Yemen says Nigerian may have met radical cleric

[February 04, 2010]  SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas may have met with a radical American-Yemeni cleric linked to al-Qaida and the alleged Fort Hood shooter to prepare for the failed attack, Yemen's deputy prime minister said Thursday.

Rashad al-Alimi, the deputy prime minister for defense and security, said 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab met with al-Qaida members in the remote Yemeni province of Shabwa before the attack, a place he said he believed was connected to the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

"There is no doubt that he met and had contacts with al-Qaida elements in Shabwa, ... perhaps with al-Awlaki," al-Alimi told reporters. "I believe this place is indeed associated with Anwar al-Awlaki," he added.

Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from August until Dec. 4, ostensibly to study Arabic at a San'a school. But for much of that time, he disappeared. It was during that time that Yemen suspects he met al-Awlaki and leaders of al-Qaida in Shabwa southeast of the capital, al-Alimi said.

Al-Awlaki has been linked to the Nov. 5 mass shooting at the Fort Hood, Texas Army post in which 13 people were killed. Months earlier, al-Awlaki exchanged dozens of e-mails with the accused shooter, U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and al-Awlaki later praised the attack.

Al-Alimi claimed Abdulmutallab was first recruited by al-Qaida when he lived in London from 2005-2008.

"In Britain, I believe he was recruited by radical groups," he told reporters.

[Associated Press; By LEE KEATH]

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