The U.S. Case Against Awlaki
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SITE Intelligence Group / AP Photo
Anwar al-Awlaki was, until earlier today, chief of external operations for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the most active al Qaeda affiliate outside Afghanistan/Pakistan.
In 2010, the Obama administration ruled that it had the rights to target for assassination Awlaki, an American citizen born in Las Cruces, N.M,. in 1971, because he was a terrorist.
The government has not presented evidence against Awlaki. But government officials said that the cleric played a significant operational role in any number of terrorist plots against the United States, and called for violence against American men, women and children.
The Justification: How does the U.S. government have the right to target for killing a U.S. citizen?
Some of his career lowlights, according to the U.S. government, include the following operations:
* The U.S . government claims that Awlaki has tried to obtain weapons of mass destruction – specifically poisons such as cyanide and ricin – for use in attacking Westerners.
* Awlaki specifically directed Umar Faruq Abdulmutallab in December 2009 to detonate the “underwear” bomb on board a Christmas Day Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit. The government said that Awlaki told Abdulmutallab to detonate the bomb while over U.S. airspace so as to maximize casualties.
* In October 2010, AQAP attempted to explode two U.S. cargo planes by detonating explosives hidden in ink cartridges mailed to synagogues in Chicago. The U.S. government said that Awlaki directly supervised this failed terrorist plot.
* In 2010, Awlaki communicated with Rajib Karim, then a British airlines worker, seeking a way to get a bomb aboard a plane at Heathrow Airport. Karim was convicted in March 2011 in a British court on terrorism charges, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The U.S. government also said Awlaki incited terrorism:
* In a May 2010 interview with “Al Qaeda Media,” Awlaki said he supported operations such as the failed Christmas Day bombing even though they target innocent civilians.
“With regard to the issue of ‘civilians,’ this term has become prevalent these days, but I prefer to use the terms employed by our jurisprudents. They classify people as either combatants or noncombatants,” he said. “My message to the Muslims in general, and to those in the Arabian Peninsula in particular, is that we should participate in this jihad against America.”
Awlaki said attacks against U.S .service members, such as those shot by Lt. Nidal Hasan, were perfectly valid: “How can we possibly oppose an operation like Nidal Hasan’s? He killed American soldiers on their way to Afghanistan and Iraq. Who could possibly oppose this?”
* The U.S. government blames Awlaki for “inspiring” terrorist attacks against the U.S., including Fort Hood shooter Hasan – who emailed with him, having attended some of Awlaki’s sermons in Virginia. Failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad claimed to have been “inspired by” Awlaki.
* In March 2010, Awlaki said in an audio message that “America is evil” and called for violence against the U.S. “With the American invasion of Iraq and continued U.S. aggression against Muslims, I could not reconcile between living in the U.S. and being a Muslim, and I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other Muslim,” he said.
* Awlaki wrote several articles for INSPIRE magazine, published by AQAP, to justify terrorist attacks.
The U.S. government also notes that in January a Yemeni court sentenced Awlaki in absentia to ten years in prison for “forming an armed gang” to target foreigners and law enforcement personnel.
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remarkably, after 9/11, the Washington Post, The New York Times and the Baltimore Sun, along with NPR, fawned over Al Awlaki as one of a “new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West,” in the Times’ words. In Nov. 2001, just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the Post did a video profile of Al Awlaki and hosted him in an on-line Q & A session with readers. “[T]he greatest sin in Islam after associating other gods besides Allah is killing an innocent soul,” the bridge-builder told questioners.
Wil they remember these articles?
Should these media outlets be considered terrorist outlets?
Posted by: Yep I said that | September 30, 2011, 11:09 am 11:09 am
The U.S. Case Against Awlaki will have to be proved, and I would be glad to be proven wrong!
Until then, I take the Awlaki story as fiction because all factual indicators are fictional!
Was really Anwar al-Awlaki killed? Well, I smell another CIA story similar to Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction here! I won’t believe it, nor will any historian or global affairs analyst with a sound mind! The odds are that Awlaki was a CIA undercover agent working safely from inside Saudi Arabia to snare oafs and unseasoned jihhadists who went to Yemen to join Al Qaeda. If he were a real jihhadist, he would have gone to the Pakistan lawless tribal areas where the action and the real training of Al Qaeda is. Al Qaeda in Yemen is probably non-existent – except anti Saudi monarchy armed rebels operating from Yemen that the Saudis call Al Qaeda. Both the Saudi Air Force and the U.S. have bombed those
rebels to protect the pro-American regimes in Riyadh and Sanaa.
Awlaki was promoted by U.S. propaganda as an Al Qaeda leader, but he was the only U.S. touted Al Qaeda leader who had no rank in Al Qaeda and no U.S. bounty on his head! All other Al Qaeda leaders carry bounties, from $ 1 million for small fish, to $ 25 millions for Ayman Zawahiri. He managed to recruit only 2 idiots, and then notified the FBI to bag them. This conclusion emanated from the crude and stupid plots that looked more like safe U.S. staged entrapment, rather than Al Qaeda planned.
Awlaki was exposed after the sloppiness of the 2 aforesaid would be jihhadsts bombing flops. I wrote “The Awlaki Saga” in my Daily Telegraph blog, and then Awlaki vanished from the headlines. The most compelling evidence that Awlaki was probably a U.S. undercover agent running a “Roach Motel” for jihhadists in Yemen was – in addition to heavily promoted by the U.S., and no bounty on his head – the fact that the largest Houthi rebels and other small tribal rebel groups that control the scraggly Yemeni countryside never heard or seen him! He was also avoided by Al Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. I believe Al Qaeda knew he was a U.S. agent trying to infiltrate them, and it had turned away many American Muslims who had traveled to Pakistan and tried to join Al Qaeda. The U.S. has had a history of successful infiltrations in the past, such as the Black Partners, large motorcycle gangs, and almost any U.S. Underground group. But the U.S. effort to infiltrate Al Qaeda with Awlaki had ultimately failed. The last straw was the U.S. failure to depict Anwar Awlaki as a possible successor to Osama bin Laden- was after bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan. That effort was a U.S. flop of global dimensions. I have no doubt that afterward the U.S. decided to end the Awlaki mission as unsustainable.
What about Awlakis death by the U.S.? I won’t believe it it , even if I see a dead body doctored by CIA experts to look like him. I believe Awlaki is recalled – from Saudi Arabia where I believe he stayed for his own safety, not Yemen- and he will be given a new identity, shave his beard, gain 20 -25 pounds to pad his bony cheeks, plus the age factor (his public pictures are about 15 years old), and he can live unrecognizable anywhere! Good effort, but no cigar! And no debacle either! Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Posted by: Nikos Retsos | September 30, 2011, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm
Hello America, well the good news at least he is gone.
quote: “”In 2010, the Obama administration ruled that it had the rights to target for assassination Awlaki, an American citizen born in Las Cruces, N.M,. in 1971, because he was a terrorist.”"
what can we conclude from this or at least conjecture?
first) I believe Awlawki was only a second generation immigrant to America by his parents, simply because a person immigrates to the United States and establishes citizenship does not mean that their loyalties lie with America or its laws. thus we see the need for a radical reform of our immigration policies, and our thoughts about allowing just any nationality into the U.S., the days of Ellis Island should be considered past history.
second) It is difficult for the federal goverment to deal with home grown terrorist, let alone to allow terrorist into the country to conduct buisness or attend college. while the world has so many attempting terrorist acts against the U.S. it would be more prudent to deny entrance into the U.S. unless a visitor has a specific reason to be in the U.S. many of the known terrorist in the U.S. are here with student visa’s.
so know is the time for our Congress to enact laws that are for the defense of our citizens and not the liesure of the world public at large.
sincerely Fezzy Bear
Posted by: Fezzy Bear | September 30, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
strange, is it not, that our nobel peace prize winning president loves gloating about all the people he’s killed? what’s next, the dalai lama challenging the pope to a UFC match?
Posted by: grumpopolis | September 30, 2011, 3:19 pm 3:19 pm
I love this part, “In 2010, the Obama administration ruled that it had the rights to target for assassination Awlaki.” I served honorably in the U.S. Army to defend the Constitution. What part of the Constitution says that the U.S. President can give HIMSELF the authority to assassinate U.S. citizens without a trial. If they found him next to an elementary school in Cleveland would they put him on his knees and put a bullet in his brain? They would have to in order to “protect intelligence gathering sources and methods.” That’s why they can’t put “terrorists” on trial right?
Everyone applauding this mess is giving away their rights as citizens. “But that’s THEM, not me.” The difference between him and you is that the U.S. government called him an “enemy of the state”. As long as you don’t piss them off you won’t get on that list. COMMUNIST! WITCH! TERRORIST! It’s easy to get people to support killing – THAT’S WHY WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION AND RULE OF LAW!!!
I’m sorry the vast majority of American’s don’t have a serious problem with this. It shows how society has degraded.
Posted by: tony | September 30, 2011, 4:58 pm 4:58 pm
It seems that some people on this board would rather wait until their family members are dismembered by a successful Awlaki attack rather than thank President Obama for sparing them the possibility that it can ever happen. The evidence, and due process, was assembled, considered, and followed as best it could under the circumstances and I applaud this president, and any other officials and the military, for serving to protect us.
Posted by: george | September 30, 2011, 10:02 pm 10:02 pm
Self defense.
Posted by: secondlook | October 1, 2011, 12:05 am 12:05 am
When this person went to the other side and plotted against his own country…he gave up any rights as a citizen or American. This president has killed or captured more Alkida than any other president and still they complain. I have no regrets about the killing of these defected citizens…not Americans. They chose the life they lived and they had to take the consequences. Those who will not give this president any credit for anything…I say…Bush promised to get and kill Osama Bin Laden and two short years later said “I don’t know where he is” ” I don’t think about him.” This from the president on 9/11. President Obama promised to get him and kill him and he did and still they want to give the credit to Bush…what a laugh.
Posted by: talmag | October 1, 2011, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
Awlaki effectively renounced his citizenship – and the protections derived from it – when he declared war on the United States. He turned himself into an enemy combatant, and put a target on his own back by doing so. When did Republicans go soft on terror? Oh yeah, when Obama started killing off terrorists………..
Posted by: Searambler | October 1, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
what’s next, the dalai lama challenging the pope to a UFC match?
Posted by: grumpopolis | September 30, 2011, 3:19 pm.
Tough match up. I think the pope has a longer reach, but the lama is 8 years younger. Since the pope is 84, that age difference could come into play. Are you giving odds?
Posted by: Searambler | October 1, 2011, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Should we of not first revoked his citizenship? We have lost the moral high ground, even the NAZI war criminals were tracked down alive to stand trial. If we can get close enough to see him to kill him, then we could attempt to arrest him! At least bring formal charges against him. We have degraded to the levels of former communist Russia!
Posted by: Richard.k.ClintonJr | October 2, 2011, 7:17 am 7:17 am
I see it everday. As a proud American who provided more than my share to preserve this country as a long term veteran and tax-paying citizen, I see dredges of society taking advanrage of the welfare system and unvalidated disability. Is it any wonder that this country feeds the vehement dislike for the life-stye so manyfoeigners abhor? Look at the obesity rate in this country, loss of jobs because they are “beneath the snack eating pupluace,” Bring in the working hspanic folks who will revitilizzes this country. I have nothing but disdain for those lazy values Ture Americans will rise to the cause and eradicate the hate that exists in most model wastern countries but first America needs to set the example..a example that was lost near the end of WWI…..
Posted by: cr | October 2, 2011, 8:36 am 8:36 am
To our brave men and women serving in the military and intelligence communities: Thank you so much for your dedication, service, hard work and sacrifice!
To the vile excrement known as isla mic/mu slim ter rorists and extremists: America is “bring’n it,” m f’ers!
Posted by: dave_ct | October 2, 2011, 9:21 am 9:21 am
“The case against Awlaki??” Did the free press write this, or just copy and paste some WH press release? Is Awlaki going to be tried in absentia?(That will placate the ACLU for sure.) If this had happened under Bush, I doubt we’d see a headline and story like this..it would be more like “Awlaki, his wife, their 2 kids, his best friends, 3 cows, 2 dogs and a parakeet were incinerated by our warmonger president while they were observing the holy day of rastafaradan. Two homes, with six rooms of funiture, plus a vegetable garden outside were also destroyed in this unprovoked attack. Locals say, all the victims were unarmed, infact there were no guns or bombs in the house, or in the entire neighborhood…and did we mention the house served as this village’s only mosque, school AND maternity hospital”
Posted by: cindy | October 2, 2011, 11:26 am 11:26 am