US plane attackers father gave first warning

Abdulmutallabs father,a prominent Nigerian banker,recently told officials at the US Embassy in Nigeria that he was concerned about his sons extremist religious views. As a result of his warning,authorities in Washington opened a probe file and Abdulmutallabs name ended up in the American intelligence communitys central repository of suspected terrorists.

The facts are still emerging,but there are strong suggestions of a Yemen-al-Qaeda connection and an intent to blow up the plane over US airspace,Representative Jane Harman,a Democrat who leads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence,said.

In an affidavit,authorities said that Abdulmutallab had tried to ignite a device,which was attached to his body,resulting in a fire and what appears to have been an explosion. The affidavit said the device contained PETN,also known as pentaerythritol,a highly explosive substance that was used in 2001 by Richard C Reid,the so-called shoe bomber. Abdulmutallab faces a prison term up to 20 years if convicted.

The suspects name was inserted last month into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment,or Tide. About 550,000 individuals are registered in the database. At the time his name was recorded in Tide in November,the official said,there was insufficient derogatory information available to warrant putting him in the no-fly list.

Abdulmutallab was issued a regular visitors visa by the US Embassy in London in June 2008. He had travelled to the US once before in August 2008.