PrairiePundit

NY Times: F.B.I. Interviews Tell of Cleric’s Role in Plot to Bomb Plane After a two-year legal battle, The Times obtained documents that reveal how Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Qaeda leader, recruited and advised a Nigerian man who tried taking down a plane with explosives in his underwear. What this story makes clear to me is that Awlaki was a legitimate target in the war against al-Qaeda and radical Islam.  The fact that he was an American citizen is of no moment to me when the guy was clearly a traitor.  I think his story does make the case for Sen. Cruz's legislation that would strip US citizenship from those who join the enemy.  I don't get why anyone would oppose that policy.

I suspect he is high on the enemy's target list at this point.

Maureen Callahan: How the CIA set a terrorist up with ‘groupie’ for marriage — and death The CIA used a double agent to set up Awlaki.  I am glad they got the traitor.

The administration and the military are pretending this was not a terrorist attack in order to give the terrorist shooter a "fair trial."  What they miss is that the victims and the prosecutors deserve a fair trial too, and they are not getting it when we pretend this was just work place violence.  I don't blame them for being upset about this treatment of what happened to them.

Ralph Peters: Americans who believe America’s always wrong are all but fainting this week. More evidence emerged, in the form of a leaked Justice Department white paper on targeted killings, that their president doesn’t share the belief that Islamist terrorists deserve all the rights and protections accorded American citizens, as well as catered halal diets, ObamaCare and Social Security benefits. Let’s get one thing straight: The right of a state and its people to self-defense trumps every other aspect of international law, treaties and practices. The foundation of the moral legitimacy of the state is its role in protecting its citizens from violence, foreign or domestic. All else is secondary. When attacked, we may do whatever it takes to defend ourselves. We have been attacked, repeatedly, by Islamist terrorists. And the fellow believers of those who attacked us publicly, regularly and venomously announce that they intend to attack us again. It’s not only our government’s right, b...

Fox News: The FBI suspected within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that the American Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki may have purchased tickets for some of the hijackers for air travel in advance of the attacks, according to newly released documents reviewed exclusively by Fox News. The purpose of these flights remains unclear, but the 9/11 Commission report later noted that the hijackers had used flights in the lead-up to the attacks to test security and surveillance. The heavily redacted records – obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of information Act request – suggest the FBI held evidence tying the American-born cleric to the hijackers just 16 days after the attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. “We have FBI documents showing that the FBI knew that al-Awlaki had bought three tickets for three of the hijackers to fly into Florida and into Las Vegas, including the lead hijacker, Mohammad Atta,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Fox News. He add...

Fox News: The American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki used more than 60 email addresses and sent several thousand emails to his followers, some with encryption and code words, while under FBI surveillance -- according to a five-month investigation by Fox News. Some of those emails were exchanged with accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan.    "Fox Files: The Enemy Within," which debuts on Fox News Channel June 15 at 10 p.m. ET, draws on exclusive interviews and first-hand accounts of the Fort Hood massacre which killed 13 and injured at least 43 others on Nov. 5, 2009. For the first time, victims of the shooting, as well as senior investigators, break their silence about the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11.    "He (Anwar al-Awlaki) was incredibly busy. He -- during his peak period -- had upwards of 60 email accounts that he was using at any given time," retired FBI agent Keith Slotter told Fox Files.    Slotter, whose career spanne...

ABC News: The men who launched al Qaeda's English-language magazine may have died in a U.S. missile strike last fall, but "Inspire" magazine lives on without them -- and continues to promote jihadi attacks on Western targets, offering detailed advice on how to start huge forest fires in America with timed explosives and how to build remote-controlled bombs.  Two new issues of "Inspire" magazine have surfaced on jihadi forums, the first since radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and chief Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula propagandist Samir Khan were killed by missiles from a U.S. drone over Yemen on September 30, 2011. The magazines eulogize Awlaki and Khan as the "spirit" and the "tongue" of "Inspire" respectively, but deny that their deaths will stop the magazine or jihad.  The second of the two issues seems to have been prepared after Khan and Awlaki's deaths. "To the disappointment of our enemies," says one of the ...

Gingrich schools Scott Pelley on the rule of law and warfare.

NBC: A son of the blind sheik tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan.  The Egyptian Islamic Group said Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman’s son Saif was killed while on the frontlines of Afghanistan. Sheikh Rahman is the blind cleric convicted in New York of seditious conspiracy for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed 6 and injured 1,000 as well as the 1995 plot to target New York City landmarks.  In that plot, terrorists planned to blow up the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and assassinate a US senator and New York Jewish community leader. ...  It appears he met his demise pursuing the family business.  The US has been busy with drone strikes against the Haqqanis in Pakistan and al Qaeda in Yemen in recent days where Awlaki's son was killed..

CNN: Al Qaeda vows al-Awlaki retaliation At least it is another admission that he was affiliated with a terrorist organization at war with the US.

Scott Shane, NY Times: AT the Zhuhai air show in southeastern China last November, Chinese companies startled some Americans by unveiling 25 different models of remotely controlled aircraft and showing video animation of a missile-armed  drone  taking out an armored vehicle and attacking a United States aircraft carrier. The presentation appeared to be more marketing hype than military threat; the event is China’s biggest aviation market, drawing both Chinese and foreign military buyers. But it was stark evidence that the United States’ near monopoly on armed drones was coming to an end, with far-reaching consequences for American security, international law and the future of warfare. Eventually, the United States will face a military adversary or terrorist group armed with drones, military analysts say. But what the short-run hazard experts foresee is not an attack on the United States, which faces no enemies with significant combat drone capabilities, but the politica...

Telegraph: As he sat by a roadside eating what would be his last ever breakfast, Anwar al-Awlaki could have been forgiven for being in upbeat mood. Some 18 months after Washington had given him arguably the ultimate terrorist accolade by putting him on a list of people authorised for assassination, he was still hiding in the lawless Yemeni mountains where neither his own government nor US drone strikes could seem to reach him. Then, as he and his comrades chewed dates and drank traditional Yemeni tea, a high-pitched buzz above them signalled yet another drone strike - this time one that found its mark. Details of how the US finally managed to track down al-Qaeda's chief mouthpiece to the West can be revealed today by  The Sunday Telegraph , which has learned that the key breakthrough came when CIA officials caught a junior courier in Awlaki's inner circle. The man, who is understood to have been arrested three weeks ago by Yemeni agents acting for the agency, volu...

Paul Sperry: It took 10 years and several missed opportunities, but US authorities finally brought to justice the American at the center of the 9/11 hijacking plot.   Only it may have come too late -- Anwar al-Awlaki has already caused lasting damage to our security.   The feds didn’t do enough to stop this dangerous traitor before he got out of the country and became a martyr. Since they mysteriously released him from custody after 9/11, Awlaki’s been linked to no fewer than 19 terror plots.   His hand shows up in virtually every major attack -- from the Times Square car bomb to the Fort Hood massacre to the Christmas Day underwear bomber. He inspired the Fort Dix Six and the London subway bombers.   Although his death is a major blow to al-Qaeda’s Western recruiting and homegrown-terror ops, Awlaki already managed to train hundreds of American and European converts to Islam. Officials say the radical US-born cleric gave his blessing to dozens of ...

Washington Post: Traveling from secret bases on opposite sides of Yemen, armed drones from the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command converged above  Anwar al-Aulaqi’s position in northern Yemen early Friday and unleashed a flurry of missiles. US officials said the CIA was in control of all the aircraft, as well as the decisions to fire, and that the operation was so seamless that even hours later, it remained unclear whether a drone supplied by the CIA or the military fired the missile that ended the al-Qaeda leader’s life.   Aulaqi’s death represents the latest, and perhaps most literal, illustration  to date  of the convergence between the CIA and the nation’s elite military units in the counterterrorism fight. ...   At the same time, the administration has sought to put new pressure on al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia by surrounding those countries with a constellation of drone bases . These include a new CIA facility in...

Popular Science: Army Developing Drones That Can Recognize Your Face From a Distance We might have been able to whack Awlaki sooner with this technology. BTW, I have seen reports that the attacks were based on shared intelligence with Yemen.  My money would be on Saudi intelligence.  No one has better intelligence in the area.

BBC: The US-born radical Islamist cleric and suspected al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen, the country's defence ministry reported. Unnamed US administration officials confirmed the reports. Awlaki, of Yemeni descent, has been on the run in Yemen since December 2007. The US had named him a "specially designated global terrorist" for his alleged role in a number of attacks and US President Barack Obama is said to have personally ordered his killing. The defence ministry statement said only that he died "along with some of his companions". It gave no further details of his death. But tribal sources told AFP news agency Awlaki was killed in an air strike in the eastern Marib province, said to be an al-Qaeda stronghold. It is not clear whether he was killed by Yemeni forces or a US drone strike. The death was also announced on Yemeni TV. ...  There  is more on Awlaki in the Telegraph story .   He is tied to the Fort Hoo...

Eli Lake: American-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki likely played an important support role in the Sept. 11 attacks nearly 10 years ago, according to a new book that examines the threat of home-grown terrorism. The book, “The Next Wave,” by Fox News national security reporter Catherine Herridge, reveals new documents that find al-Awlaki was nearly arrested after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon for providing false information on his passport application. Today, al-Awlaki is one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the only known American citizen on a U.S. hit list in the global war on terrorism. “I believe the evidence supports the conclusion that Anwar Awlaki was an overlooked key player in the 9/11 plot itself, and his contacts with the hijackers were not coincidences but evidence of a purposeful relationship,” Ms. Herridge told the Washington Times in an interview Friday. Ms. Herridge found that two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Haz...

Image via Wikipedia NY Times: A missile strike from an American military drone in a remote region of Yemen on Thursday was aimed at killing Anwar al-Awlaki , the radical American-born cleric believed to be hiding in the country, American officials said Friday. The attack does not appear to have killed Mr. Awlaki, the officials said, but may have killed operatives of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. It was the first American strike in Yemen using a remotely piloted drone since 2002, when the C.I.A. struck a car carrying a group of suspected militants, including an American citizen, who were believed to have Qaeda ties. And the attack came just three days after American commandos invaded a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda. The attack on Thursday was part of a clandestine Pentagon program to hunt members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , the group believed responsible for a number of failed attempts to strike the United State...

Image via Wikipedia Brian Fairchild: In the latest issue of Inspire magazine , published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , American al-Qaeda commander Anwar al-Awlaki declares that Sharia law requires American Muslims to commit robbery, embezzlement, and theft, for the purpose of funding jihad attacks, financially supporting groups committed to Salafi-jihadi causes, and covering their living expenses. Al-Awlaki admits that Islamic law allows legitimate Muslim rulers to enter into binding treaties and covenants with non-Muslim nations, but he quickly dismisses this possibility by stating that there are no legitimate Muslim rulers in the world today because they are all apostates. He adds that — even if there were legitimate Muslim rulers — treaties and covenants could not be made with the U.S. because it is at war with Islam . ... I have posted on this effort before, but the article does a good job of showing the mental gymnastics of the al Qaeda o...