Some Western intelligence officials believed Anwar al-Awlaki was more dangerous than Ayman al Zawahiri, the current main al-Qaida leader. Mr. Awlaki spoke both Arabic and English. Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, says his skill with language and the Internet made him especially dangerous.
MICHAEL LEITER: "Ideologues and operational leaders like Anwar al-Awlaki, other Americans who are using al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as a platform to try to recruit Westerners -- this makes them I think the most significant threat of all the affiliates we face."
Mr. Awlaki was born to Yemeni parents in New Mexico in nineteen seventy-one. He served as a religious leader in several mosques in the United States. These included one in San Diego, California. That mosque was often attended by two of the hijackers in the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one.
Mr. Awlaki was wanted by both the United States and Yemen for his reported involvement in terrorist attacks. President Obama said Mr. Awlaki directed the failed attempt to blow up a passenger airplane on Christmas Day in December two thousand nine.
Investigators say he may have also had a part in a shooting attack a month earlier. They say he may have advised Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Major Hasan is accused of killing thirteen people at Fort Hood in Texas.
Yemeni officials charged Mr. Awlaki with "inciting violence against foreigners" for the killing last year of a French oil industry worker in Yemen.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25