Armies of Liberation

Its the same type of charges they brought against al Khaiwani but the world objected. They lie so often that its difficult to believe anything. Shaea is BFF with Anwar Awlaki and interviewed Fahd al Quso and Nassir al Wahishi, by itself, not a crime. We’ll have to see what the next magazine looks like.

Security source said that the case of the journalist Abdualah Shai’a will soon be referred to public prosecutor in preparation for his trial, pending the completion of investigations. The Security authority has accused Shai’a as being an active affiliate of al-Qaeda offering logistical support to the leadership and its members.

According to the security Shai’a offered cassettes from al-Qaeada operations in Yemen to the media and received money which he used to support the organization. The security authorities also concern Shai’a as one of the most enthusiastic defenders and promoters of al-Qaeda and its operations through the satellite channels where he presents himself as an expert on al-Qaeda. (Read on …)

The US never brought “incitement to violence” charges against American citizens and jihaddist bloggers Anwar Awlaki, Samir Khan, Jesse Morton, Zach Chessler, and Yousef al Kattab. Meanwhile former federal stooge, racist blogger Hal Turner was convicted–after 14 months and three trials–of incitement to violence for a blog post saying he believed three judges were worthy of execution for a ruling against handguns. Turner was under a gag order while the freds were leaking his file to the Star Ledger. He was denied bail and wound up sharing a cell with an Aryan Nation murder after it was known Turner was a federal rat on the skinheads. Meanwhile Awlaki’s blog was online for years and hosted in the US. While the site may have had some intel value, it was never followed up on. Condolences to the Fort Hood families.

Later the US determined Anwar was operational in AQAP. Awlaki still hasn’t been indicted for incitement to violence, even after numerous persons said they were inspired to violence by Awlaki, including the two latest in Alaska. Awlaki himself claimed the mass murderer Nidal Hassan as his student as well as the would be killer Farouk Abdulmattalab. Anwar also ruled (as if he’s an actual cleric or something) that all Americans should be killed because they pay taxes and have the opportunity to vote. This is one of the issues the ACLU is bringing up- there’s no charges against Awlaki, just a capture or kill order.

Samir Khan ran the Inshallahshahid blog openly calling for jihad against Americans. Sami went to Yemen, apparently not on the no-fly list, and hooked up with AQAP. He is now thought to be the designer of the fanatics’ latest magazine, the English language Inspire. US authorities are just now wondering if Sami is guilty of anything and convened a grand jury to contemplate the question. They are considering if there is enough evidence to support a material support charge and conspiracy to murder, but not apparently incitement to violence. Yousef al Kattab, the Revolution Muslim blog founder, is now in Tetouan, Morocco. Apparently he was also not on no-fly list.

Joey was never charged with incitement to violence, although the RM blog is among the foremost English language proponents of violence under the banner of Islam and he posted specific death threats. Jesse Morton (Younis Abduallah) is another Revolution Muslim flunky, whereabouts unknown, uncharged. Zach Chesser called for the death of the South Park creators and posted their home addresses along with a picture of Theo Van Gogh dead with a knife in his chest. Zachy wasn’t charged with incitement to violence. Zachy became a RM administrator and was only pinched when he tried to go join al Shabab–bringing his infant son as cover. The only one is custody, indicted for material support, Zach flipped in a day and began cooperating with authorities. So the post-racial Obama administration brings a clearly malicious prosecution against a racist blogger but gives a pass to all the jihaddist bloggers. The DOJ, for the first time in a long time, has an overt political agenda in many areas. This is just one instance of selective application of the law. However, others have a more optimistic view.

GPB: One of the jihadi world’s most famous bloggers could be brought up on U.S. terrorism charges soon, NPR has learned. A federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., convened to consider evidence against Samir Khan, a 24-year-old North Carolina man who is thought to be the editor of Inspire, a new al-Qaida online magazine….Sources close to the case tell NPR the grand jury convened Tuesday to see if there was evidence enough to charge Khan with terrorism offenses. Among the charges people close to the case said the grand jury is considering: material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder overseas. The FBI, for its part, declined to confirm or deny there is an investigation. And the grand jury is unlikely to come out with any decision in the case for weeks. Grand jury deliberations are secret until indictments are announced….Intelligence officials now say they believe Khan’s al-Qaida patron was Anwar al-Awlaki, the same U.S.-born radical cleric linked to the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. They say he invited Khan to Yemen and Khan packed his bags and went.

Anthony Shaffer is of course the agent who got totally screwed by DIA after trying to point out that the 9/11 commission skipped any inquiry into Able Danger’s (ignored) warnings two weeks prior to the USS Cole bombing in Aden. Although the Yemen hub was under close scrutiny prior to (and after) the attack, no warnings were generated from that intelligence either.

ABC: Anthony Shaffer is a CIA trained intelligence officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve with more than 25 years experience in the intelligence community. He doesn’t have any sympathy for Anwar al Awlaki’s activities or his alleged terrorist connections, but he does think the US cleric is due what he calls “due process”.

“I think the best answer is to capture him and bring him back and have him stand trial,” he says. And he’s made another intriguing point. He believes Anwar Al Awlaki wants to be martyred. “He would become the Elvis of Al Qaeda if we kill him and so I think there’s a great downside to that,” he said. The lawyers who are now acting for Anwar al Awlaki’s father don’t know how far their legal case will get. But it’s certainly going to create a very awkward situation for the Obama administration.

Al-Qaeda determines who deserves to live and die. Reuters

DUBAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm said it was behind an attack that killed at least six soldiers in an oil province last month, and threatened more strikes on government targets.

The attack in the southern Shabwa province on July 25 was among five raids on state targets since June which have been blamed on the resurgent militant group. (Read on …)

CNN:
Washington (CNN) — Federal authorities Wednesday granted two civil liberties groups a license they need in challenging the government’s authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens designated as terrorists. (Read on …)

Really.

MSNBC: Two civil rights groups today sued the US government, seeking the legal authority to challenge the Obama administration’s targeting of a radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki — who may now be America’s most wanted terrorist.

The government says al-Awlaki has become one of the dominant recruiters of Americans for violent attacks on the homeland. He’s said to have communicated with Major Nidal Hasan before last year’s shootings at Ft. Hood and with Faisal Shahzad, who planted a car bomb in Times Square earlier this year. In addition, the FBI says he played a key role in the Christmas Day airline bomb plot. Intelligence sources say he has been the target of several unmanned drone attacks.

Now, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights say they’ve been asked by al-Awlaki’s father to challenge the government’s targeting of al-Awlaki, who is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico. The groups say the government has improperly “asserted authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.” (Read on …)

Al-Iryani also said AQAP presents a threat to Saudi Arabia more than Yemen, quite true. People’s Daily

A political advisor of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh denied on Friday that cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been radicalized in Yemen. (Read on …)

They plead guilty to lying about a hit list. Below is the State Department’s notice about Awlaki addition to the UN’s 1267 terrorism sanctions list. The list is meaningless in Yemen; Sheik Zindani is on it and his assets were not seized and in fact he traveled with President Saleh to Saudi Arabia a few years ago. Update: Zach Chesser, arrested after admitting to trying to join al Shabab, is another Awlaki drone.

NWCN: ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Alaska couple accused in a domestic terrorism plot is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to federal charges of lying about creating a hit list of possible targets. (Read on …)

It was billed by Awlaki as the first face to face confrontation between the military and AQAP. Does anyone really think that Anwar Awlaki was at the battle of Marib? Whoever wrote that post on his site at the time was still pumped with adrenaline. Let give it two years and see if the sentence is still standing.

July 7: AFP: A court in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday sentenced to death two young men suspected of being Al-Qaeda members for a series of lethal attacks. The men, Mansour Saleh Salem Daleel, 18, and Mubarak Ali Hadi al-Shabwani, 23, who denied the charges, were arrested on December 11 in the Marib province of eastern Yemen.

The pair were accused of “participating in an armed gang which carried out criminal actions against military and security officials and members of the armed forces,” according to the list of charges…The two men were likewise accused of killing three officials along with their two companions while they were driving on November 3 in the southern province of Hadramut. Also, the prosecution said they killed a soldier in a July 2009 attack on an army truck loaded with weapons and ammunition.

Mmareb Press reports some instances of civil disobedience following the sentencing of two from Marib, accused as al-Qaeda: He said a local source for “Marib Press” Gunmen, believed to have ties including convicted today of the Specialized Penal Court in Sana’a, they opened fire on a military post at the entrance to the city of Marib (point of the airport), had cut off the tribe (Al until you Ubaydah) by Whistler Sana after the verdict.

NEFA has an account of Awlaki’s write up which includes more misdirected artillery: “The army used artillery to bomb the houses of the brothers but the shells fell on houses of members of the tribe who were against the mujahideen. The fight started at noon July 30th and ended at sunset…The first face to face fight between the army and the mujahideen ended in a resounding victory for the mujahideen.”

The new Al Qaeda mag in English had pages of corrupted code but the second release includes an article by Anwar Awlaki calls for death for a cartoonist in Seattle. But since we all pay taxes and vote, everybody in the US is a “combatant” according to Awlaki and deserving of death, so it doesnt matter either way what anybody says or does,

Google News “The proper solution to this growing campaign of defamation” of the prophet is “the execution of those involved,” reads the article in web magazine “Inspire,” in a text provided by the US monitoring service SITE on Sunday. (Read on …)

WSJ: Federal authorities arrested and filed terror-related charges against an American man who they say received advice from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and attempted to provide money and materials to an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

Barry Walter Bujol, 29 years old, was arrested Sunday in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting after he used fake documents supplied by an undercover informant to board a ship in Houston he thought was bound for the Middle East, the Justice Department said Thursday…. (Read on …)

The defendants, identified as Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, were arrested at JFK International Airport. They conspired within the US to commit murder outside the US, which is illegal, unlike in Yemen where it is encouraged. They were arrested boarding a plane to Egypt, with the ultimate destination Somalia where they were looking to hook-up with al Shabab. Yemen reiterated today that if captured, Awlaki will not be extradited but instead tried in Yemeni courts for his offenses within Yemen.

PDF

“8. On December 20, 2009, in New Jersey, the DEFENDANTS listened to a recording of Anwar al Awlaki promoting violent jihad and martyrdom”.

“22. On May 25, 2010 in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, ALMONTE played for ALESSA a video-recorded interview of Awlaki, during which Awlaki justified the killing of civilians in the course of waging violent jihad.”

Several other foreigners were arrested in Yemen including Americans, Brits, French, Asians and Africans, at the behest of foreign intelligence agencies. Yemeni security said the group was linked to the Nigerian’s airliner terror plot and Anwar Awlaki who repeatedly announces how proud he is to have been Abdulmattalab’s “teacher.”

An Australian woman, Shyloh Giddins, was arrested in Yemen May 15. Her two children are under house arrest alone, with a neighbor tending to them twice a day. Giddens was associated with some Bengali citizens who were later deported from Yemen. ”

Yemen holds Americans, others in al-Qaida probe
By AHMED AL-HAJ (AP)

SAN’A, Yemen — Yemeni authorities have detained several foreigners, including Americans, Britons and an Australian woman, in connection with an investigation into al-Qaida’s increased activity in the country, security officials said Wednesday.

The arrests were made after foreign intelligence agencies provided lists of names of people they wanted detained or put under surveillance, the two security officials said. (Read on …)

Al Ansi, Saleh’s assistant since 1989, promises the hunting will continue.

Manhunt for al-Awlaki will continue in Yemen
[23/May/2010] Saba
SANA’A, May 23 (Saba) – Yemen will continue the manhunt for Anwar al-Awlaki, a most wanted terrorist, until he is arrested or he surrenders, head of the National Security System has said.

We can’t arrest someone based on just accusations but after the authorities found out the man was involved in terrorism, the search for him was expanded, Ahmed al-Anesi, who is also director of the Presidency Office, said. (Read on …)

This is a ridiculous statement. Are they saying if the US does not target Awlaki, then AQAP won’t launch attacks? The statement at a minimum is the second indication that Awlaki is a member of AQAP’s elite. Awlaki’s recent appearance on an AQAP video was the first open acknowledgment of the relationship. Some had contended that Awlaki had no relationship with the group at all, beyond incitement-providing ideological legitimacy for random murder sprees. Naser al Wahishi had been silent following the air strikes in December and January, leading to speculation that he was killed. The prior threats issued from Awlaki’s tribe were shown to be false when the Awlaki Sheik denied that a meeting had occurred or a statement issued.

(Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s regional wing in Yemen has threatened the United States with more attacks should any harm come to a U.S.-born radical cleric wanted dead or alive by Washington, according to an audio tape posted online on Sunday. (Read on …)

Yemen says that they will try Anwar Awlaki in Yemen, however jihad abroad is not illegal in Yemen. The law allows for sentences up to ten years for “forming an armed gang” with the intent to launch attacks within Yemen. The law has been used to prosecute kidnappers and Houthi rebels. USS Cole bomber Fahd al Quso is among the few al Qaeda operatives sentenced to ten years; he was released after three and is currently on the US’s most wanted terrorists list. Awlaki is thought to still be in Shabwa province, along with al Quso.

Yemen Post: Yemen will not extradite Anwar Al-Awlaki to the U.S. because the man is now wanted by the national government due to his recent terrorist activity, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi has said.

The man the U.S. wants to be extradited must stand trial in Yemen under the national law because he is now wanted by the Yemeni government due to his recent terrorist activity, the minister said in an interview with the Kuwaiti Al-Dar Newspaper.

Yemen’s position over handing the man to the U.S. is clear and firm because we refuse to hand our people to other countries, he affirmed.

Update: The WSJ clarifies:

U.S. officials said that Mr. Shahzad didn’t appear to have communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical U.S.-born cleric who exchanged dozens of emails with suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan in the run-up to the November assault that left 13 soldiers dead.

But the officials said Mr. Shahzad told his interrogators that he read Mr. Awlaki’s English-language writings calling for holy war against Western targets and was moved to action, at least in part, by the cleric’s exhortations.

(Read on …)

Will this cause consternation among Awlaki’s English language devotees? Stay tuned for next week’s episode of Anwar and the Pussycats. The vid at least puts an end to the speculation as to whether Anwar is an official and operational member of AQIY, although that was pretty clear in 2007.

Meanwhile its interesting that Awlaki is trying to blame violence against Muslims on some super secret western plot, when the al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen take credit for it themselves, and his boy toy al Wahishi gave a whole dissertation on why it is legitimate for them to murder Muslims who happen to be standing near a Western visitor in Yemen. Update at Jarret Brachman: Forum Members Debate Awlaki Contradictions

The Indian: Anwar al-Awlaqi claimed to have trained UK-educated Nigerian Islamist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who attempted to blow up a jet bound for Detroit Dec 25, 2009. He also said he was “proud” to have trained radical Islamist Nidal Hassan, a US-born doctor of Palestinian descent who shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in November last year.

“I am proud to have been their teacher,” al-Awlaqi, who has dual Yemeni-US citizenship and was an imam of mosques in San Diego and Virginia, said in a video aired by Al-Jazeera channel.

(CNN) An– An American-born Muslim cleric has appeared in a video released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time.

Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda recruiter and supporter based in Yemen, is on the United States’ list of al Qaeda leaders targeted for capture or assassination. He has appeared in other videos but has never before been featured in an official video by AQAP. (Read on …)

Anwar Awlaki’s brother Omar verbally attacked and threatened a Salafi researcher on al Qaeda as he was leaving a mosque in Sana’a yesterday. Saeed Obaid Jamahi said in an interview with al Tagheer (The Change), an independent news site, that Omar Awlaki confronted him and threatened to kill him in front of dozens of worshipers. Jamahi told al Tagheer the attack surprised him because he sympathizes with Awlaki’s cause and believes Awlaki should not be hunted or killed without clear evidence of wrong doing. Jamahi urged the Ministry of the Interior and Attorney General to do their duty and take the threats seriously.

Update from a witness: Saeed Ubeid was interviewed at his home by a western TV channel which was conducting a series of interviews for a program on Anwar al Awlaqi. As Anwar’s home was in the same neighborhood, the channel called Nassir al Alwalqi (Anwar’s father and a leading member of the ruling party) for an interview for the same program. But he instead refused to do, and asked the channel to stop “campaigning against his son” and insulted the channel aggressively. Afterward, Mr. Ubeid left his home for prayer in the neighborhood mosque, where he met with Anwar’s brother who insulted him, tried to physically attack him and threatened him with death. Update 2: Gulf News

Sana’a, April 14, 2010 ( Pal Telegraph, by Anwar AL-Shoaybi)- Yemeni police forces broke up a local gang involved in forging e-identity cards for fugitives and HIV-patients, security sources reported Monday. (Read on …)

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Baker al Qirby urged Anwar Awlaki to turn himself to be tried under Yemeni law, vowing that no Yemeni citizen would be extradited to the US or any other country.

The US announced last week that it had authorized Awlaki’s kill or capture, having determined he is an active al Qaeda operative. Awlaki was previously known for brainwashing vulnerable persons on the internet. Awlaki holds duel Yemeni-American citizenship.

“Yemen is going to prosecute those within its territory, and they will be punished according to the law if found guilty of any crimes punishable by the law,” al-Qirby said in an interview published by the quasi governmental Yemen Observer.

There is one small problem. Yemen’s law does not criminalize jihad abroad in defense of occupied Muslim lands. If Anwar Awlaki, or any other Yemeni jihaddist, is guilty of conspiring to commit murder in the US, there’s no law in Yemen that prohibits or punishes it. Yemeni courts have explicitly accepted jihad as a viable defense.

In one notable terror trial in July 2006, the defendants admitted to fighting in Iraq against coalition forces as well as training suicide bombers. “This does not violate [Yemeni] law,” the judge found. “Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers,” he said.

Jihad on American Soldiers and American Civilians

What is jihad? A lethal shooting spree at Fort Hood, according to Anwar Awlaki. Awlaki was in contact with Nidal Hassan prior to the attack and issued a statement after, entitled “Nidal Hassan is a hero.”

Personable and easy spoken, Awlaki is the calm western voice of al Qaeda’s bloody fanaticism that slipped under the door of many English speaking homes. His logic of random slaughter is chilling: “Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done?” Some of Yemen’s religious authorities also consider US troops as legitimate targets of terrorism.

Yemen’s Koranic dialog program, aimed at reforming al Qaeda terrorists, never discouraged fighting in Iraq. An expedited release program, the dialog program discouraged religious fanatics from defining the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh as an apostate. The program’s director, Judge Hamoud al Hittar said in 2005, “Iraq is not a subject of the dialogue.” Al Hittar has since become Minster of Endowments. Some state clerics in Yemen call for harm to the US in weekly prayers.

The Yemeni judicial system and religious authorities have found that US soldiers are legitimate targets. Does it matter if they are in Iraq or the US? Yemeni courts would likely agree with Anwar Awlaki that Fort Hood is a legitimate target of jihad.

Awlaki goes further and defines ordinary Americans as sanctioned victims of terrorism. Awlaki was joyous in praising Umar Farouk Abdulmutalla, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25. Exploding a jet plane in mid air is legitimate under Islamic law, he says, because “the American populace is living within a democratic regime and they hold the responsibility of its policies.” Awlaki defines all Americans civilians as worthy of a death sentence because they are “participant in all the crimes of their government.”

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh openly supports many external resistance groups. Hamas and Hezbollah both have official offices in Yemen. A variety of other regional death cults maintain informal offices.

as we reported yesterday. Its funny how often media hoaxes happen in Yemen. The following from the quasi-governmental Yemen Observer, the English language propaganda arm of the regime:

Al-Qirbi said that al-Awlaki should hand himself over to Yemeni government, and at that point he will be able to defend himself and prove his innocence. “Yemen won’t hand over al-Awlaki or any other Yemeni citizens wanted by the United States, or any other countries. Yemen is going to prosecute those within its territory, and they will be punished according to the law if found guilty of any crimes punishable by the law,” al-Qirbi added.

In the meanwhile, Sheikh Abu Bakr Ben Farid al-Awlaki, a sheikh in Shabwah province, denied that there was a tribal forum in al-Awalek’s tribe, regarding Anwar al-Awlaki. A statement, allegedly attributed to the al-Awalek tribes, had been distributed to Yemeni media outlets warning against any cooperation with America in helping arrest or kill al-Awlaki.

Ben Farid said that his tribe’s stand is the same as the state’s and that they are avoiding any further confrontations with the state. “We do not know al-Awlaki’s whereabouts,” said Ben Farid to NewsYemen website.

The Sheik of the Awlaki tribe in Yemen denied that tribal leaders held a meeting regarding Anwar Awlaki or threatened Yemeni citizens as is being widely reported in the Western media.

Reuters reported receiving a faxed statement last week from the Awalki tribe that said, “We warn against cooperating with America to kill Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki” after the Obama administration announced that it authorized operations to kill or capture Anwar Awlaki, who holds duel Yemeni American citizenship.

News Yemen, a reliable independent news website, interviewed the head of the Awlaki tribe, Sheik bin Fareed, who denied a statement was issued. “We haven’t held any meeting of our tribe regarding Anwar Awalki. What has been published doesn’t reflect our tribe’s attitude,” the Sheik said

Sheik bin Fareed said his tribe is loyal to the government, and that they are working to keep their tribe from becoming embroiled in any acts of violence or revenge. “We can’t let government down,” he said.

Sheik bin Fareed added that the responsibility for the arrest of Anwar Awalaki lies with the government’s forces, not the tribe’s, saying, “We don’t know where Awlaki is. The government is the one who knows where Anwar Awlaki is and is capable to arrest him, because she is responsible for that.”

Reuters reported the “heavily armed” Awalki tribe warned it would “not remain with arms crossed if a hair of Anwar al-Awlaqi is touched, or if anyone plots or spies against him.” The purported statement also said that tribal leaders held a meeting and denounced “the reckless act by the U.S. government to allow the killing of the brave sheikh.”

Reuters employs President Saleh’s personal translator as a stringer in Yemen, and its reporting is often biased in favor of the Yemeni government. (Read on …)

I thought I had posted this already, but I can’t find it. Its not only the PSO that is infested with jihaddis but also the military, security and National Security which is headed by President Saleh’s office manager since 1988, Ali al Ansi.

CIA and Yemen playing a doubles game
If Yemen seems like a terrorist playground today, the answer might be that its top intelligence service is run by jihadis.

According to a report in the reliable Paris-based Intelligence Online newsletter, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, “who has traveled twice to Yemen in the last six months, has been told by his advisers that Yemen’s Political Security Organization has been infiltrated at the highest levels by jihadists active in the country.”

A Brennan spokesman declined to comment on the report, which most likely originated in the region. But it came as no surprise to a top former CIA counterterrorism official, who said with a chuckle: “that report is stating the obvious.” (Read on …)

Anwar as the number one terrorist threatening the US and the driver behind AQIY’s apparent shift to targeting the US homeland, questionable. Related: Awlaki issues audio calling for attacks on US.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has authorized operations to capture or kill a U.S.-born Muslim cleric based in Yemen, who is described by a key lawmaker as Americas’s top terrorist threat, officials said on Tuesday. (Read on …)

- Urges American Muslims to commit jihad against the US
- Says the US is withholding the Nidal Hassan emails because the US is trying to convince the American public that it was an individual act
- US officials confirm Mobley left to US to seek out Awlaki and found him

London, England (CNN) — American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is calling for jihad against America, claiming “America is evil” in a new audio message obtained exclusively by CNN.

“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 says in the recording that runs more than 12 minutes.

Al-Awlaki is believed to be hiding out in hills of southern Yemen with the protection of his very powerful family tribe.

CNN could not authenticate the recording as being by al-Awlaki, but sources have told CNN that they believe the voice on the recording is him and that the recording is genuine. (Read on …)

- Nasheri to military trial

- dated 2/14/10, Newsweek: In late January, an Al Qaeda operative headed from Pakistan on his way to Yemen was arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Oman, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed…Even more noteworthy, the postings -written by a fellow Al Qaeda “brother” – reported that Al Eidan had with him 300 “important phone numbers” as well as pictures, names and documents from Afghanistan. (Read on …)

Its the continuation of an old story. New developments from The Australian: an Australian terror suspect had his 2004 attempted travel to Yemen arranged by Masek Samulski, one of the eight westerners, including the Ayyoub boys, arrested and then released (despite their confessions) in 2006 on charges of trafficking weapons to Somalia. The 2006 arrests were triggered by Awlaki’s arrest a few months earlier according to news reports at the time.

(See 3/1/08, appeal upholds sentence , or 11/03/06 arrests hinder counter-terror op or maybe this one is the most complete: 12/14/06 Terror arrests: from the American to al Sakhi to the Australians who go free.)

COUNTER-TERRORISM agencies are increasingly concerned about deepening links between a group of Australians under surveillance because of their connections with the Sydney terror cell and Islamic militants in Yemen, widely regarded as “the new Afghanistan” for al-Qa’ida.

Security agencies are monitoring the movements of at least 20 Australians who have travelled to Yemen in recent years, including friends and family of the nine men recently convicted and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for preparing for a terrorist act in Sydney. (Read on …)

IOL: Yemen fires the governor of Sa’ada Hassan Manna after he says in an interview that his brother Faris’s arms sales were well within Yemeni legal guidelines. And considering that for years Faris Manna pushed an incredible amount of weapons all over the region, to the benefit of several top level Yemeni officials, it would seem so.

Saba: Hundreds of African have obtained Yemen IDs fraudulently, may impact elections. No mention of the hundreds of terrorists convicted of document fraud over the last years. There is no legal sanction for jihad abroad, so when terrorists are snagged overseas, they all get three years for fake IDs.

WaPo: AQAP calls for blockade of Red Sea by Somali and Yemeni al Qaeda, and a regional jihad. Oct 2008, AQ spokesman said an event near Somalia would preceed an attack on the US. While on the topic, we should note that AQAP repeatedly published statements on the use of unconventional weapons against the US.

Guardian : Can the Gulf States Help Yemen? Not that much.

CNN: Yemen obstructs Houthi peace initiative. (The three prior negotiated settlements failed when the military broke the peace accords.) Khaleej: Saudis increase airstrikes. al Motamar Yahya al Houthi sentenced to 15 years for, among other things, “broadcasting prejudiced news for disturbing the public peace and security.”

CBS Abulmatallab and Anwar Awlaki agree they met. Awlaki says the Nigerian was his student but he didn’t issue a fatwa authorizing the Christmas day attack. Do they need a new fatwa? I think there’s several in play already.

Bernama: Experts note growing piracy threat. All fail to note donor aid toYemeni CG diverted to private sector with approval of Yemen govt.

Gulf Times: UN cuts food aid to starving children due to lack of funding as US and EU increase military support. Refugees sell food aid to pay rent.

Buffalo News: Yemeni-American FBI most wanted Jaber Elbaneh back in custody. Words fail me.

Yemen Times: 46% of girls never start school or drop out after fourth grade.

Al Motamar: Yemen and Syria cozy. One of the Yemen’s more interesting foreign alliances and illegal trading partners.

Houthis announce withdrawal from Saudi Arabia, Saudis mull- can’t jump too quickly on the offer

Seven al Qaeda imprisoned for 5-10 years, days or hours, its hard to say

The US is contemplating whether it is legal to assassinate Yemeni American Anwar Awlaki in Yemen. Awlaki was never indicted, charged or convicted of a crime. He is an al Qaeda recruiter, and may have taken a more operational role lately. To the extent that Awlaki is involved in planning terror attacks, taking him out would be a strategic plus. But that’s not my point. My question is whether authorization that stands the test of time is even possible anymore.

As a near precedent, Kamal al Darwish, an American citizen, was killed in a predator attack in 2002, but the target was al Qaeda leader al Harithy who was sitting next to him. But the concept of precedent and lasting authorization may be a thing of the past.

Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, overturned the legal findings of a previous Attorney General, and instituted legal proceedings against those who followed those guidelines. It was the first time in US history. If Holder determines that the US has legal justification for a hit on Awlaki, what’s to say the next Attorney General won’t disagree and haul the commander who executed the order into court, as an individual? Its no wonder officials are risk averse and dithering for a month.

frick NY Times: WASHINGTON — Worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas holiday, President Obama met on Dec. 22 with top officials of the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security, who ticked off a list of possible plots against the United States and how their agencies were working to disrupt them. (Read on …)

It makes me wonder if Mr. Awlaki, who says he is close to the President, ever heard any of Anwar’s recent sermons or read his writings. Anwar Awlaki clearly is inciting people to violence. Backgrounder to follow below the fold. Apparently Anwar wrote for the Yemen Observer. Interview Yemen Post:

In the attacks last month in Abyan and Shabwa against Al-Qaeda, government officials said they were trying to attack Anwar Awlaqi, your son. Is he really an Al-Qaeda leader?

My son Anwar has been attacked in the local, Arab and international media in America, Britain and other parts of the world. They are claiming that he has links to Al-Qaeda. This is completely untrue. And I will give you the reason why. My son is an engineer and an educationist. He studied in the best universities in the United States. But he is also a good Muslim. He published many books about Islam to teach young Muslims in English. (Read on …)

WASHINGTON: Twenty other young Muslim radicals have been trained to blow up planes by al-Qaida in Yemen, a young Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US airliner has told FBI.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has told FBI that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners, CBS said in an exclusive investigative report.

US surprised by AQAP’s links to Pakistan? Say it aint so…

Newsweek: U.S. officials have been surprised by what they’ve discovered about the resurgence of Al Qaeda in Yemen in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt by a Nigerian student who says he was trained and equipped there. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as this offshoot is called, is linked directly to the “core” group in Pakistan and it is now “one of the most lethal” affiliates, White House counterterrorism coordinator John Brennan said at a news conference.

Times Online:

Yemeni security sources believe that of the 15-20 Britons recently recruited by Al-Qaeda, most have undergone training in camps in Rafad, a mountainous region in the southeast. It lies in the province where Abdulmutallab is thought to have met Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who is viewed as a big influence in luring foreign recruits to Al-Qaeda.

One institution popular with British Muslims is Dar alHadith in Dammaj, northern Yemen. US defence officials have described the institute as a “known terrorist training centre”. This has always been denied by the institute.

Students can access weapons there, and teachings have traditionally been anti-western. Students are told that democracy is an enemy of Islam and locals are reported to refer to America as “the great Satan”.

Abu Muaz, head of the Salafi Youth Movement in the UK, said about 50 Britons had gone to study at Dar al-Hadith. “Most want to learn about Islam, but there are some jihadi supporters who decide to take up arms,” he said.

ABC reports today the news that we reported on December 25, Anwar Awlaki survived the airstrikes in Shabwa last week:

A week after U.S. and Yemeni officials said the radical Yemen cleric Anwar Awlaki may have been killed in a U.S.-backed Christmas eve air strike, a Yemeni journalist says Awlaki has surfaced to proclaim, “I’m alive.”

“He said the house that was attacked was two or three kilometers away from him and he was not there,” the journalist, Abdulelah Hider Shaea, told ABC News. He said he talked to Awlaki on the phone and recognized his voice from previous interviews.

One week ago, officials said the Christmas Eve attack had targeted a suspected meeting of al Qaeda leaders in Rafd, a mountain valley in eastern Shabwa province.

A statement from the Yemeni embassy in Washington said Awlaki was “presumed” to have been at the site of an al Qaeda meeting south of the capital city of Sanaa.

Anwar’s been a busy bee, issuing fatwas, negotiating tribal alliances, and meeting with would be suicide bombers. In his recent public statements and interviews, Awlaki justified attacks on US military personnel as legitimate jihad. Apparently he also promoted attacks on civilians as acceptable (if not required) by Islamic law. LAT:

Under questioning by the FBI, Abdulmutallab has said that he met with Awlaki and senior Al Qaeda members during an extended trip to Yemen this year, and that the cleric was involved in some elements of planning or preparing the attack and in providing religious justification for it, officials said. (Read on …)

Washington Post

SANAA, YEMEN — The Yemeni American cleric at the center of investigations into last month’s massacre of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., became more openly radical in Yemen, following a path taken by other extremists in this failing Middle East nation with a growing al-Qaeda presence, according to relatives, friends and associates in Yemen. (Read on …)

IN light of the recent developments in Yemen, I made a rough timeline of what we actually know happened in the last two weeks. There were two rounds of air raids on al Qaeda training camps in Yemen. First round was 12/17 on two targets: a camp north of the capital Sana’a in Arhab and another in Abyan that was near a Bedouin village. (And yes, the villagers had complained to the local officials who did nothing.) Al Qaeda leader Qasim al Reimi managed to slip away before the raid in Arhab. Yemeni officials claimed 60 al Qaeda were killed but some were al Qaeda family members or the nearby villagers.

Abyan is south Yemen, which has been in Intifada mode since 2007, with ever larger peaceful protests countered by live fire and mass arrests by security forces. Many southerners and opposition members of Parliament assumed the Yemeni government had begun bombing the south (under the guise of counter-terror) like the carpet bombing the north, with Saudi help, since August, creating massive displacement. The Yemeni government uses the terrorism card against its opponents regularly.

On Christmas Eve, there was another round of air strikes in Shabwa where internet jihaddist, Anwar Awlaki lives. The target was actually USS Cole bomber, Fahd al Quso’s farm where a high level meeting was supposedly taking place to plot revenge for the first attack. None of the terror leaders were killed, and so far two casualties have been identified as Abdul al-Monim Salim Al-Qahtani and Muhammad Aldjadni Aldgari . Although the Yemeni government says 30 were killed, more reliable local reports put the number at seven.

On Christmas Day, a Nigerian tried to blow up a plane as it was landing in the US using explosives obtained from al Qaeda in Yemen, a type that had been previously used in a murder attempt on Saudi Prince Naif. (The Butt Bomber also used PETN.) An additional 25 Brits are thought to be under going training in Yemen for suicide missions in the west.

The al Qaeda training camps are well known and often supported by members of the government. We have pointed out the location of several camps here and the fact that they are often facilitated by the Yemeni intelligence services. Count on that. I have been whining for years about the fact that it is the Yemeni military that often provides the safe houses, training and passports to the jihaddists that travel to Iraq to attempt to kill US troops.

And while it is true that vast swaths of Yemen are beyond the government control, the thing the MSM is missing entirely is the Yemeni government uses al Qaeda as mercenaries in various ways. The Yemeni government has used jihaddists since 2005 to fight the northern rebels in the Sa’ada war and to train tribal militias.

To follow, the latest ramblings from the Yemeni al Qaeda fanatics in response to the first air strike, posted at NEFA in which they condemn the raid in Abyan and

“And lastly, we call upon the proud tribes of Yemen—people of support and victory—and the people of the Arabian Peninsula, to face the crusader campaign and their cooperatives on the peninsula of Muhammad, prayer and peace upon him, and that’s through attacking their military bases, intelligence embassies, and their fleets that exist on the water and land of the Arabian Peninsula; until we stop the continuous massacres on the Muslim countries.”

I’ve always been concerned that al Qaeda in Yemen would launch some type of “naval jihad” against the assorted western navies which are on anti-piracy ops in the Bab al Mendab. To the extent that Somali and Yemeni al Qaeda are in contact, and the pirates are already paying for intel on where the ships are, the sea is a potential theater of operations as it was in both the 2000 USS Cole and 2002 Limburg attacks.

NEFA also notes in what seems a foreshadowing of the airliner plot: On October 29, 2009, Al-Qaida’s network in Yemen (AQIY) released the 11th edition of their official magazine Sada al-Malahim, which included an article written by the top commander of AQIY, Abu Basir al-Wahishi, titled “War is a Trick.” In the article, al-Wahishi advised would-be Al-Qaida members on how to utilize all available weapons to kill “apostates” and Western nationals. He urged them to target “airports in the western crusade countries that participated in the war against Muslims; or on their planes, or in their residential complexes or their subways.”

You can also see my archive of articles that dates back to 2005 detailing the relationship between the Yemeni government and al Qaeda and all the ploys they have concocted to deceive the US about its efforts.

Inventors of the Butt Bomb create exploding underware. Nigerian made contact with “radical Iman” by internet then traveled to Yemen for training. Blotter:

The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect’s underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News. …According to the authorities, Abdulmutallab says he made contact via the internet with a radical imam in Yemen who then connected him with al Qaeda leaders in a village north of the country’s capital, Sanaa. (Read on …)

Reports are that 350 al Qaeda are in an inaccessible area of Shabwa, Yemen.

A reliable source, al Tagheer: According to the sources, Aulaqi returned to the area and began practicing refusal to live a normal life with his family which is still up to this moment with him and then started preaching to people in the mosque every Friday and began to recognize a group of young people and meet them.

Also in the area, convicted USS Cole bomber Fahd al Quso. That’s really the news here. The guy already blew up a warship, what’s his follow up going to be? This is the last man standing from the 2000 Malaysia meeting where both the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 were planned. Al Quso is on bin Laden’s short list of trusted lieutenants. Al Quso was convicted and sentenced to ten years in jail, escaped, returned and then was granted an early release in 2007 by our ally, the war criminal President Ali Abduallah Saleh. Al Quso was listed as one of the FBI’s most wanted last month.

Just out of pure curiousity, where’s al Badawi and Elbaneh these days? And when oh when will the MSM realize the Yemeni dictatorship is not a reliable source. Its a lying al-Qaeda infiltrated, mafia government that spins the western media time after time with out and out BS.

al Tagheer:

Mohammad Amir change – special – forbid evangelized: denied private sources for “change” is Mohammed Amir Ahmed Saleh, who recently appeared on Al Jazeera Festival in South Yemen as one of the public elements of the al-Qaeda cadres and handled news of his death in a raid yesterday (Thursday) it belonged to al-Qaeda, noting that, only, one of the Wajahat region that has appeared. (Read on …)

OK one thing is clear, Anwar Awlaki is fine, just fine, despite that crazy media frenzy yesterday reporting his death..

So far seven is the number. Marib Press reports the air strike was on al Quso’s farm and Anwar Alwaki was not killed or injured, neither was Wahishi or al Quso.

al Jazeera: Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of political science at Sanaa University, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that he was sceptical of the claims being made about al-Awlaki.

“He is the son of a colleague of mine at Sanaa University. His father is an adviser to the president of Yemen. If they really wanted him, they could phone him and tell him to come back to the capital and arrest him. (Read on …)

Unclear! So far it seems (but its early still):

Cole bomber Fahd Al Quso- not dead
Cyber Jihaddist Anwar Awlaki- not dead
Head of al Qaeda in Yemen, Nasir al Wahishi- not dead
Saudi al Qaeda deputy, Gitmo graduate Saeed Ali al-Shehri- not dead

There’s five dead, including Mohammmed Saleh Awlaki, shown in a video below, who it turns out is the son of the former head of the security forces in Lahj. Time will tell.

Update: According to Yemenat, the Supreme Security Committee said one air strike today was on al Quso’s farm. Al Quso is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list. Is that new? They were both indicted after the 2003 escape, but I thought only al Badawi made it to the most wanted list. Wow, yes it is new, last month (??!!) according to the interview.

In addition to the interview published today with Anwar Awlaki, Fahd al Quso gave an interview a few days ago that was published today at al Jazeera. ( This is the interview link here.) He said (roughly translated) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which interrogated him after the attack on the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole, believed there is a link between the attack and important Yemeni official figures including Brigadier General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, half-brother of the President, the Yemeni Islamic Reform Party’s leader, Sheikh Abdul Majid Al Zindani, and the son of the president, Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh. According to his knowledge, he says they were not…

Al Quso said he was released by judicial decision in 2007, and that Washington objected to his release from prison. Al Quso also said U.S. investigators interrogated him directly after his arrest in Yemen. They told him that foreknowledge of the bombing of the Cole means “to participate and punishable by death,” pointing out that Yemen’s judiciary sentenced on such participation.

أجرى الحوار: عبد الإله حيدر شائع Interview conducted by: Abdul Elah Haidar,

كيف تلقيت نبأ إدراجك ضمن قائمة المطلوبين العالمية التي أصدرها مكتب التحقيقات الفدرالي (إف بي آي) منتصف الشهر الماضي؟ How I learned enrollment on the wanted list issued by the World Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) mid-last month?

تفاجأت لأن القضية انتهت قانونيا باعتقالي ومحاكمتي، وقضيت محكوميتي في السجن وفق المدة القانونية وخرجت بقرار قضائي في العام 2007. Surprised because the case ended legally arrested me, try me, and I spent Movernmiti in prison, according to the legal limit and went out by a judicial decision in 2007. (Read on …)

Update 2: Abdulelah Shayer, who conducted both interviews, confirmed on al Jazeera that Anwar Awlaki is alive.

Update; Nasser Arrabyee reports the five killed were all of the Awlaki tribe and associates of Fahd al Quso, convicted in Yemen as a conspirator in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole. Al Quso escaped in 2004 and was indicted in NY federal court for 50 counts of terrorism. Al Quso was re-jailed and given an early release in 2007.

From the site, the tribal sheikh Lahmar bin Salfooh, said that the five men were comrades of Fahd Al Kusa and that all of them are from Al Awlaki tribe in Shabwah province.

Al Kusa, who was released after being convicted of participating in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, was not among the dead bodies, said Bin Salfooh.

“Fahd Al Kusa is still alive, maybe he was in other place at the time of strike,” he said

“I saw only five dead bodies, three of them from Nesab district including Mohammed Ahmed Omair, and one from Al Saeed district, and the fifth from Ausailan, and all of them are Awlakis,” said bin Salfooh an interview over phone from the site.

Orignal Post: Sources on the ground confirm six al Qaeda were killed in an airstrike in Sahbwa and one random guy driving a tractor. Better. Maybe there were more strikes later that account for the Yemeni government’s figure of 34 killed. AQAP’s head Nasir al Wahishi has been sheltering in Shabwa for some time according to the Yemen government. The Iranian is interesting if true. Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir referenced below is the same Mohammmed Saleh Awlaki who rallied the crowd in Abyan, and is (was) known to be an agent of the regime. He is a relative of Fahd al Quso, convicted in the USS Cole bombing. Of course, last we heard of Fahd al Quso was when the Yemen Post reported last year that he was living with his family in Shabwa and receiving money transfers. The The WaPo says the airstrike targeted Anwar Awlaki’s home, where Wahishi and al Shiri were meeting.

AFP: SANAA — Thirty-four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed Thursday in a dawn air raid by the Yemeni army on an area used by the militant group, a security source said.

“The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh,” a remote mountainous region some 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the Yemeni capital, the source said, asking not to be named.

The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, Nasser al-Whaychi, was present at the meeting, the source said, adding that “members of the group including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir were among those killed.”

The source was unable to say what had happened to Whaychi, but he indicated that Oumir was the person who had recently made a public appearance at a meeting in Abyane of which Al-Jazeera television showed a video.

“Saudis and Iranians at the Wadi Rafadh meeting were also among the dead,” said the source, without going into detail.

The operation came a week after a first army raid that killed 30 Al-Qaeda activists in the southeastern Abyane province and which led to the arrest of more than 30 others.

Reuters: Among those believed killed was Anwar al Awlaki, whom U.S. officials linked to the gunman who killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas on November 5. (Read on …)

In a new piece at al Jazeera (Arabic), Yemeni expert on Islamic groups Abdul Elah Shayer interviews Anwar Awlaki, Yemeni-American al Qaeda propagandist.

In the interview Awlaki says Nidal Hassan inquired by email specifically about the Islamic legitimacy of killing US soldiers. Awlaki also seems to be trying to distance himself from a charge of material support. Excerpts from the Aljazeera.net interview with Awlaqi below the fold. (Read on …)

Ah, in typical American fashion, the contents of murderer Major Nidal Hasan’s emails to Anwar Awlaki (Yemeni-American pro-sectarian-violence blogger) are starting to trickle out.

the Blotter: United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, “I can’t wait to join you” in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009. (Read on …)

Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Shaea interviewed proponent of violent jihad and blogger, Yemeni-American Anwar Awlaki about his relationship with Nidal Hasan who carried out the random murder spree at Fort Hood in Texas. On behalf of the Washington Post, Shaea traveled to Anwar’s home in Shabwa governorate. (The Yemeni government claimed they couldn’t find Awlaki…) Awlaki maintains that he did not instigate Hasan to engage in any specific acts of violence, although he approves.

Aulaqi said Hasan viewed him as a confidant. “It was clear from his e-mails that Nidal trusted me. Nidal told me: ‘I speak with you about issues that I never speak with anyone else,’ ” he told Shaea…

Of the dozen or so e-mails, said Shaea, Aulaqi replied to Hasan two or three times. Aulaqi declined to comment on what he told Hasan. Asked whether Hasan mentioned Fort Hood as a target in his e-mails, Shaea declined to comment.
Aulaqi said Hasan’s alleged shooting spree was allowed under Islam because it was a form of jihad. “There are some people in the United States who said this shooting has nothing to do with Islam, that it was not permissible under Islam,” he said, according to Shaea. “But I would say it is permissible. . . . America was the one who first brought the battle to Muslim countries.”

The cleric also denounced what he described as contradictory behavior by Muslims who condemned Hasan’s actions and “let him down.” According to Shaea, he said: “They say American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan should be killed, so how can they say the American soldier should not be killed at the moment they are going to Iraq and Afghanistan?”

Yemeni-American terror advocate and penpal to murderer Nidal Hasan, Anwar Awlaki was never charged with a crime in Yemen or the US. He had one of those “Saleh” deals – he promised to refrain from all violent activity within Yemen and they let him released him from jail. Its quite a common arrangement. But he stopped checking in nine months ago. His former cell mate as noted in the article later had a role in a terror bombing in Syria.

AP — A radical American imam who communicated with the Fort Hood shooting suspect and called him a hero was once arrested in Yemen on suspicion of giving religious approval to militants to conduct kidnappings. Yemeni authorities are now hunting for Anwar al-Awlaki to determine whether he has al-Qaida ties.

Al-Awlaki, who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims around the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, disappeared in Yemen eight months ago, according to his father (former Minister of Agriculture and previous head of Sana’a University). Yemeni security officials say they believe he is hiding in a region of the mountainous nation that has become a refuge for Islamic militants. In August Anwar excitedly blogged about a battle in Marib between Yemeni forces and al Qaeda.)
(Read on …)

Update 6: FBI: “The investigation to date has not identified a motive…”

Update 5: Anwar’s blog down. It was hosted in the US.

Update 4: Hassan communicated with Awlaki, and others, according to US CT officials, but the messages didn’t constitute a threat and were consistent with research.

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. counterterrorism officials detected communications between a radical Muslim religious leader and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Nov. 5 shootings at a Texas Army base that left 13 dead, a U.S. official said.

The official said Hasan’s communications were with Anwar al Awlaki, who news reports said was the imam at a Falls Church, Virginia, mosque when Hasan and his relatives worshipped there. U.S. authorities, who intercepted the communications before the attack at Fort Hood, determined the messages didn’t pose a threat, said the official, who requested anonymity.

Update 3: FYI, Awlaki was arrested in 2006 in Yemen, leading to the arrests of eight westerners on charges of smuggling arms to Somalia. All were later released although the Yemeni government had earlier reported that they confessed.

Update 2: In October, al Qaeda in Yemen issued an odd statement referencing Texas: “Many university teachers in western countries started contacting us and providing us with important information,” said the unidentified militant, adding “the families of killed American nationals also began contacting us,” and “if the entire population of Texas were to perish, we would not have done our duty to the Muslims. We will continue to fight the Americans and will never let them go,”

Update: Anwar is pleased with Hasan’s attack at Fort Hood and calls him a hero. Full statement is here at NEFA.

Original post: This story refers to the doctor who opened fire at a military base in the US last week. With so many websites blocked in Yemen, Anwar’s isn’t. He’s currently “not available” to post or contact his admin. One interesting factoid about Anwar is there is no record of him leaving the US in 2002. He probably obstained a false passport from someone..

Telegraph: Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations. (Read on …)

OK, I’m not one normally to delve into the self pitying machinations or wailing treatises of al Qaeda. However, I find it odd that for the first time, Yemeni-American Anwar Awlaki is writing an extremely detailed account of a battle in Marib on his (uncensored) blog.

Anwar is framing the clash as the first conflict between the Yemeni mujids and the army, and using uncharacteristically awful grammar, as opposed to those of us who consistently use awful grammar. Considering his dad was the head of Sana’a U, this is a bit disappointing.

Anwar’s prior posts are poetic, well punctuated and demonstrate his good vocabulary. Now we get this bluster: Casualties amongst the ranks of the mujahideen: None. None killed, none injured and no damage to their houses or property either. Its an odd tone for the site.

Anwar never focused on Yemeni issues before, but now is gloating about the government’s “humiliation” and lists in detail the captured weapons and soldiers. (The result of the battle was five destroyed tanks, two armored vehicles, at least 3 soldiers killed and five soldiers taken prisoners. The brothers also took over an entire truck load of weapons in addition to other pieces of equipment left behind by the fleeing soldiers.) Anwar is a theorist, not a tactician. The post ends with, “The army pulled out after asking for a truce from the mujahideen.”

Maybe Anwar is off somewhere like hmmmm South Africa and has a ghost writer that sounds both familiar and discordant. The fluent English and strident tone limit the pool of potential authors. Or perhaps Anwar was there at the battle and the adrenaline got to him.

Update: The excellent NEFA gives the full text here.

gee, I thought I had this set on private but since I hit the wrong button, I’ll leave it up. Just record keeping…

TD; His remains lie a few hundred yards from a bustling highway, in a section of the Burnsville cemetery reserved for Muslims called the Garden of Eden. Only dirt and small rocks cover the final resting place of Shirwa Ahmed. But the manner of the 26-year-old Minneapolis man’s death has put him at the center of one of the most far-reaching U.S. counterterrorism investigations since 9/11…. (Read on …)

To see the list of blocked news and opinion websites, visit Yemen Portal: Blocked. Some of these are internet sites associated with newspapers of mainstream political organizations, others are independents and many are opposition. So the regime clogs up and slows down the entire internet with all the blocking and tracking software, but leaves the jihaddist forums and file sharing sites unmolested. Anwar Awlaki has a very popular blog, but pro-democracy bloggers get harrassed, threatened. blocked and hacked.

According to one expert, Yemenis comprise upto 5% of total users on jihaddist forums over the last several years, although internet penetration is very low nationally. Clearly the first step in combatting al Qaeda on a social level is to unblock the dissemination of the competing ideas.

Oh and the fanatics are denying the Saudi surrendered. They say he was captured- by the Yemenis. They posted the audio referenced below on a forum closely connected to Egyptian Islamic Jihad and AQ. Another message holds al Wahishi and the brothers in Yemen responsible for the safety of the “migrants”.

YemenOnline. Feb 18, 2009 – Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula denied in an audio recording – published on Medad Al-soyoof Network – the news circulated by some agencies that the Field Commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Mohammed Al-Awafi turned himself in to Yemeni security authorities.

The audio recording confirmed that Al-Awafi was in fact arrested by Yemeni authorities which in turn extradited him to Saudi Arabia.

From the WaPo, yet another American al-Qaeda in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki. Another release (like USS Cole bomber Jamal Al-Badawi and FBI Most Wanted Jaber Elbaneh), and the US again “dismayed”. As we reported in December 2006, Awlaki was an associate of the 9/11 highjackers, arrested and released in Yemen. The WaPo has a detailed history.

Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.

New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December.

WaPo

Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda

By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2008; A03

Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.

New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December.

“There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies,” said a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities were limited in how far they could push Yemen to hold Aulaqi, officials said, because they have no pending legal case against him. The officials said ongoing intelligence-gathering efforts here and abroad prevented them from providing details about Aulaqi’s suspected activities.

Aulaqi, 36, was the spiritual leader in 2001 and 2002 of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, one of the largest in the country. In a taped interview posted this New Year’s Eve on a British Web site, Aulaqi said that while in prison in Yemen, he had undergone multiple interrogations by the FBI that included questions about his dealings with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

“I don’t know if I was held because of that, or because of the other issues they presented,” Aulaqi said without elaborating. He said he would like to travel outside Yemen but would not do so “until the U.S. drops whatever unknown charges it has against me.” Aulaqi did not respond to requests for an interview.

In several terrorism cases in Britain and Canada over the past 18 months, investigators found in the private computer files of some suspects transcripts and audio files of lectures by Aulaqi promoting the strategies of a key al-Qaeda military commander, the late Yusef al-Ayeri, a Saudi known as “Swift Sword.”

Federal prosecutors in New York alleged in a 2004 terrorism-related trial that a U.S. branch of a Yemeni charity for which Aulaqi served as vice president was a front that sent money to al-Qaeda. Documents filed around the same time in federal court in Alexandria assert that a year after 9/11, Aulaqi returned briefly to Northern Virginia, where he visited a radical Islamic cleric and asked him about recruiting young Muslims for “violent jihad.” That cleric, Ali al-Timimi, is now serving a life sentence for inciting followers to fight with the Taliban against Americans.

After leaving the United States in 2002, Aulaqi spent time in Britain, where he developed a following among ultraconservative young Muslims through his lectures and audiotapes. He moved to Yemen, his family’s ancestral home, in 2004.

State Department officials said they are barred by privacy law from discussing Aulaqi’s detention because he is a U.S. citizen. A senior official of Yemen’s embassy in Washington said Aulaqi was arrested over family and tribal matters — “kidnapping, stuff like that” rather than terrorism. “Nothing has led them to believe he’s part of al-Qaeda,” he said.

Before his arrest, Aulaqi lectured at an Islamist university in Sanaa run by Sheik Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani, who fought with Osama bin Laden in the Soviet-Afghan war and was designated a terrorist in 2004 by the United States and the United Nations.

U.S. and U.N. authorities accuse Zindani of recruiting for al-Qaeda camps and raising money for weapons for terrorist groups. Students at his university, the United States said, are suspected in terrorist attacks and assassinations; among its attendees before he joined the Taliban was American John Walker Lindh.

Aulaqi’s lectures and Internet postings on Islamic principles excoriate the West and speak of Muslims as a besieged people. In one speech apparently made in 2006, he predicted an epic global clash between Muslims and “kufr,” or nonbelievers.

“America is in a state of war with Allah,” he said, referring to the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. He praised the insurgency in Iraq and “martyrdom operations” in the Palestinian territories. Muslims must choose sides between President Bush and the “mujaheddin,” he said. The solution for the Muslim world, he said, “is jihad.”

Aulaqi is “a huge inspiration to home-grown terror cells in the U.K. and Europe,” said Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism researcher who testified as a government witness in a British bombing conspiracy trial. Kohlmann, an American whose work is funded by the Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, a privately funded research group, said: “He is one of the very few respected extremist Salafi clerics who can write and speak in English.”

Aulaqi’s father, Nasser Aulaqi, a former Yemeni government minister, said Yemeni security police confiscated his son’s computer and copies of a lecture series he gave at Zindani’s al-Iman University. He said his son lectured four times at the university about six months before his arrest, on the history of Muslims in Spain. “He was not a faculty member,” Aulaqi’s father said in a telephone interview. “There is no radical things in them.”

“My son is not a terrorist,” he said. “He never advocated violence against anybody.”

Anwar al-Aulaqi was born in New Mexico in 1971 while his father studied for a college degree. He spent part of his childhood in Yemen and returned in 1991 to study engineering at Colorado State University. After graduating, he became a mosque leader, first in Fort Collins, Colo., and then in San Diego.

Tax records show that in 1998 and 1999, while in San Diego, Aulaqi served as vice president of the now-defunct Charitable Society for Social Welfare Inc., the U.S. branch of a Yemeni charity founded by Zindani. Three years ago, federal prosecutors in a New York terrorism-financing case described the charity as “a front organization” that was “used to support al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.”

The 9/11 Commission and the joint House-Senate Inquiry into the intelligence failures that allowed the attacks to take place reported that in 1999 the FBI opened a short-lived investigation of Aulaqi when it learned he may have been visited by a “procurement agent” for bin Laden.

Law enforcement sources now say that agent was Ziyad Khaleel, who the government has previously said purchased a satellite phone and batteries for bin Laden in the 1990s. Khaleel was the U.S. fundraiser for Islamic American Relief Agency, a charity the U.S. Treasury has designated a financier of bin Laden and which listed Aulaqi’s charity as its Yemeni partner.

The FBI also learned that Aulaqi was visited in early 2000 by a close associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the blind sheik, who was convicted of conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and that he had ties to people raising money for the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, according to Congress and the 9/11 Commission report.

But the bureau lacked enough evidence to bring a case, and closed its investigation. Around the same time, two future Sept. 11 hijackers — Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, fresh from an al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia — turned up at Aulaqi’s San Diego mosque in early 2000.

Witnesses later told the FBI that Aulaqi had a close relationship with the hijackers in San Diego. “Several persons informed the FBI after September 11 that this imam had closed-door meetings in San Diego with al-Mihdhar, al-Hazmi and another individual,” the Joint House-Senate Inquiry reported. In press interviews at the time, Aulaqi denied having such contacts.

In January 2001, he enrolled in a PhD program at George Washington University and was hired at Dar al-Hijrah, which regularly draws about 3,000 people to Friday prayers.

In April 2001, Hazmi left San Diego and showed up at Aulaqi’s new mosque, along with another future hijacker, Hani Hanjour. They were quickly aided in securing an apartment by a Jordanian man they met there — Eyad al-Rababah.

“Some [FBI] agents suspect that Aulaqi may have tasked Rababah to help Hazmi and Hanjour. We share that suspicion, given the remarkable coincidence of Aulaqi’s prior relationship with Hazmi,” the 9/11 Commission concluded. Further, the phone number for Dar al-Hijrah had been found in the Hamburg apartment of one of the planners of the attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh.

The FBI told the 9/11 Commission and Congress that it did not have reason to detain Aulaqi.

Former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Bob Graham, who led the congressional panel on Sept. 11, accused the FBI of bungling investigations of Aulaqi before and after 9/11. “Some believe that Aulaqi was the first person since the summit meeting in Malaysia with whom al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi shared their terrorist intentions and plans,” Graham wrote in his 2004 book “Intelligence Matters.”

After 9/11, Aulaqi publicly condemned the attacks. But in comments published in English on Sept. 17, 2001, on IslamOnline, Aulaqi suggested that Israelis may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks and that the FBI “went into the roster of the airplanes and whoever has a Muslim or Arab name became the hijacker by default.”

Weeks after leaving the United States in the spring of 2002, he posted an essay in Arabic titled “Why Muslims Love Death” on the Islam Today Web site, lauding the fervor of Palestinian suicide bombers. Months later he praised them in English at a lecture in a London mosque that was recorded on videotape.

Aulaqi briefly returned to the United States in fall 2002, visiting the Fairfax home of Timimi, spiritual leader of an Islamic center a few miles from Dar al-Hijrah, according to court records.

“Aulaqi attempted to get al Timimi to discuss issues related to the recruitment of young Muslims,” according to a court filing by Timimi’s attorney, Edward MacMahon, who asserted that those “entreaties were rejected.”

Timimi was sentenced in 2005 to life in prison for inciting young Muslims to go to Afghanistan after 9/11 and to wage war against the United States. Eleven of his followers were convicted of charges including weapons violations and aiding a terrorist organization. Some had simulated armed conflict by playing paintball in the Virginia countryside, and some went on to camps in Pakistan run by the group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which trained foreign and local fighters for Muslim militant groups including the Taliban.

Court records show that Aulaqi had been driven to the meeting by one of Timimi’s followers, who later testified as a government witness. Another convicted member of the group had Aulaqi’s phone number on his cellphone, according to court testimony.

Dar al-Hijrah’s spokesman and others in leadership positions at the mosque did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.

Seven of the eight foreigners charged with running guns to Somalia for al-Qaeda have been released. The only one remaining in jail is a Somalia man named Al-Ansar. One would assume the American arrested in August, Anwar Al-Awlaki, is still incarerated.

IHT A Danish national detained in Yemen for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia has been released from custody and has been given seven days to leave the Middle Eastern country, Danish officials said Saturday.

“I can confirm that a Danish citizen was released earlier today (Saturday) and the charges against him have been dropped,” Foreign Affairs Ministry official Henning Nielsen said.

He declined to identify the man, but said the 23-year-old Muslim convert had been asked to leave Yemen — where he lives with his wife and child — within a week.

“As far as we’ve been told, the reason (for his release) is that there has been a lack of evidence,” Nielsen said.

There had been earlier reports that the man had already been released from custody, but the ministry had denied them as being false.

The man was arrested in Yemen in late October along with four Australians as part of a state security campaign against members of an alleged al-Qaida cell.

The five men had been studying at the Islamist Iman University — run by Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who is listed as an al-Qaida supporter by the United States.

Yemen is believed to be a frequent route for smuggling arms to Somali factions.

Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, despite government efforts to fight the terror network.

Al-Qaida was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden that killed 17 American sailors and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.

All around the mulberry bush

Short story: Previously under investigation in the US, American Iman Anwar al-Alwaki a/k/a Abu Atiq a/k/a Anwar al-Aulaqi was recently arrested in Yemen. His arrest led investigators to another group connected to September’s thwarted terror bombings in which two of the February al-Qaeda escapees were killed.

The al-Awlaki arrest also led to a later arrest of eight foreigners accused of smuggling guns to Somalia for al-Qaeda including a Dane, a Briton, a German, a Somali, three Australians, and a European of undetermined nationality who may be Austrian. One media report indicates the group was under surveillance by Western intelligence and the arrests disrupted an otherwise productive intelligence operation; other sources dispute this. The Dane is known as Abu Zakaria, whose given name is Kenneth Sorensen. The central figure was reportedly a Somali named al-Ansar. This group of eight included the Australian Ayub brothers, sons of JI leader Abdul Rahim Ayub, who fled Australia after the Bali bombings. Seven of the eight confessed according to the official Yemeni media. However six of eight were subsequently released without charges.

Details: American Anwar Al Awlaki a/k/a Abu Atik was was arrested in Yemen 8/31/06. Born in New Mexico of Yemeni parents, al-Awlaki was the Muslim Chaplin in Residence at George Washington University. He was also reported to be an associate of two of the 9/11 highjackers and a protege of Sheik Zindani. (Read on …)

From an unverified website called appropriately enough Cage Prisoners:

Name: Anwar Al Awlaki
Nationality: US
Residence: Yemen
Marital Status: Married
Date of Arrest: 31/08/2006
Location of Arrest: Sana’a, Yemen

Anwar al-Awlaki is a Muslim scholar who was born in New Mexico. His parents are from Yemen, where he lived for eleven years and received the early part of his Islamic education.

Imam Anwar al-Awlaki served as an Imam in Colorado, California, and later in the Washington, D.C. area where he headed the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center and was also the Muslim Chaplain at George Washington University. Currently he resides in Yemen, where he was studying Shariah with prominent scholars, as he was banned from re-entering the United States despite being a U.S. citizen. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, a M.A. in Education Leadership from San Diego State University and was working on a Doctorate degree in Human Resource Development at George Washington University being denied entry into the U.S. He authored many popular audio series including the “Lives of the Prophets”, “The Hereafter” and “The Life of Muhammad”.

In the early hours of October 17, a Yemeni secret police raid swept up eight foreigners living in Sana’a, under surveillance by the CIA and British intelligence, and at least 12 other men across Yemen. Yemeni authorities insist they dismantled an al-Qa’ida cell and disrupted a gun-running ring to neighbouring Somalia.

It was subsequently reported that the key to the raids was Anwar Al Awlaki (identified in the media as ‘Abu Atiq’) who was arrested six weeks before the October 17 swoop. Media reports allege that ‘Abu Atiq’ was an associate of two of the September 11 hijackers and a protege of Abdul al-Majid al-Zindani, who the US wants arrested on terror charges. They also make mention of his alleged role in a foiled al-Qa’ida plot to bomb oil and gas facilities in Yemen.

He is believed to be held in Central Security Prison in Sana’a. Locals in Sanaa insist, perhaps apocryphally, that the two stories of the complex above ground sit atop eight stories underground, where torture rooms and darkened cells are often used. Whether or not people are tortured here, Western officials and aid groups are adamant that torture is regularly used in Yemen on terror suspects, or political prisoners.

Here’s an interview with the WaPo from a few years ago about the meaning of Rahmadan