As liberals’ lackluster logic would have it, I wrote in “Coddling Killers,” “the ‘Three Ps’ — patriarchy, poverty, and powerlessness are responsible for terrorism. Never mind that Osama bin Laden is a millionaire. Or that the September 11 killers were scions of privilege. Or that Al Qaeda is hardly manned by illiterate peasants. No matter that from Russia’s Bolsheviks to South America’s Tupamaros and Montoneros, from Germany’s Baader-Meinhof Gang to Italy’s Red Brigades — terrorists have always been middle-class.”

Yes, “‘The typical terrorist is prosperous and self-righteous, writes Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. ‘The elite flocks to Islamist ideology,’ seconds Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes. ‘Militant Islam is not a response to poverty or impoverishment but results more from success than from failure.” (“Coddling Killers”)

Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to detonate the Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, is true to type; he’s a 23-year-old engineering student at University College in London.

Here’s a debriefing from DEBKAfile:

Alhaji Umarum Mutallab, former Nigeria First Bank chairman, ex-minister, told police Saturday, Dec. 26, that the 23-year old Nigerian who tried and failed to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit Northwest Flight 253 Friday, Dec. 25, is his son. According to family members, he had been worried by his son’s extremist religious views and six months ago reported his activities to the US embassy in Lagos. Devastated by the news of the attempted bombing, he said he was surprised his son had been given a US visa.
The family confirmed that he had attended University College London to study engineering and later relocated to Egypt and then Dubai.
The Federal Government of Nigeria expressed its dismay at the attempted terrorist attack on a US airline and stated its abhorrence of all forms of terrorism. The Vice President has ordered a full investigation of the incident in full cooperation with the American authorities.
The London West End mansion apartment searched by UK police now turns out to be the family residence in London. London College University confirmed that a student named Umar Abdulmutallab was enrolled from 2005 to 2008.
Security experts said Abdulmutallab was armed with a sophisticated device consisting of liquid chemicals in a plastic syringe and a bag of explosive power, but only managed to cause a small fire before he was subdued by a passenger and the cabin crew.
The Dutch secret service is investigating how the Nigerian bomber’s syringe of chemicals managed to elude Schiphol airport checks when he boarded the Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Security experts say the plastic coating of the syringe may have prevented detection unless the bomber had been thoroughly frisked or exposed to sniffer dogs.
Security has been tightened stringently for US, British and Dutch airports and air traffic in case of a follow-up on the Nigerian student’s failed attack.
Passengers flying to the US from anywhere in the world have been restricted to one piece of hand luggage each under revised security measures at US airports. They have been warned of delays on arrival.
Counter-terror measures were stepped up at British airports and flights already bogged down by bad weather further delayed by subjecting all passengers to separate searches.

There you have it; Abdulmutallab is purported to be the son of a prominent, former Nigerian minister and bank chairman.

Update (Dec. 28): A GILDED LIFE. The Guardian has the goods on the “extreme privilege” that begets bomb making:

Abdulmutallab was:

• Son to 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. has wonderful parents, comes from a lovely family [affirmed by the fact that father’s moral compass drove him to report son’s militancy], he’s got lots of friends, he had everything going for him. [to which he reacted by isolating himself from kin and colleagues.]
• lived in a luxury block just off the London’s Oxford Street
• enjoyed during boyhood “the manicured lawns and tennis courts of the British International school in Togo”
• completed an international baccalauréat
• availed himself of school trips to the UK

On and on; all unheard of for a typical boy growing up in Africa.

As liberals’ lackluster logic would have it, I wrote in “Coddling Killers,” “the ‘Three Ps’ — patriarchy, poverty, and powerlessness are responsible for terrorism. Never mind that Osama bin Laden is a millionaire. Or that the September 11 killers were scions of privilege. Or that Al Qaeda is hardly manned by illiterate peasants. No matter that from Russia’s Bolsheviks to South America’s Tupamaros and Montoneros, from Germany’s Baader-Meinhof Gang to Italy’s Red Brigades — terrorists have always been middle-class.”

Yes, “‘The typical terrorist is prosperous and self-righteous, writes Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. ‘The elite flocks to Islamist ideology,’ seconds Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes. ‘Militant Islam is not a response to poverty or impoverishment but results more from success than from failure.” (“Coddling Killers”)

Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to detonate the Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, is true to type; he’s a 23-year-old engineering student at University College in London.

Here’s a debriefing from DEBKAfile:

Alhaji Umarum Mutallab, former Nigeria First Bank chairman, ex-minister, told police Saturday, Dec. 26, that the 23-year old Nigerian who tried and failed to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit Northwest Flight 253 Friday, Dec. 25, is his son. According to family members, he had been worried by his son’s extremist religious views and six months ago reported his activities to the US embassy in Lagos. Devastated by the news of the attempted bombing, he said he was surprised his son had been given a US visa.
The family confirmed that he had attended University College London to study engineering and later relocated to Egypt and then Dubai.
The Federal Government of Nigeria expressed its dismay at the attempted terrorist attack on a US airline and stated its abhorrence of all forms of terrorism. The Vice President has ordered a full investigation of the incident in full cooperation with the American authorities.
The London West End mansion apartment searched by UK police now turns out to be the family residence in London. London College University confirmed that a student named Umar Abdulmutallab was enrolled from 2005 to 2008.
Security experts said Abdulmutallab was armed with a sophisticated device consisting of liquid chemicals in a plastic syringe and a bag of explosive power, but only managed to cause a small fire before he was subdued by a passenger and the cabin crew.
The Dutch secret service is investigating how the Nigerian bomber’s syringe of chemicals managed to elude Schiphol airport checks when he boarded the Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Security experts say the plastic coating of the syringe may have prevented detection unless the bomber had been thoroughly frisked or exposed to sniffer dogs.
Security has been tightened stringently for US, British and Dutch airports and air traffic in case of a follow-up on the Nigerian student’s failed attack.
Passengers flying to the US from anywhere in the world have been restricted to one piece of hand luggage each under revised security measures at US airports. They have been warned of delays on arrival.
Counter-terror measures were stepped up at British airports and flights already bogged down by bad weather further delayed by subjecting all passengers to separate searches.

There you have it; Abdulmutallab is purported to be the son of a prominent, former Nigerian minister and bank chairman.

Update (Dec. 28): A GILDED LIFE. The Guardian has the goods on the “extreme privilege” that begets bomb making:

Abdulmutallab was:

• Son to 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. has wonderful parents, comes from a lovely family [affirmed by the fact that father’s moral compass drove him to report son’s militancy], he’s got lots of friends, he had everything going for him. [to which he reacted by isolating himself from kin and colleagues.]
• lived in a luxury block just off the London’s Oxford Street
• enjoyed during boyhood “the manicured lawns and tennis courts of the British International school in Togo”
• completed an international baccalauréat
• availed himself of school trips to the UK

On and on; all unheard of for a typical boy growing up in Africa.