Article: Things That My Sisters Taught Me

I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I am a tweenist. I am far too optimistic to be a pessimist and too much of a realist to be an optimist. I am realistic enough to know that everyone who tells you things only tells you what suits their purposes. They tell only those things that they want to tell and always for a reason. No one tells you something for nothing.

I was raised as the youngest child with two older sisters; long before I entered my first day of elementary school I had been the foil and the dupe of a thousand conspiracies. "Dave, why don't you go to the kitchen and get us some cookies and I'll watch out for mom."

"David! What are you doing in that cookie jar?"

"I told him not to, Mom, but he wouldn't listen to me!"

The obvious solution would have been for me to just not trust them, but I wanted to trust them. They were older and cooler; they got to stay up later and could ride two wheelers and pogo sticks. I wanted to believe because I wanted to be a part of their society. I wanted what they appeared to be offering me, and because they knew that they could use me like a dish rag, time after time.

Due to this early education, I take things not with a grain of salt but with a whole shaker of salt. The Internet allows us to look anywhere in the world for facts and opinions. Yemen? A long simmering conflict for regional influence between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Remember that before the overthrow of the Shah, Iran was the number one power in the region, and now it is Saudi Arabia.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab begins saying things that distress his father. "You know, Dad, Allah really is cool. I really kind of like the idea of seventy-two virgins. You know, Dad, if anything happens to me, I want you to have my frequent flyer miles."

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father says, "My oh my, but my son is talking strangely and I'm so concerned about his behavior. What's a Nigerian father to do? I know! I'll contact the American CIA. They'll know what to do!"

Mr. Mutallab the elder is presented to us by the American press as a banker. "Yes, certainly, Mrs. Obuto, would you like that all in twenties?" But on closer inspection calling Mr. Mutallab as banker is like saying Jesse James was just a farmer. It's true but only partly true. They want to tell a lie but they have to parse it so they don't have to join the liar's union.

Mutallab was appointed to the Board of First Bank in 1996 and became its Chairman in 1999. He attended Barewa College, Zaria, Achimota College, Accra, Ghana and the South West London College, London. He started his working career in 1965 as a Management Accountant with Fuller Jenks Beecroft...amp; Co in London. He also served as Chief Accountant/Acting General Manager, Defence Industries Corporation in Kaduna. He was also the Financial Controller of the company.

He rose to become the General Manager, New Nigeria Development Company Limited (NNDC) from 1968 to 1975. In 1975, he was appointed as Federal Commissioner (i.e. Minister) for Economic Development...amp; Reconstruction and was re-assigned to the Federal Ministry of Cooperatives...amp; Supply in 1976.

The New Nigeria Development Company isn't just a bank with a drive-through ATM on the outside. It is the bank, it is a government-owned corporation. This is the portal for all international aid and development money and Mr. Mutallab Senior was its General Manager. So calling Mutallab a banker is the same as saying that Bernie Madoff dabbled in stocks.

From the CIA factbook: "Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management, has undertaken several reforms over the past decade. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify the economy away from its over-dependence on the capital-intensive oil sector, which provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings and about 80% of budgetary revenues."

General Manager, Defence Industries Corporation in Kaduna, Mr. Mutallab was the head of the Nigerian arms industry at the height of the cold war. So when he picks up the phone to call the CIA it goes something like this, "Hello, CIA? Could I speak to Bob please? Tell him its Mutallab. Me, oh, I'm fine, and you? Well good, it's been nice talking with you again. Hello, Bob? It's me. Listen, Bob, my son's been talking crazy talk. You know, Allah, virgins and all that crap. You know how kids are, and well, he recently changed from briefs to boxers, and has been talking about Motown. So I think you better get right on it. Yeah, the wife's doing fine. Well, happy holidays!"

Isn't it odd though that the suspected terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father is wrapped up in the oil industry, the arms industry and the banking industry? What are the odds? Of 149,229,090 Nigerians this man's son is the Al-Qaeda terrorist!

How do we know that he's an Al-Qaeda terrorist? The source for the Al-Qaeda connection is a company known as IntelCenter. Just who is this IntelCenter? IntelCenter is a private contractor; the company "is a private contractor working for intelligence agencies". Its stated purpose is to "study terrorist groups and other threat actors and disseminating that information in a timely manner to those who can act on it. We look at capabilities and intentions, warnings and indicators, operational characteristics and a wide variety of other points in order to better understand how to interdict terrorist operations and reduce the likelihood of future attacks."

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