As Anwar al-Awlaki inspired terror throughout the world
When Obama addressed the nation about the death of high-profile al-Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki today, he said that the drone strike took out the United States was born of radical removed a man who "took the initiative in planning and directing efforts to killing of innocent Americans. "
Although al-Awlaki not call people in any of 19 terrorist operations, to which it is associated with U.S. officials and terrorism experts said that his hand was visible in all of them - whether by simply pressing the attackers for violent edge or personally guiding them through operations.
"There's no doubt that Anwar Al-Awlaki was the modern day terrorism," said Seth Jones, an analyst at RAND Corporation terror and the U.S. government consultant. "He used a combination of participation in the operations ... and almost unprecedented use of social media - YouTube, the broader Internet sites such as Facebook, Twitter - to get his message of propaganda."
In one case, in particular, Jones said Al-Awlaki was a practical player in an attempt to blow up Umar Farooq Abdulmutallab Northwest flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear at Christmas in 2009 after Abdulmutallab traveled to Yemen to meet with al-Awlaki.
"Al-Awlaki actually helped him in camp jihadis have helped him gain access to underwear bomb, and then actually go through it [him]," Jones said. "He wanted [Abdulmutallab], waiting to blow up [the war] in American airspace."
Al-Awlaki has also taught Abdulmutallab to avoid detection while traveling on an international level, before the doomed site, Jones said.
"So in fact the direct operational and strategic level and at the leadership level to a bomber," he said. "It's more than just recruitment."
In a speech today, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Hillary Rodham Clinton said the direct involvement of al-Awlaki a story Christmas.
Other times, al-Awlaki were able to encourage potential recruits to the force of several thousand kilometers. A month before Adbulmutallab failed to blow up the Northwest flight 253, according to U.S. prosecutors, Maj. Nidal Hassan opened fire on the basis of Texas army, killing 13 people and wounding 30 more. Investigators later found a few letters exchanged Hassan al-Awlaki, in which al-Awlaki is justified by the planned murders.
In some cases, al-Awlaki not have to apply directly to the set at all.
In July 2011, the Brooklyn man was convicted of planning to travel to the Middle East to join the jihad and kill American soldiers, according to the FBI. During the investigation, federal officials found "the defendant was radical, in particular, online speech, Anwar Al-Awlaki ..."
"The tone, the subject, his ability to hold it through several media outlets have made it a truly unprecedented al-Qaida terrorist," Jones said.
Yemen analyst Gregory Johnsen agreed, saying that it was not in his operational skills, but his rhetoric, what did Al-Awlaki invaluable to a terrorist organization.
"How will [the death of al-Awlaki per day] is the so-called" lone wolf "terrorist"? Johnsen said. "In other words, those people, those who are often English people living in the West who seem to be inspired, if not encouraged to attack al-Awlaki. And this is where Al-Awlaki was a unique voice and someone that groups like Al-Qaeda will have a hard time replacing. "
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