.

But it is still being offered up from the left as an explanation for any and every sort of violent behavior.

13 posted on 12/27/2009 1:15:21 PM PST by Will88
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To: clintonh8r
I’m still waiting for the $24,000,000 his father was supposed to put in my account..... ------------------------------ I believe the deal is that you send $50,000 first in order to bribe the right people and pay the various fees to get the $24M out of the country. I'll handle the details for $10K. if you wish to stay at arms length from this messy process.
14 posted on 12/27/2009 1:16:54 PM PST by Joan Kerrey (The bigger the government = The smaller the people)
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To: Will88

Oh, I know. It’s used but it’s boilerplate psychological defensiveness at this point to fend off dissonance. The vast majority of people, even on the Left, know that it’s not merely poverty. What the FARther Left will state is that any one individual’s circumstances are not as important as some “deeper” truth, so that this way they can still talk about Western civilization, colonialism and racism as an excuse-making mechanism.

The thing is, they need those people to believe it, so they can have cannon fodder for the “Revolution.”


15 posted on 12/27/2009 1:23:19 PM PST by Skywalk (Transdimensional Jihad!)
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To: Mac from Cleveland
Islam is a barbaric social and political system in religious drag.

It deserves 1st Amendment protection until the moment an Imam preaches violence. At the time, the mosque should be confiscated.

No islamic chaplains in our military or prisons. No observations of their stinkin’ “holy” days in government schools.

Shut down CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, etc affiliated organizations. There is no right to take money from abroad to teach followers to kill Americans, Christians, Jews or anyone else.

16 posted on 12/27/2009 1:26:02 PM PST by Jacquerie (More Central Planning is not the solution to the failures of Central Planning.)
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To: Will88
Where are all the leftist geniuses to tell us how poverty and hopelessness are the cause of terrorism (and the cause of every other form of criminal behavior, also).

A third are practicing law, another third are teaching your children at the university, and the last third are members of Congress.

17 posted on 12/27/2009 1:42:38 PM PST by freespirited (People talk about "too big to fail." Our government is too big to succeed. --Chris Chocola)
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To: Joan Kerrey

That would be great! Just send me your bank account number and SSN and I’ll get the $10K to you.


18 posted on 12/27/2009 1:45:34 PM PST by clintonh8r (Oath Keeper and Manhattan Declaration signer)
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To: freespirited

What? But the left and the media have been saying that the dirty-beard death cultists are driven to terrorism because of their poverty! You mean the left and the media have deliberately lied to us?


19 posted on 12/27/2009 1:47:10 PM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: freespirited

Maybe there was some brainwashing going on. Patty Hearst came from a very wealthy family.


20 posted on 12/27/2009 2:27:35 PM PST by Clintonfatigued (Liberal sacred cows make great hamburger)
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