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Anwar al-Awlaki, American-Born Qaeda Leader, Is Killed in Yemen

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  • Anwar al-Awlaki, American-Born Qaeda Leader, Is Killed in Yemen

    NYT September 30, 2011
    Anwar al-Awlaki, American-Born Qaeda Leader, Is Killed in Yemen
    By LAURA KASINOF and ALAN COWELL

    SANA, Yemen — In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry here said American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning.

    In Washington a senior Obama administration official confirmed that Mr. Awlaki was dead. But the circumstances surrounding the killing remained unclear.

    It was not immediately known whether Yemeni forces carried out the attack or if American intelligence forces, which have been pursuing Mr. Awlaki for months, were involved in the operation.

    A Defense Ministry statement said that a number of Mr. Awlaki’s bodyguards also were killed.

    A high-ranking Yemeni security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Mr. Awlaki was killed while traveling between Marib and al-Jawf provinces in northern Yemen — areas known for having an Al Qaeda presence, where there is very little central government control. The official did not say how he was killed.

    Mr. Awlaki’s name has been associated with many plots in the United States and elsewhere after individuals planning violence were drawn to his engaging lectures broadcast over the Internet.

    Those individuals included Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, Texas in which 13 people were killed; the young men who planned to attack Fort Dix, N.J.; and a 21-year-old British student who told the police she stabbed a member of Parliament after watching 100 hours of Awlaki videos.

    Mr. Awlaki’s death could well be used by beleaguered President Ali Abdullah Saleh to reinforce his refusal to leave office in face of months of protests against his 30-year rule, arguing in part that he is a critical American ally in the war against Al Qaeda.

    Earlier this year, the American military renewed its campaign of airstrikes in Yemen, using drone aircraft and fighter jets to attack Qaeda militants. One of the attacks was aimed at Mr. Awlaki, one of the most prominent members of the affiliate group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Mr. Awlaki’s death seemed likely to be welcomed in the United States, where Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in July that two of his top goals were to remove Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s new leader after the death of Osama Bin Laden in May, and Mr. Awlaki.

    Word of the killing came after months of sustained American efforts to seriously weaken the terrorist group.

    In August an American official said a drone strike killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a Libyan who in the last year had taken over as Al Qaeda’s top operational planner after Bin Laden was killed.

    In July, Mr. Panetta said during a visit to Kabul, Afghanistan that the United States was “within reach of strategically defeating Al Qaeda” and that the American focus had narrowed to capturing or killing 10 to 20 crucial leaders of the terrorist group in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

    A month earlier, an American official said the Central Intelligence Agency was building a secret air base in the Middle East to serve as a launching pad for strikes in Yemen using armed drones.

    The construction of the base was seen at the time a sign that the Obama administration was planning an extended war in Yemen against an affiliate of Al Qaeda, called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has repeatedly tried to carry out terrorist plots against the United States.

    The American official would not disclose the country where the C.I.A. base was being built, but the official said that it would most likely be completed by the end of the year.

    Last year, the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen sought to install Mr. Awlaki as the leader of the group in Yemen, which apparently thought Mr. Awlaki’s knowledge of the United States and his status as an Internet celebrity might help the group’s operations and fund-raising efforts.

    Mr. Awlaki was accused of having connections to the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a former engineering student at University College London, who is awaiting trial in the United States for his attempt to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it landed in Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009. The bomb did not explode.

    Mr. Awlaki has been linked to numerous plots against the United States, including the botched underwear bombing. He has taken to the Internet with stirring battle cries directed at young American Muslims. “Many of your scholars,” Mr. Awlaki warned last year, are “standing between you and your duty of jihad.”

    Major Hasan, the American Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki beforehand. Mr. Awlaki’s lectures and sermons have been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May, 2010, cited Mr. Awlaki as an inspiration.

    Laura Kasinof reported from Sana, Yemen, and Alan Cowell from London. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

    This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

    Correction: September 30, 2011

    An earlier version of this article said that Yemeni forces had carried out the attack. The circumstances of the operation remain unclear.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world ... lobal-home
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    May he rot in hell , with his 72.

    Comment


    • #3
      Obama: Anwar Al-Awlaki death is major blow for al-Qaeda

      Obama: Anwar Al-Awlaki death is major blow for al-QaedaAdvertisementBarack Obama said the death was a "significant milestone" in the fight against al-Qaeda
      Continue reading the main story
      Awlaki killingObituary: Anwar al-Awlaki
      Analysis: Media-savvy militant
      In pictures: Anwar al-Awlaki
      Profile: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

      US President Barack Obama has said the death of senior US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen is a "major blow" to the organisation.

      Yemen said Awlaki was killed in Jawf province, along with several of his associates - US officials said US drones had carried out the attack.

      Awlaki, who was of Yemeni descent, was a key figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

      He is believed to have been behind a number of attempts to attack the US.

      Mr Obama said that as a leading AQAP figure, Awlaki had taken the lead in "planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans" and was also "directly responsible for the death of many Yemeni citizens".

      He said Awlaki had directed attempts to blow up US planes and had "repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda".

      His death, said Mr Obama, "marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliates".

      The president also paid tribute to the work of both the US intelligence agencies and Yemeni security officials who had co-operated on the killing.

      "This is further proof that al-Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world," he said, but warned that AQAP "remains a dangerous though weakened terrorist organisation".

      'Online inspiration'
      Continue reading the main story “
      Start Quote
      There will be questions raised about his killing. He was at the top of the US hit list - but this is the execution of an American citizen without a trial”
      End Quote
      Mardell's America

      Mark Mardell, BBC North America editor

      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Awlaki: US fear of enemy within

      In a brief statement on Friday, Yemen's defence ministry statement said Awlaki had been killed in Khashef in Jawf about 140km (90 miles) east of the capital, Sanaa, "along with some of his companions".

      US and Yemeni officials later named one of those as Samir Khan, also a US citizen but of Pakistani origin, who produced an online magazine which promoted al-Qaeda's ideology and gave instructions for making bombs.

      Unnamed US officials said Awlaki's convoy had been hit by a US drone strike, but Mr Obama has not commented on this.

      BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera says the killing is significant because Awlaki's use of modern media enabled him to reach out to and inspire people susceptible to radicalisation.

      He is accused of

      recruiting and preparing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who tried but failed to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009
      overseeing a failed plot to blow up two US-bound cargo planes in 2010 with explosives hidden in printer cartridges
      encouraging US Maj Nidal Malik Hasan to carry out the 2009 US army base killings in Fort Hood, Texas which killed 13 people
      inspiring the man who carried out a failed bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010
      inspired a British women to stab her MP Stephen Timms over his support for the war in Iraq
      plotting to use poisons including cyanide and ricin in attacks
      repeatedly called for the killing of Americans, saying in a 2010 video online that they were from the "party of devils"
      Continue reading the main story
      Analysis

      Jonny Dymond

      BBC News, Dar al-Hijrah mosque, Washington

      --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Many people going to the mosque don't know who Anwar al-Awlaki is or that he used to preach there.

      But the first reaction of many is positive. "He was a bad man who killed many people," says one man. "It is good that he is gone." Two thumbs up and a "good riddance" come from a young man who had heard of Awlaki's death just a few moments before.

      But there is more nuanced reaction from others. "I like justice to be done the normal way," said Tariq Diap. "If you are guilty of doing something, we have a law, we have courts, we have a judge. Why don't we proceed the normal way?

      "We are here to condemn terrorists. And this is an act of terrorism too. Because you take matters into your own hand."

      Mr Obama is said to have personally ordered Awlaki's killing in 2010, but the al-Qaeda leader has survived several attempts on his life.

      Late last year, he survived an air strike in Shabwa province in which at least 30 militants were killed. He was also the target of a US drone attack on 5 May which killed two al-Qaeda operatives in southern Yemen.

      However, some in the US have criticised the administration's targeted killing of a US citizen abroad, arguing he should have been arrested and put on trial.

      Republican congressman Ron Paul - an opponent of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - said the killing amounted to an assassination.

      "He is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged with any crime. Nobody knows if he killed anyone," he told ABC News.

      However, the BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says that despite the fact Awlaki appears to have been targeted for his words rather than actions, very few Americans are likely to be concerned about any infringement of his rights.

      In a news briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney would not give further details on the operation but said his role "has been well established" and that AQAP presented a "definite threat" to the US.

      The killing comes amid concerns in Washington about the impact of Yemen's political crisis on its ability to tackle al-Qaeda militants.

      President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing a widespread protest movement, along with an armed insurrection by renegade army units and tribal fighters.

      Mr Saleh, who was injured three months ago when his residence was shelled, returned last week after treatment in Saudi Arabia.

      In an interview published on Thursday, he said he would not stand down, as promised in a deal brokered by Gulf States, if his opponents are allowed to stand in elections to succeed him.

      BBC News - Obama: Anwar Al-Awlaki death is major blow for al-Qaeda
      "They want to test our feelings.They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and their newspapers."

      Protester

      Comment


      • #4
        **** me - that clown car was packed....

        Officials: Drone likely killed Saudi terrorist - Yahoo! News
        Officials: Drone likely killed Saudi terrorist
        DAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO - Associated Press | AP – 39 mins ago

        WASHINGTON (AP) — Two US officials say the drone strike in Yemen that killed Anward al-Awlaki appears to have also killed al-Qaida's top Saudi bomb-maker.

        Officials say intelligence indicates Ibrahim al-Asiri also died in the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the death has not been officially confirmed.

        Al-Asiri is the bomb-maker believed to have made the explosives used in the foiled Christmas Day airline attack in 2009 and last year's attempted cargo plane bombing.

        Al-Asiri's death would make the attack perhaps the most successful single drone strike ever
        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

        Comment


        • #5
          I'm gratified we remain on our toes. PREDATOR and HELLFIRE go together like bourbon and beer and induce a similarly explosive effect on their intended target.
          "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
          "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by S2 View Post
            I'm gratified we remain on our toes. PREDATOR and HELLFIRE go together like bourbon and beer and induce a similarly explosive effect on their intended target.
            Well said.

            And when the MQ-1C "Avenger" comes online later this year, armed with the AGM-114N, it will make an even more lethal combination.
            "There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there any more." -Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge

            Comment


            • #7
              Oh dear how sad never mind , bring on another martyr


              Queen - 'Another One Bites the Dust' - YouTube

              Comment


              • #8
                But there is more nuanced reaction from others. "I like justice to be done the normal way," said Tariq Diap. "If you are guilty of doing something, we have a law, we have courts, we have a judge. Why don't we proceed the normal way?

                Fine let them spend the money and time and then when he is released by some lawyer dickhead for some strange technicality then put a bullet in his head as he walks out of court.

                Law is for those that abide by it, for a POS like this, laws mean nothing so why waste the time in giving him something he NEVER gave his victims.

                It not about him having his day in court, Its about his victims justice and in his case justice was served.

                Plead you case to Allah asshole and good riddens!
                Last edited by Dreadnought; 01 Oct 11,, 17:11.
                Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Yea seen that Dreads :slap:

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    A year earlier his father tried unsuccessfully to get him off the targeted kill list.

                    Judge Dismisses Targeted-Killing Suit | WSJ | Dec 8, 2010

                    By EVAN PEREZ

                    A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a challenge to the Obama administration's targeted-killing program, meaning the U.S. can continue to go after a Yemeni-American cleric whom it blames for terrorist plots.

                    The case, brought by the father of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, raised difficult questions about the breadth of U.S. executive power, but U.S. District Judge John Bates said he couldn't answer them as the father lacked legal standing to bring the case.

                    The "serious issues regarding the merits of the alleged authorization of the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen overseas must await another day or another (non-judicial) forum," Judge Bates wrote in an 83-page ruling.

                    The judge acknowledged the "somewhat unsettling nature" of his conclusion "that there are circumstances in which the [president's] unilateral decision to kill a U.S. citizen overseas" is "judicially unreviewable."

                    The U.S. says Mr. Awlaki is a leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, the group that the U.S. believes was behind the recent thwarted attempt to blow up U.S.-bound planes with package bombs as well as a failed attempt to bomb an airliner last Christmas. AQAP has claimed responsibility for the plots.

                    Mr. Awlaki is believed to be in hiding in Yemen, where he regularly issues Islamist sermons popular among jihadists on the Internet. He is a target of a U.S. program aiming to kill leaders of terror groups, U.S. officials say.

                    Mr. Awlaki's father, Nasser al-Awlaki, brought the case with the help of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. They argued the father had to bring the case as the younger Mr. Awlaki couldn't seek protection of the courts himself for fear of being killed.

                    The lawsuit sought to prevent Mr. Awlaki's killing unless he presented an "imminent" threat.

                    The government, in its court arguments, didn't confirm plans to kill Mr. Awlaki. It argued that the cleric, as a U.S. citizen, could ensure his safety by turning himself in to U.S. authorities or filing suit himself.

                    Judge Bates wrote that Mr. Awlaki had used the Internet in recent months to issue anti-American messages, while taking no action to indicate he wants the U.S. judicial system to hear his case. To the contrary, the judge wrote, Mr. Awlaki wrote an article in April asserting that Muslims "should not be forced to accept rulings of courts of law that are contrary to the law of Allah."

                    The judge heard arguments in the case last month on the day a jihadi website published the complete version of Mr. Awlaki's latest anti-American sermon.

                    Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said the ruling "recognized that a leader of a foreign terrorist organization who rejects our system of justice cannot enjoy the protection of our courts while plotting strikes against Americans."

                    The court's ruling suggests the government can "carry out the targeted killing of any American, anywhere, whom the president deems to be a threat to the nation," said ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer. "It would be difficult to conceive of a proposition more inconsistent with the Constitution or more dangerous to American liberty."
                    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    The below source contains a link to the 83 page judgement

                    Judge Tosses Suit Seeking to Prevent Targeted Killing of Cleric Who Urged Jihad | ABA Journal| Dec 7, 2010

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      If nothing else can be said about the president, he certainly has a very prolific security policy. That much he will leave a legacy for himself.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Ron Paul on Anwar al-Awlaki’s Demise: ‘I Think It’s Sad’
                        The State Column | Staff | Saturday, October 01, 2011

                        Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, slammed Obama for Anwar al-Awlaki’s demise on Friday. While Texas Governor and GOP candidate Rick Perry cheered the attack on Awlaki, Paul was highly critical of the US’s role in Awlaki’s demise.

                        As quoted in The Los Angeles Times, Paul told reporters at a campaign stop at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire that Awlaki’s demise demands serious reflection from Americans. “I don’t think that’s a good way to deal with our problems,” Paul said.


                        During a videotaped message, Paul pointed out that Awlaki “was never tried or charged for any crimes. No one knows if he killed anybody.” The Texas Congressman added that “if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys. I think it’s sad.”

                        Paul compared the attack on Awlaki to the trial and eventual execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh’s case was different, Paul posited, because he “was put through the courts then executed.” “To start assassinating American citizens without charges, we should think very seriously about this,” Paul argued.

                        On the other hand, Perry had some kind words for Obama’s role in Awlaki’s demise. “I want to congratulate the United States military and intelligence communities – and President Obama for sticking with the government’s longstanding and aggressive anti-terror policies – for getting another key international terrorist,” Perry said in a statement.

                        Anwar al-Awlaki, a propagandist and American-born cleric, was killed by a drone strike in Yemen on Friday. The drone strike was part of a CIA-US military operation that targeted the influential al Qaeda leader. Samir Khan, another influential propagandist, was also killed by the drone strike.

                        Read more: Ron Paul on Anwar al-Awlaki’s Demise: ‘I Think It’s Sad’ | The State Column

                        Here he goes again. He said the same thing about the Bin Laden killing. In his opinion the right way is the way we got KSM, by cooperating with Pakistan, and then putting him on trial to prove his quilt.

                        Paul and others like the ACLU do not seem to grasp that the War on Terror is a real war, and the way to defeat the enemy includes decapitating its leadership. Anwar al-Awlaki was the acknowledged leader of AQ in Yemen. He had pledged his fealty to Bin Laden, who lest we forget openly declared war on the US. He was the enemy and, as such, was a legitimate target.

                        No war has ever been fought in which the enemy had to be first proven guilty in a court of law before being killed. Restricting our forces to a capture policy would give AQ leaders like Anwar al-Awlaki more latitude to operate against us . It would also prolong the war on AQ and thereby increase the number of terrorist plots against the US and its allies. The more plots the greater the chances some will succeed. Paul is wrong.
                        To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Beat me to it.

                          Dude was an enemy combatant overseas - Ron Paul is a clown.
                          To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Sounds like this strike flushed a terrorist sympathizer politician. Good riddence to the terrorist, good to have this clown speak up, before the elections, about how he feels about America's security...
                            sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
                            If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Only in America (or Britain, Germany, Australia, etc) would there be the slightest noise about the legality of this man's killing.

                              I'm picturing scruffy bearded law professors with tweed jackets, elbow patches, and a pipe, proclaiming "Outrageous! A Constitutional violation! There is merit for an arrest warrant for everyone involved!"

                              Comment

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