American-Yemeni clerics as Web sermons are believed to have helped inspire attacks on the United States has called for the killing of American civilians in an Al Qaida video released yesterday.
Anwar al-Awlaki has been highlighted by U.S. officials as the key terrorist threat and has been added to the CIA list of targets for murder, despite his U.S. citizenship. He is especially concerned because he is one of the few English-language radical clerics are able to explain to young Muslims in the U.S. and other Western countries philosophy of violent jihad.
The US-born Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2004 and is in hiding after being linked to the suspect in November shooting at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, and in December of trying to blow up an American jet bound for Detroit.
"Those who can be killed in a plane is just a drop of water in a sea,''he says in the video in response to a question about Muslim groups not approved by plane plot, because it targeted civilians.
Awlaki spent 45 minutes on video to justify civilian deaths - and to invite them - by accusing the U.S. of intent to kill one million Muslim civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
American civilians are to blame, he said, because "the American people are generally involved in this, and they chose this administration and finance the war.''
He added that the Prophet Muhammad sent troops into the fighting that claimed civilian lives.
The video was produced by the media arm of Al Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, although the exact nature Awlaki's ties to the group, and the possible direct role is unclear. U.S. says he is an active participant in the group, although members of his tribe has denied it.
Al-Qaida appears to be trying to make use of its recruiting force by putting him in his videos. Its media arm said yesterday's video was the first conversation with the priest.
In the months before Fort Hood shooting in which 13 people were killed, exchanged Al-Awlaki emails with the accused attacker, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Hasan started contacts, designed by Awlaki's online sermons, and contacted him for religious advice.
Yemen's government says Awlaki is also suspected of having contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused Nigeria of the failed attempt to blow up Detroit-bound passenger plane on Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab traveled to Yemen late last year, and U.S. investigators say he told me that he received training and his bomb from Yemen's Al Qaeda ends.
In the video, praised Awlaki both men and referred to them as their "students.''
Speaking of Fort Hood gunman, said the priest, "What he did was heroic and amazing.... I ask all Muslims who serve in the U.S. Army to follow.''
Awlaki shown in the video wearing a turban and a white hat with a traditional Yemeni dagger jambiyah.
Awlaki was born in 1971 in New Mexico. His father, Nasser al-Awlaki was in the U.S. to study agriculture and later returned with his family to Yemen to serve as Minister of Agriculture. The danger is still a prominent figure in Yemen, teaching at the university in the capital Sana'a.
The younger Awlaki back to the U.S. in 1991 to study civil engineering at Colorado State University, then studied at San Diego State University, followed by doctoral work at George Washington University in Washington. He was also a preacher in mosques in California and Virginia before returning to Yemen in 2004.
Awlaki is believed hiding in Yemen Shabwa Province, a rugged mountainous region that is home to his large suitcase
No comments:
Post a Comment