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Web postings reveal a tortured youth

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | December 29, 2009 at 09:40 am

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Internet postings of the Nigerian who attempted to unleash explosives on a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas day reveal a young man who was desperate and tormented. Fantasies of being a holy warrior in the cause of Islam were clear in the rapid web postings of a man who called himself "Farouk1986", officials have said.

Details of the more than 300 posts appearing on an Islamic board match the biography - including birth year and middle name - of one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and an alienation which confuses sexual shame and a global jihad come through in the confused postings.

The posts are a jumbled mess of grammatically confused ramblings of a youth who from 2005-2009 had become unloosed from the moorings of family and school.

Those posts, beginning in 2005, show a teenager looking for a new life outside his boarding school and wealthy Nigerian family.

One of the earliest postings of Jan. 2005 speak of the knowledge that something has gone clinically wrong, and that there is no one to hear or aid him. One begins to feel impatient with the father who called the FBI after years of seeing a boy who was deeply and clinically depressed.

US government officials had no immediate comment.
The Washington Post first reported on the postings. The messages could not be independently verified.

Farouk1986 discussed growing up and preparing to leave his British boarding school in the West African nation of Togo for college, which also matches Abdulmutallab's personal history. However, educational pursuits appear to be overtaken by a growing fascination with religion, with posts going so far as to describe his own fantasies about holy war.

"I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the muslims will win, insha Allah and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!" reads one Feb. 20, 2005, post. The words "insha Allah" are the phonetic translation of the Arabic for "God willing."

"So usually my fa(n)tasies are about islamic stuff," he continued. "The bad part of it is sometimes the fantasies are a bit worldly rather than concentrating in the hereafter."

On Jan. 28, 2005, Farouk1986 said he was writing from Yemen, and that he was learning Arabic at the Sana'a Institute of Arabic Languages. Administrators at the school said Monday that its director, Muhammad al-Anisi, has spent two days being questioned by Yemeni security officials. He remained in custody Tuesday.

Farouk1986 was enthusiastic and described parts of the city as being traditional and quiet and other parts bustling, with Western fast-food restaurants, amusement parks and gyms.

"Its quite cheap too," the writer gushed. "Yemenis are so friendly and welcoming."

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Barry ORegan

at 10:05 on December 29th, 2009

Al Qaeda always look to the weak, forlorne and troubled, that is a prerequisite when recruiting those to do their dirty work.

a211423

at 15:16 on December 29th, 2009

Fantasies of being a holy warrior in the cause of Islam were clear in the rapid web postings

These can also be delusions pointing to a form of mental illness like manic depressive disorder or bipolar. Also this would coordinate with the ages of 19-25 for males exhibiting schizophrenia. He can be a very sick young man, and no one realized it.

Susan Marie Kovalinsky

at 21:07 on December 29th, 2009

Yes, I agree with you both, and I think his father had the resources and the saavy to have taken his son for diagnostic work, rather than letting it go for 4 years, and calling the FBI. I agree: There are in fact signs of the onset of clinical schizophrenia here, and why had this not occurred to his father? Yes, he fits the age of onset, it is maddening. And yes, he was left to do their "dirty work", when he ought to have been receiving treatment.