DUBAI - The Nigerian bomb suspect who tried to blow up a US airliner was a "talented" student and "caring" young man, one of his former teachers said in remarks published Monday in a United Arab Emirates paper.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who has been charged with the botched attempt to blow up a Northwest Detroit-bound passenger plane on Christmas Day "was a talented, motivated and articulate student," said Chris Edmunds.
"Of course I know you! I am connected to you. You 'a suicide bomber'? Dear God, surely not?," Edmunds, wrote in The National newspaper, expressing "distress and sadness" over the fate of his former student.
"You are my former student. I taught you. I played football with you. I visited you in your boarding house. I shared school lunch with you," said Edmunds, deputy head of the British School in Lome, Togo between 2000-2002.
According to Edmunds, now an educational adviser in Abu Dhabi, the would-be bomber "embodied hope for the future."
"Abdulmuttalab was developing an international mind and an international heart. He was... maturing into a confident, articulate, compassionate, caring and responsible young man," he said.
He recalled that Abdulmuttalab took part in a school ceremony, a day after the devastating September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
"The hastily arranged school assembly on September 12 was poignant and emotional. Muslim, Christian and other community leaders shared a platform. We prayed and wept together," Edmunds said.
"Abdulmuttalab was there, of course. Whether he prayed and wept, I don't know. I do know that he cannot have failed to have been affected by the central message of our collective words, songs and thoughts that day: never has there been a more urgent time for every one of us to learn to live with each other."
Son of a prominent Nigerian banker, Abdulmuttalab, 23, studied engineering at University College London after leaving school and was enrolled in a management course at a Dubai university.
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