Anwar Al-Awlaki Killed by US Forces!

This is what happens when you have a competent Commander in Chief.
Damn those community organizers!

Anwar Al-Awlaki Dead: U.S.-Born Al Qaeda Cleric Killed In Yemen

SANAA, Yemen -- In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

The Yemeni-American had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 – making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

Friday's success was the result of counterterrorism cooperation between Yemen and the U.S. that has dramatically increased in recent weeks – ironically, even as Yemen has plunged deeper into turmoil as protesters try to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh, U.S. officials said.

Apparently trying to cling to power by holding his American allies closer, Saleh has opened the taps in cooperation against al-Qaida. U.S. officials said the Yemenis have also allowed the U.S. to gather more intelligence on al-Awlaki's movements and to fly more armed drone and aircraft missions over its territory than ever before.

The operation that killed al-Awlaki was run by the U.S. military's elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command – the same unit that got bin Laden.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was traveling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Yemeni government announced that al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" around 9:55 a.m outside the town of Khashef in mountainous Jawf province, 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa. It gave no further details.

Local tribal and security officials said al-Awlaki was traveling in a two-car convoy with two other al-Qaida operatives from Jawf to neighboring Marib province when they were hit by an airstrike. They said the other two operatives were also believed dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, began as a mosque preacher as he conducted his university studies in the United States, and he was not seen by his congregations as radical. While preaching in San Diego, he came to know two of the men who would eventually become suicide-hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The FBI questioned al-Awlaki at the time but found no cause to detain him.

In 2004, al-Awlaki returned to Yemen, and in the years that followed, his English-language sermons – distributed on the Internet – increasingly turned to denunciations of the United States and calls for jihad, or holy war. The sermons turned up in the possession of a number of militants in the U.S. and Europe arrested for plotting attacks.

Al-Awlaki exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

After the Fort Hood attack, al-Awlaki moved from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, into the mountains where his Awalik tribe is based and – it appears – grew to build direct ties with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, if he had not developed them already. The branch is led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi.

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

Al-Awlaki has said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack.

The cleric is also believed to have been an important middleman between al-Qaida militants and the multiple tribes that dominate large parts of Yemen, particular in the mountains of Jawf, Marib and Shabwa province where the terror group's fighters are believed to be holed up.

Last month, al-Awlaki was seen attending a funeral of a senior tribal chief in Shabwa, witnesses said, adding that security officials were also among those attending. Other witnesses said al-Awlaki was involved in negotiations with a local tribe in Yemen's Mudiya region, which was preventing al-Qaida fighters from traveling from their strongholds to the southern city of Zinjibar, which was taken over recently by Islamic militants. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals and their accounts could not be independently confirmed.

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished nation, has become a haven for hundreds of al-Qaida militants. The country has also been torn by political turmoil as President Saleh struggles to stay in power in the face of seven months of protests. In recent months, Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida have exploited the chaos to seize control of several cities in Yemen's south, including Zinjibar.

A previous attack against al-Awlaki on May 5, shortly after the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden, was carried out by a combination of U.S. drones and jets.

Top U.S. counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has said cooperation with Yemen has improved since the political unrest there. Brennan said the Yemenis have been more willing to share information about the location of al-Qaida targets, as a way to fight the Yemeni branch challenging them for power.

Yemeni security officials said the U.S. was conducting multiple airstrikes a day in the south since May and that U.S. officials were finally allowed to interrogate al-Qaida suspects, something Saleh had long resisted, and still does so in public. The officials spokes on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.


AP correspondent Matt Apuzzo and AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier in Washington

THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU THAT SERVE, JOB WELL DONE!!!!!!!!



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Predator drones FTW!

You know, with all due respect to the recently drone hosed and killed, this looks like a pretty efficient way to deal with these Al Qaeda guys.

Lots better than picking a random "stan" country or two and attacking the crap out of them hoping its the one with the Al Qaeda guys in it.

"I keep forgetting, which one attacked the Embassy and kept the hostages for 18 months, Iran or Iraq? Iraq I think, lets start by attacking them." The Decider, March 20, 2003.

I think these drone strikes, along with intelligence and special forces and so long as they're used expeditiously and carefully, are a good argument for drawing down the forces over there and bringing our kids home. I'm tired of reading about our young men and women getting killed.

Our President's new nick-name should be 'Obama, the rag-head slayer'. It does sound far more formidable than 'W's' and Rick Perry's, 'cheerleader'!! Rather knightly I would say.

Predator drones FTW! Originally Posted by Marcus78

That's the new code name for Obama supporters.

Whatever happened to to left-wing indignation about human rights, trial through the American judicial system.........or does it only apply to republican presidents.

No, gooose we still believe in all that civil rights bs, but it doesnt apply to active enemy combatants who are waging war against us by blowing up civilians in the US.

Become a straight ticket democrat for a couple years, all will be revealed.

Whatever happened to to left-wing indignation about human rights, trial through the American judicial system.........or does it only apply to republican presidents. Originally Posted by gooose

Since you're asking about the "Left wing indignation" that you think is absent, let me tell you something about Liberals; we don't like hypocrisy no matter who it comes from and we have principles about the sanctity of human life. We will call out anyone regardless of their political bent.
I don't agree with FDL but here is that Liberal indignation you were asking about:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/09/...ated-in-yemen/

"American Citizen Anwar al-Awlaki Assassinated in Yemen
By: David Dayen Friday September 30, 2011 6:55 am

Tweet5
The fact is that the entire US program of extra-judicial assassinations by drone requires a bit more study and debate, but this is especially true when the targets are US citizens. In that case, the Constitution comes into play, and the right of due process of the law. But we never really had such a debate when Anwar al-Awlaki was targeted for death by the US government, and now that the assassination has been carried out, it’s too late:

A missile fired from an American drone aircraft in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who was a leading figure in Al Qaeda’s affiliate there, according to an official in Washington.

Many of the details of the strike were unclear, but the official said that the drone fired a Hellfire missile and killed Mr. Awlaki, whom the United States had been hunting in Yemen for more than two years.

Yemen’s Defense Ministry confirmed Mr. Awlaki’s death, and both Yemeni and American officials hailed the strike as a significant success in the campaign to weaken Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group American officials believe to be the most dangerous Qaeda affiliate.

The Obama administration has escalated military and intelligence operations in Yemen, and the White House decision to make Mr. Awlaki a top priority to be hunted down and killed was controversial, given his American citizenship.

Yes, “controversial” is a nice, anodyne word for the assumed right of the government to play judge, jury and executioner of a US citizen.

We’ll hear this was necessary because of Awlaki’s operational role, and his part played in the Fort Hood massacre and the Christmas Day bombing attempt. In reality, many experts saw Awlaki as a public figurehead, a man who could speak in front of a video camera and therefore was magnified in the US public’s mind as some sort of leader. He was a guy with a YouTube account rather than an operational leader of Al Qaeda.

And now that he’s dead from a drone missile strike, it’s too late to wrestle with the question of whether a US citizen should be designated as a candidate for assassination by a murky process with no checks or balances. The President and leading counter-terrorism officials just decide who should be marked for death, and then robot planes carry it out. That slope is so slippery I’m assuming the BP Deepwater Horizon well is nearby.

Glenn Greenwald has a lot more on this at his site. A taste:

Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President’s ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki — including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry’s execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists — criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.

From an authortarian perspective, that’s the genius of America’s political culture. It not only finds way to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.

UPDATE: A second American citizen, Samir Khan, has reportedly been killed in the attack."

No, gooose we still believe in all that civil rights bs, but it doesnt apply to active enemy combatants who are waging war against us by blowing up civilians in the US.

Become a straight ticket democrat for a couple years, all will be revealed. Originally Posted by flinde

No thanks flinde. I prefer not to be a brainwashed sheep.

Since you're asking about the "Left wing indignation" that you think is absent, let me tell you something about Liberals; we don't like hypocrisy no matter who it comes from and we have principles about the sanctity of human life. We will call out anyone regardless of their political bent.
I don't agree with FDL but here is that Liberal indignation you were asking about:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/09/...ated-in-yemen/

I asked for indignation from the left wing and you show me an article from an obscure website. If it was a Republican President, headlines from LA and NY times would read " Summary Execution of an American Citizen Authorized by the President". It will be top story of the major networks along with MSNBC and CNN. Democrats in Congress will be clamoring for an investigation for possible criminal activity by the president.........heck even Chris Matthews will probably get thrill up his leg at the prospect of a Republican President being impeached for killing an American citizen.

So tell me again how they are not hypocrites.

I asked for indignation from the left wing and you show me an article from an obscure website. If it was a Republican President, headlines from LA and NY times would read " Summary Execution of an American Citizen Authorized by the President". It will be top story of the major networks along with MSNBC and CNN. Democrats in Congress will be clamoring for an investigation for possible criminal activity by the president.........heck even Chris Matthews will probably get thrill up his leg at the prospect of a Republican President being impeached for killing an American citizen.

So tell me again how they are not hypocrites. Originally Posted by gooose

FDL?!? An obscure website? For Dems and Liberals it is a major website.

You're talking about whether or not the media would go after a Republican President and not a Democratic President so I'll tell you the difference.
Now before I bring up all of the fuck-ups from your man Bush, I'll give you 3 words:

CREDIBILITY! CREDIBILITY! CREDIBILITY!

I'll give you 3 words:

CREDIBILITY! CREDIBILITY! CREDIBILITY!

You're finally realizing what you lack. Kudos.
BTW...Bush is not my "man". He was a terrible president. a close 3rd to #2 Carter and leading (for now) as the most terrible president in my lifetime...Obama.
Don't make assumptions as to who I like and don't like. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats. Unlike some people... I'm no sheep.

As if Obama had anything to do with the hunting down of this guy........ It's great this scumbag is dead but I give credit to the troops and special forces that got the job done.

You're finally realizing what you lack. Kudos.
BTW...Bush is not my "man". He was a terrible president. a close 3rd to #2 Carter and leading (for now) as the most terrible president in my lifetime...Obama.
Don't make assumptions as to who I like and don't like. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats. Unlike some people... I'm no sheep. Originally Posted by gooose

You talk like a bagger and you definitely have the intellectual profile of a bagger, so it's more than a safe assumption that Bush was your man.

So whom did you vote for in the in the '08 election gooose? Obviously not President Obama so whom does that leave?
John McCain and Sarah Palin!!
And I'm the one with the credibility problem? Just how is that ?!? Prove what you're saying is true for once, c'mon, its put up or shut up time!!

I'm calling you out on your bullshit, so tell me how you've come to the conclusion that I'm not credible. All you do is flap your jaws and never prove your point.

C'mon, people are reading this and questioning whether you've got the balls to back up what you're saying!