Anwar al-Aulaqi (also spelled al-Awlaki; Arabic: أنور العولقي Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; 21 April 1971 – 30 September 2011) was an American[7] and Yemeniimam who was an engineer and educator by training.[8][9] U.S. government officials have alleged that he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.[2][10][11][12][13][14][15] With a blog, a Facebook page, the Inspire (magazine), and many YouTube videos, the Saudi news station Al Arabiya described him as the "bin Laden of the Internet."[16][17] After a request from the US Congress, in November 2010 YouTube removed many of Aulaqi's videos.[18]
U.S. officials say that as imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia (2001–2002), which had 3,000 members, al-Aulaqi spoke with and preached to three of the 9/11 hijackers, who were al-Qaeda members.[19] In 2001, he presided at the funeral of the father of Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who later e-mailed him extensively in 2008–2009 before the Fort Hood shootings.[20][21] During the period of Al-Aulaqi's later radical period after 2006–2007, when he went into hiding, he was associated with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted the 2009 Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner.[22][23][24] Al-Aulaqi was allegedly involved in planning the latter's attack.
The Yemeni government began trying him in absentia in November 2010, for plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda. A Yemeni judge ordered that he be captured "dead or alive."[25][26] U.S. officials alleged that in 2009, al-Aulaqi was promoted to the rank of "regional commander" within al-Qaeda.[27][28] He repeatedly called for jihad against the United States.[29][30]
In April 2010, the United States President Barack Obama placed al-Aulaqi on a list of people whom the United States Central Intelligence Agency was authorized to kill because of terrorist activities.[31][32][33] The "targeted killing" of an American citizen, sometimes described as an assassination order, was unprecedented. Al-Aulaqi's father and civil rights groups challenged the order in court.[31][33][34][35] Al-Aulaqi was believed to be in hiding in Southeast Yemen in the last years of his life.[25] The U.S. deployed unmanned aircraft (drones) in Yemen to search for and kill him,[36] firing at and failing to kill him at least once,[37] before succeeding in a fatal American drone attack in Yemen on 30 September 2011.[38] Two weeks later, al-Aulaqi's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen who was born in Denver, was killed by a CIA-led drone strike in Yemen.[39][40][41]Nasser al-Aulaqi, the father of Anwar, released an audio recording condemning the killings of his son and grandson as senseless murders.[42]
Death
On September 30, 2011, in northern Yemen's al-Jawf province, two Predator drones, based out of a secret CIA Base in Saudi Arabia,[233] fired Hellfire missiles at a vehicle containing al-Aulaqi and three other suspected al-Qaeda members.[234][235][236] A witness said the group had stopped to eat breakfast while traveling to Ma'rib Governorate. A Predator drone was spotted by the group, which then tried to flee in the vehicle.[237] According to U.S. sources, the strike was carried out by Joint Special Operations Command, under the direction of the CIA. U.S. President Barack Obama said:
The death of Awlaki is a major blow to Al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate. He took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans … and he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda. [The strike] is further proof that Al-Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world.[234]
Yemen's Defense Ministry announced that al-Aulaqi had been killed in the country.[238][239] Also killed was Samir Khan, an American born in Saudi Arabia, who was editor of al-Qaeda's English-language web magazine, Inspire.[240]
Blogger and current columnist for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, argued that killing Aulaqi violated his First Amendment right of free speech.[241] and doing so outside of a criminal proceeding violated the Constitution's due process clause. He mentioned doubt among Yemenese experts about Aulaqi's role in Al Qaida, and called United States government accusations against him unverified and lacking in evidence.[242]
Another American critic of the War on Terror Paul Craig Roberts wrote Aulaqi gave "sermons critical of Washington’s indiscriminate assaults on Muslim peoples" who "told Muslims that they did not have to passively accept American aggression." He called the operation "The Day America Died" as the U.S. lacked evidence either Aulaqi or Khan were real threats or Al Qaeda operatives.[243]
FOIA documents
In January 2013, it was announced by Fox News that FBI documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request showed possible connections between al-Aulaqi and the 9/11 attacks.[244] According to Judicial Watch, the documents show that the FBI knew that al-Aulaqi had bought three tickets for three of the hijackers to fly into Florida and into Las Vegas. Judicial Watch further asserted that al-Aulaqi "was a central focus of the FBI's investigation of 9/11. They show he wasn't cooperative. And they show that he was under surveillance."
When queried by Fox News, the FBI denied having evidence connecting al-Aulaqi and the 9/11 attacks: "The FBI cautions against drawing conclusions from redacted FOIA documents. The FBI and investigating bodies have not found evidence connecting Anwar al-Awlaki and the attack on Sept. 11, 2001. The document referenced does not link Anwar al-Awlaki with any purchase of airline tickets for the hijackers."
Family
Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi
Anwar Al-Aulaqi and Egyptian-born Gihan Mohsen Baker had an American son, born on September 13, 1995, in Denver, named Abdulrahman Anwar Al-Aulaqi.[245] Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi was killed at the age of 16 in an American drone strike on Friday, October 14, 2011, in Yemen, along with alleged al-Qaeda members.[246] Nine other people were killed in the same CIA-led attack. Among the dead was a 17-year-old cousin of Abdulrahman.[247] Family members have said that he was on his way to a barbecue.[248] According to U.S. officials the killing of Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi was a mistake; the actual target was an Egyptian, Ibrahim al-Banna. Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi was reported to have gone out in the desert to search for his missing father but was sitting in a cafe when he was killed.[249]
[edit]Nasser al-Aulaqi
Nasser al-Aulaqi is the father of Anwar and grandfather of Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi. After the deaths of his son and grandson, Nasser published a 6 minute audio message condemning the U.S. for the killings.[250] In the audio he described Obama:
- "I urge the American people to bring the killers to justice. I urge them to expose the hypocrisy of the 2009 Nobel Prize laureate. To some, he may be that. To me and my family, he is nothing more than a child killer."[247]
He claimed his son was far from any battlefield.[250] After the audio, Nasser al-Aulaqi began to deny he was endorsing violence after some media outlets interpreted his audio in that way.[42]
A brother-in-law of Aulaqi is Tariq al-Dahab, who leads al-Qaeda insurgents in Yemen. On Thursday, February 16, 2012, the terrorist organization stated he had been killed by agents, although it is speculated by the media that he was killed by his brother in a bloody family-type feud.[251][252]
Works
The Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation says Al-Aulaqi's ability to write and speak in fluent English enabled him to be a key player in inciting English-speaking Muslims to commit terrorist acts.[8] As al-Aulaqi himself wrote in 44 Ways to Support Jihad:
Most of the Jihad literature is available only in Arabic and publishers are not willing to take the risk of translating it. The only ones who are spending the time and money translatingJihad literature are the Western intelligence services … and too bad, they would not be willing to share it with you.[8]
Written works
- 44 Ways to Support Jihad—Essay (January 2009)—A practical step-by-step guide to pursuing or supporting jihad.[253] Writes: "The hatred of kuffar [those who reject Islam] is a central element of our military creed," and asserts that all Muslims must participate in Jihad in person, by funding it, or by writing. Says all Muslims must remain physically fit, and train with firearms "to be ready for the battlefield".[8][119] According to U.S. officials, considered a key text for al-Qaeda members.[254]
- Al-Aulaqi also wrote for Jihad Recollections, an English language online publication published by Al-Fursan Media.[144]
- Allah is Preparing Us for Victory – short book (2009).[255]
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