The New York Daily News reported with more certainty than The New York Times about Abdulmutallab’s affiliations. The Daily News described him as an “Al Qaeda-linked terrorist,” and also quoted Representative King as saying, “He’s part of a terrorist nexus.” James Gordon Meek and Rich Schapiro, “Alleged Nigeria Terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall Tries to Explode Northwest Airlines 253 to Detroit,” New York Daily News, December 25, 2009, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/alleged-nigeria-terrorist-umar-farouk-abdulmutall-explode-northwest-airlines-253-detroit-article-1.434304. The article went on to describe Abdulmutallab as a “blood-thirsty extremist,” and described the passenger who subdued him as “heroic.” James Gordon Meek and Rich Schapiro, “Alleged Nigeria Terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall Tries to Explode Northwest Airlines 253 to Detroit,” New York Daily News, December 25, 2009, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/alleged-nigeria-terrorist-umar-farouk-abdulmutall-explode-northwest-airlines-253-detroit-article-1.434304.

Just one day later, The Guardian began reporting more extensively on Abdulmutallab’s radicalization and potential links to al-Qaeda. The outlet noted that his father may have become concerned about Abdulmutallab and reported him to authorities in the U.S. and Nigeria, while family friends alleged that he became radicalized while studying at the British International School in Lome, Togo. Jamie Doward, “Passengers Relive Terror of Flight 253 as New Threat Emerges from Al-Qaida,” Guardian, December 26, 2009,http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/27/abdul-muttalab-flight-253-terrorist-al-qaida. The Guardian also highlighted that the U.S. was investigating Abdulmutallab’s ties to Anwar al-Awlaki, the AQAP cleric who “had contacts with Major Nidal Hasan [the Fort Hood shooter]” and also served as the “spiritual adviser to two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, while he was an imam at a mosque in northern Virginia.” Jamie Doward, “Passengers Relive Terror of Flight 253 as New Threat Emerges from Al-Qaida,” Guardian, December 26, 2009,http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/27/abdul-muttalab-flight-253-terrorist-al-qaida.