Free Republic

War On Terror: The world's most dangerous man — Anwar Awlaki — just got more dangerous with news he also inspired the Times Square terrorist. More must be done to take out this menace. The U.S.-born Muslim cleric, who's believed to be al-Qaida's top recruiter in the West, also radicalized the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas crotch-bomber. Awlaki privately ministered to some of the 9/11 hijackers as well. Now it turns out that confessed New York car bomber Faisal Shahzad is a fan and follower of Awlaki. He joins a growing list of homegrown terrorists who fell under the...

A suspect accused of attempting to plant a bomb on New York's Times Square has ties with the Islamic preacher who inspired a US soldier to kill 12 comrades at Fort Hood and the Christmas Day would-be bomber. Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen has told interrogators that he been inspired to take up the cause of al Qaeda and radical Islam by the internet messages of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based imam. Awlaki, who was born in America, was accused of grooming Nidal Hasan in a series of emails before the US soldier opened fire at the Texas military base...

Last October, the Yemeni government came to the CIA with a request: Could the agency collect intelligence that might help target the network of a U.S.-born al-Qaida recruiter named Anwar al-Awlaki? What happened next is haunting, in light of subsequent events. The CIA concluded that it could not assist the Yemenis in locating al-Awlaki for a possible capture operation. The primary reason was that the agency lacked specific evidence that he threatened the lives of Americans — which is the threshold for any capture-or-kill operation against a U.S. citizen. The Yemenis also wanted U.S. Special Forces' help in pursuing al-Awlaki;...

War On Terror: Upstaging Osama Bin Laden as the most dangerous man in the world may be an American recruiter for al-Qaida: Anwar Awlaki. So why's he talking to Al-Jazeera instead of interrogators? The radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar Awlaki told the Arab TV network that he supported the failed Christmas Day airliner attack because "the American people have participated in all the crimes of their government." The turncoat added: "Some 300 Americans are nothing compared to the thousands of Muslims they have killed." Awlaki also advised the Fort Hood terrorist, whom he called "a hero." The two exchanged some 20...

The CIA sequence for a Predator strike ends with a missile but begins with a memo. Usually no more than two or three pages long, it bears the name of a suspected terrorist, the latest intelligence on his activities, and a case for why he should be added to a list of people the agency is trying to kill. (snip) Anwar al Awlaki poses a dilemma for U.S. counter-terrorism officials. He is a U.S. citizen and until recently was mainly known as a preacher espousing radical Islamic views. But Awlaki's connections to November's shootings at Ft. Hood and the failed...

Confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad was removed from the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list sometime after Barack Obama came into office. CBS reported:

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it will provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents. After days of negotiations, the Defense and Justice departments informed a Senate committee that they will not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records related to the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the alleged gunman. Leslie Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Senate committee, said the refusal...

CAIRO (AP) - A Yemeni-American Muslim preacher known for his ties to extremists operating in the U.S. called on American Muslims in a new audio message to turn against their government because of its actions against Muslims around the world. Anwar al-Awlaki's latest message, excerpts of which were aired on CNN Wednesday, described his own radicalization after U.S. operations against Muslims and called on those in the U.S. to follow his path, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist Web Sites.

SNIPPET: "U.S. intelligence officials believe there are dozens -- perhaps hundreds - of Americans who have been in e-mail contact with the radical Yemeni cleric who is believed to have inspired and directed both the Fort Hood shooter and the failed Christmas Day airline bomber, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned. Efforts to learn the details of that communication, or even to target Anwar Al-Awlaki militarily, may be hindered by his status as an American citizen."

WASHINGTON -- There is no doubt that the terrible earthquake in Haiti -- the worst disaster in the history of the Western Hemisphere -- is a tragedy of profound proportions. The good news is that the "first responders" on-scene were wearing American uniforms. The U.S. Coast Guard -- motto: "Semper Paratus" (Latin for "Always Ready") -- was "firstest with the mostest" and began providing emergency assistance within hours of the Tuesday night quake. The White House quickly ordered reinforcements. A veritable armada -- consisting of U.S. Navy ships and aircraft, Air Force cargo and aeromedical flights, a brigade of the...

AHMED HIKMAT SHAKIR IS A shadowy figure who provided logistical assistance to one, maybe two, of the 9/11 hijackers. Years before, he had received a phone call from the Jersey City, New Jersey, safehouse of the plotters who would soon, in February 1993, park a truck bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. The safehouse was the apartment of Musab Yasin, brother of Abdul Rahman Yasin, who scorched his own leg while mixing the chemicals for the 1993 bomb.When Shakir was arrested shortly after the 9/11 attacks, his "pocket litter," in the parlance of the investigators, included contact...

Hijackers Said to Seek Navy Targets Tue Aug 20, 3:29 PM ET By SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer SAN DIEGO (AP) - Investigators believe the San Diego-based Sept. 11 hijackers who helped crash an airliner into the Pentagon ( news - web sites) initially were sent to California to pinpoint targets in the Navy's largest West Coast port, a federal law enforcement source told The Associated Press. Investigators believe al-Qaida operatives Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, who arrived in California in January 2000, most likely were assigned to identify San Diego-based Navy ships to attack, said the federal official, who...

Most Americans have never heard of Anwar al Awlaki, but the radical Muslim cleric who may have inspired a young Nigerian man to try to blow up a plane on Christmas Day has been linked to the alleged perpetrators of the deadliest terror attacks on U.S. soil this decade, from 9/11 to the massacre at Fort Hood....

The rich kid with a brilliant school record was a ticking time bomb even before he turned up as an international student living in his father’s mansion block apartment in Britain. Classmates remember Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as such a pious youth that he was nicknamed “Imam” and “the Pope” after rebuking them for failing to live up to religious principles. Suicide bombers typically take half a dozen years to descend from religious fanaticism to “martyrdom”, which appears to be the case for this young Nigerian, a security expert said. Acting alone as a “clean skin” rather than by mingling with...

Sana’a – A US-born radical cleric is alive and well following reports he may have been killed in a Yemeni airstrike against suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts, friends and relatives said Friday. The government said it targeted a meeting of high-level Al-Qaeda operatives in Thursday’s airstrike in the remote Shabwa region. It claimed at least 30 militants were killed, possibly including Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been linked to the shooter in last month’s attack at the Fort Hood military base in the US. In addition to Al-Awlaki, the top leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (in Saudi Arabia...

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an attack Thursday on a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives where a Yemeni American preacher linked to the suspected gunman in the Fort Hood attacks might have been present, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The strike on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in southeastern Yemen killed at least 30 suspected militants and was the second such assault in the past week, according to Yemeni security and government sources. One of the possible meeting participants was Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and extremist preacher who exchanged e-mails with the Army psychiatrist suspected...

The plot to blow up a passenger jet was launched by al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect's underwear.The suspect had more than 80 grams of PETN, a compound related to nitro-glycerin. Yesterday's bomb failed because the detonator may have been too small or was not in "proper contact" with the explosive material.Abdulmutallab made contact via the internet with a radical imam in Yemen who then connected him with al-Qaeda leaders. The suspect lived with the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen for about a month and was not allowed to leave as he was trained in...

(snipped) Hoekstra says that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab may have a common link with the Fort Hood shooter that shot 13 people in November. AFP, Dec. 26: There was a suggestion of links between Abdulmutallab and radical US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who had contacts with the US army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at a Texas military base last month. "He may have been in contact with the American imam al-Aulaqi," Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a member of Congress for Michigan, told AFP.

By Daniel McGrory No 10 rejects calls for inquiry into bombings as evidence emerges of extremists’ role in global terror network BRITISH agents are operating in the United States to trace links with Islamic extremists from England who recruit Muslims to fight for terrorist groups abroad. The British-led investigation has played a part in identifying a number of US-based terrorists and helped the authorities in Washington to break up an al-Qaeda cell operating in Falls Church, Virginia. The agents are particularly keen to discover if the visitors included Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is...

Anwar Al-'Awlaki, al Qaeda linked Muslim Cleric on his contact with the Fort Hood Terrorist Major Hasan: "Naturally, as I told you, the first message was asking for an edict regarding the [possibility] of a Muslim soldier killing his colleagues who serve with him in the American army. In other messages, Nidal was clarifying his position regarding the killing of Israeli civilians. He was in support of this, and in his messages he mentioned the religious justifications for targeting the Jews with missiles. Then there were some messages in which he asked for a way through which he could transfer...