From The Telegraph U.K.
Barack Obama orders killing of US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
Barack Obama’s administration has authorised the assassination of the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a rare move against an American citizen.
By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 6:41PM BST 07 Apr 2010
The Yemen-based al-Awlaki has been linked to the Fort Hood massacre and the attempt in December to blow up a Detroit-bound jet by a man wearing explosives in his underpants.
The decision to add him to the US hit list required a National Security Council review because of his citizenship.
Officials said US intelligence had argued that the cleric now posed a direct threat to America, an al-Qaeda recruiter who had graduated from encouraging attacks to active involvement in them.
Al-Awlaki, 38, became famous last year after it emerged he had communicated extensively by email with Major Nidal Hasan, the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.
The cleric, who allegedly had ties with the 9/11 hijackers, later praised the Fort Hood killings and said Muslims should only serve in the US military if they intended to carry out similar attacks.
He has also been linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas with explosives in his underwear.
Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and spent years as an imam in the US before moving to the Yemen, where he is believed to remain in hiding.
Members of the George W Bush administration have said they believe it never approved any American for a targeted killing.
However, officials now argue privately that Americans who side with the country’s enemies are not ultimately “entitled to special protections”.
In February, Dennis Blair, the director of US national intelligence, confirmed that its security agencies had the authority, having obtained specific permission, to kill American citizens if they posed a direct threat to the United States.
On Tuesday, Jane Harman, the Democrat chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee, said Al-Awlaki was “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be terrorist No 1 in terms of threat against us.”
Let’s get him!
Hello, whose there? John or Charlie?
Is Buraq Hussein sure that he wants to have this done? I mean, has he asked that jihadist-breeding mobile-tent working as his advisor, that goes by the name of Dalia “sharia-equals-gender-justice” Mogahed, how mahoundians are going to react to this? I mean, since its (not her) job is, in its words, to tell Buraq what it is that mahoundians want, I don’t think her fellow mahound-worshipping tapeworms are going to like to see such a dirtbag, which is so good at performing the mahoundian duty of emulating mahound, get blown to smithereens by infidels…
People do not understand that when he converted to Islam, he renounces all citizenship to the US or any other group other than the umma (world community of Muslims).
In their minds, they are citizens of the umma first, world citizens a very distant second.
Since he became a member of the umma, I feel that he is no longer bound by the laws of the US or any other nation and should be considered “outlaw” in the old sense of the term. Until the rise of modern states in Europe, outlaws were fair game for people seeking revenge. Northern Europe was particularly fond of this type of punishment for the most serious of crimes.
Off-topic, but here’s more on what that mobile-tent Mogahed is truly up to.