Christmas Bomber Says Radical Cleric Directed Attack

(Feb. 5) -- The suspected Christmas Day bomber told federal authorities that radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki directed him to execute the attack on Northwest Flight 253, reports CBS News. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told investigators that al-Awlaki wanted him to blow up the plane over American soil, not over the ocean.

"Brother mujahed Umar Farouk -- may God relieve him -- is one of my students, yes," al-Awlaki said in an interview with Al-Jazeera released Tuesday. "We had kept in contact, but I didn't issue a fatwa to Umar Farouk for this operation."

Al-Awlaki added that he supported the attack, but thinks it would have been better if it had targeted a military plane or an American military target.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, left, and cleric Anwar al-Awlaki,

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, left, reportedly told U.S. investigators that Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, right, gave orders for the failed bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day. Al-Awlaki said he supported the attack, but didn't direct it.

"But the American people have participated in all the crimes of their government," he said in the interview. "Some 300 Americans are nothing compared to thousands of Muslims they have killed."

Al-Awlaki has been connected to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with gunning down 13 people at the Texas Army base on Nov. 5. The cleric called Hasan a "hero" after the attacks. Al-Awlaki is also known to have had contact with three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.

Authorities first believed Al-Awlaki was only an al-Qaida supporter providing religious justification for terrorist attacks. Now they believe he that is a prime leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and that he has been actively recruiting and directing terrorists.

Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents and preached at mosques in California and Virginia before moving to Yemen in 2004. The information Abdulmutallab has provided to investigators is helping them hunt for him in Yemen.

Abdulmutallab initially cooperated with investigators after his arrest, but stopped talking 50 minutes later. He began talking to investigators again this week at the urging of his parents, who were flown to Detroit on Jan. 17.

At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said investigators were getting "good intelligence" and would be getting more.