Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki (born on the 22nd April, 1971 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, died 30th September, 2011 in Yemen) was a radical Muslim preacher who encouraged his followers to attack western targets by facilitating and coordinating several terrorist attacks. According to U.S government officials Awlaki became a senior talent recruiter and leading figure for Al- Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen. Awlaki had been perhaps the most prominent English-speaking advocate of violent jihad against the United States, with his message carried extensively over the Internet. He was an inspiring, clever lecturer who spoke directly to the concerns of young Muslims in the West. He had been described as the 'bin Laden of the Internet.' His online lectures and sermons had been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada. Awlaki had been the focus of intense scrutiny since he was linked to Nidal Malik Hasan an army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas November 2009 and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit bound airliner on December 25th 2009.
Early life
Anwar al-Awlaki’s father Nasser al-Awlaki, was a Fulbright Scholar who earned a master's degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University in 1971. He later received a doctorate at the University of Nebraska, and worked at the University of Minnesota from 1975 to 1977. Nasser al-Awlaki is prominent member of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling party. Anwar al- Awlaki was born in New Mexico in 1971, he later returned to Yemen with his family when he was seven years old. Awlaki returned to the United States when he decided to pursue his undergraduate and master degrees at state colleges in Colorado and California. He received his B.Science degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University in 1994; during his time there he was also President of the Muslim Student Association. Later he earned his M.Arts degree in Education Leadership from San Diego State University.
Ideology and radicalization
Awlaki’s earlier works was more comparable with the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood than with Al-Qaida. Before Awlaki made any clear Al-Qaida statements, he did however show admiration for the writings of Sayyid Qutb, one of the Intellectual Godfathers of Salafi Jihadism. It is believed, Awlaki became radicalized and identified with the Al-Qaida, while he was imprisoned in Yemen.
Life in the USA
By early to mid-1990’s Awlaki had already begun to gain a following among American Muslims. He saw ‘the danger of Western culture diluting and damaging Islam and Muslims by America and its allies and infighting within the ummah (The global Islamic Nation). He drew substantial inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhoods version of Salafism. He was especially influenced by Yusuf al Qaradawi’s work concerning the spread of Islam in the West. However he only emerged as a public figure in the months following 9/11 where he was seen as a moderate and critic of Al-Qaida. During his time in America, among other roles he was a senior member of the Denver Islamic Society from 1994-1996, an Imam at the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque in San Diego, California, from 1996–2000; according to the 9/11 Commission Report it was during this time spent at the mosque that he first attracted interests of counter terrorism authorities; and later as Imam of the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia and the Muslim chaplain of George Washington University. His lectures focused primarily on reinvigorating Islam for Western English speaking Muslims, he retold stories from the Koran in Americanized, idiomatic English. He often drew parallels between the time of the Prophet and the present. This ability to connect to young Muslims made him immensely popular and easily accessible. During 1998 and 1999, he served as Vice President for the dubious Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) in San Diego. The charity was founded by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani of Yemen. Brian Murphy an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that the CSSW was a "front organization to funnel money to terrorists". A few years later, in 2004, Zindani was designated by the US Treasury Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and the CSSW as a front for Al-Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission Report states that Awlaki was investigated twice by the FBI. The first being a short inquiry in June 1999, which looked into Awlaki’s connections to Ziyad Khalil who was thought to have been a procurement agent for Osama bin Laden. The second investigation was in 2000 which sought to clarify his relationship with the ‘blind sheikh’ Omar Abdel Rahman (who was serving a life sentence for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, and plotting to blow up NYC landmarks). The investigations led nowhere so the case had to be dropped, Awlaki fell off the radar. It was, however, during the second investigation that Awlaki first came into contact with future 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. According to the Joint Inquiry Report, “The FBI closed its inquiry into the activities of the imam in March 2000, approximately two months after al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar arrived in San Diego. In the case closing memorandum, an agent asserted that the imam had been ‘fully identified and does not meet the criterion for further investigation.’ Even though, the imam made contact with other subjects of counterterrorism investigations and that there were concerns of the imam's connections to suspect organizations, the case was closed. The 9/11 Commission Report stated that Hazmi and Minhdhar respected Awlaki as a religious leader and developed a close relationship with him. The Joint Inquiry adds, Awlaki ‘served as their spiritual advisor during their time in San Diego’ and that ‘he held a number of closed door meetings with both the men’, which led investigators to believe Awlaki knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. Early 2001 he took up his post as imam at Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. Hazmi followed but was now joined by Hani Hanjour (who was the hijacker-pilot on American Airlines flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon on September the 11th).
Life in the UK
Awlaki left for the United Kingdom in 2002. He remained in England for two years and became a popular preacher. He had strong ties to a Salafi organistaion in the UK called JIMAS as well as to the Muslim Asscociation of Britain which was closely aligned to the Muslim Brotherhood and to the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS). His popularity was on the rise when he developed a following of young ultraconservative Muslims. At the London Masjid al-Tawhid mosque, he described the rewards martyrs would receive in paradise. Dr Usama Hasan formely of the Tawhid mosque described Awlaki’s as ‘one of the icons of western Salafism and would pack out every venue he spoke at, people were excited to see him’. Awlaki took part in a campaign called ‘Stop Police Terror’. The aim of the campaign was for Muslims to take action against 'anti-terrorist police terror' and to bring attention to the deteriorating situation in the UK and the scale of arrests, raids and abuse against Muslims by 'anti-terror police'.
Life in Yemen
Unable to support himself in the United Kingdom, Awlaki returned to Yemen in 2004. Awlaki lectured at Imam University in Sanaa which was run by Sheik Abd-al-Majid al-Zindani, Graduates of the university gave radical sermons in Nigeria, Somalia and Malaysia, one of the attendees was, before he joined the Taliban, American John Walker Lindh. In 2006 Awlaki was arrested by Yemeni authorities and imprisoned. According to the US Department of the Treasury, he was ‘charged of kidnapping for ransom and being involved in an Al-Qaida plot to kidnap a U.S official but was released from jail in December 2007 and subsequently went into hiding in Yemen’. After his release in 2007, his message became more overtly supportive of violence. Awlaki was mostly likely released due to his father, who held a senior position in the Yemeni government and to his tribal connections with the influential Awalik tribe.
Awlaki lauched his blog www.anwar-alawlaki.com, here he announced his clear support for the global jihad and Al-Qaida. He then started to become a concern for American intelligence and security agencies. According to the United States Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper in 2009, Awlaki pledged alliance to Nasir al-Wuhaishi the head of Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP). Subsequently Awlaki’s link to planning and preparing Abdulmutallab’s attempted Christmas Day bombing in 2009, led President Obamas administration to authorize his extrajudicial assassination in early 2010.
Social Movement Theory
Awlaki was able to inspire, connect and speak to young Muslims in their own language using common rhetoric to simplify stories from the Koran. A social movement is successful when it mirrors an ideology with its targeted audience. Awlaki made Salafi-jihadi ideology more appealing and relatable to Western Muslims. If a movement wants to be recognized, legitimate and succeed in having any real impact or success it must be able to offer relevance and meaning to its ideas. Goffman states in his Frame Analysis essay, that frames are ‘a schemata of interpretation’, that assist people to locate, perceive, identify and label events.’ Frames are specifically formulated as to elicit movement members or potential recruits to take part in collective action on behalf of a social movement, are referred to as ‘collective action frames’. Social movement succeeds when the messages of the frame aligns with views and experiences of potential followers and achieve a level of resonance which can motivate people towards action. Awlaki aligns frames developed by Al-Qaida and Salafi-jihadi movement to perspectives of a Western English speaking audience.
U.S approved targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki
In early July 2010 the CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) and the ACLU ( American Civil Liberties Union) were retained by Nasser al- Awlaki, the father of U.S citizen Anwar al-Awlaki to bring a lawsuit in connection with the governments decision to authorize the death of his son, who was placed on kill lists maintained by the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) earlier this year. The lawsuit sought to remove Anwar from the targeted killing list. ACLU's Jameel Jaffer said: 'the United States is not at war in Yemen, and the government doesn't have a blank check to kill terrorism suspects wherever they are in the world. Among the arguments we'll be making is that, outside actual war zones, the authority to use lethal force is narrowly circumscribed, and preserving the rule of law depends on keeping this authority narrow'. On August 30, 2010, the groups filed a "targeted killing" lawsuit, naming Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as defendants. They sought an injunction preventing the targeted killing of al-Awlaki, and also sought to require the government to disclose the standards under which U.S. citizens may be "targeted for death". Judge John D. Bates dismissed the lawsuit in an 83-page ruling, holding that the father did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit, and that his claims were judicially unreviewable under the political question doctrine inasmuch as he was questioning a decision that the U.S. Constitution committed to the political branches.
The US government spent several months considering the legal implications of targeting the American born citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. President Obama said Mr Awlaki is a radical Muslim cleric and had taken ‘the lead role in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans’.
In several Security Council Resolutions it is stated that the immediate aftermath of 9/11 affirmed the right of the USA to defend itself and emphasized that defensive force may be used when a State had failed to prevent or suppress terrorist activities originating from its territory. Under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) statute, American congress authorized the killings of any member of Al-Qaida, that the 'President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occured on September 11, 2001, or harboured such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.' The U.S government argued that the AUMF would apply to any use of lethal force against Al-Awlaki as he has taken an increasingly operational role in AQAP, an organization the U.S determined to be an 'organized armed group that is either part of al-Qaida, or is an asscociated force, or cobelligerent, of al-Qaida that has directed armed attacks against the United States in the noninternational armed conflict between the United States and al-Qaida.'
It is extremely rare if not unprecedented for an American to be approved for targeted killings, but this is a particular case, as The United States is still at war with al-Qaida and Al-Awlaki has admitted to be a member of al-Qaida. In an audio interview broadcasted over CNN early in 2010, Awlaki states: “I came to the conclusion that Jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other able Muslim’ He asks American Muslims, “how can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful co-existence with a nation that is responsible for crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters. How can you have your loyalty to a government that is leading the war against Islam and Muslims?’”
People influenced by Awlaki
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (known as the Christmas Day bomber)was born in Nigeria on December the 22nd 1986. Awlaki admitted that Abdulmutallab was his student while he was visiting the Imam University in Yemen. Awlaki was directly involved in in preparing him for the attempted bombings on Christmas Day 2009 of Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit. Abdulmutallab later swore allegiance to the AQAP and thereafter received instructions from Awlaki to detonate an explosive device onboard a U.S airline over U.S airspace. He is facing 6 charges: (1) attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, (2) attempted murder of 289 people, (3) attempted destruction of a civilian aircraft, (4) placing a destructive device on an aircraft, (5&6) and 2 explosive possession charges. Nidal Malik Hasan was Born on September 8, 1970 in Arlington, Virginia to Muslim Palestinian parents who emigrated to the U.S. from al-Bireh in the West Bank. Hasan exchanged more than a dozen emails with Awlaki which he asked for ‘religious guidance’. Hasan was an army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in November 2009. He was later charged with thirteen counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder under the Uniform code of Military Justice.
Zachary Cheeser was born on December 22, 1989 in Charlottesville Virginia. He was arrested in July 2010 for attempting to provide support for the Al-Shabaab an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group situated in Somalia. He told FBI that Awlaki inspired him and other to pursue Jihad. He was convicted on the 24th of February 2011 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He gained media attention in April 2010 when he threated the creators of South Park for satirizing issues surrounding the depiction of the Prophet Muhammed. Samir Khan was born on the 25th of December 1985, died on the 30th of September 2011. He was a Pakistani American editor and publisher of Inspire magazine, an English language online recruitment magazine. He was known for uploading a series of English extremist essays called Jihad recollections. He is also known for uploading an article, ‘how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom’ as well as other articles to mow down people with cars and how to destroy buildings. He fled North Carolina for Yemen in 2009. Khan was killed by a drone strike in Yemen along with Awlaki. Rajib Karim was in contact with Awlaki and asked advice about fighting jihad overseas. Awlaki instead requested that Karim use his position as a staff member at British Airways to plant a bomb on a plane, or pass on crucial details about new airport security measures.
Death
Awlaki was killed by a drone strike on September the 30th 2011 in Yemen, just months after the death of Osama bin Laden. The strike was carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command, under the direction of the CIA. President Obama said “The death of Awlaki is a major blow to Al-Qaeda's most active operational affiliate. [The strike] is further proof that Al-Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe haven anywhere in the world.” Anwar Al-Awlaki and Egyptian-born Gihan Mohsen Baker had an American son, Abdulrahman Anwar Al-Aulaqi, born on September 13, 1995, in Denver. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was killed in an American drone strike on Friday, October 14, 2011, in Yemen, along with alleged al-Qaeda members. Among the dead was a 17 year old cousin of Abdulrahman, family members have said that he was on his way to a barbeque. After the deaths of Nasser al-Awlaki's son and grandson, Nasser trascripted a 6 minute audio message to condemn the US for the killings. In the audio he described Obama: "I urge the American people to bring the killers to justice. I urge them to expose the hypocrisy of the 2009 Nobel Prize laureate. To some, he may be that. To me and my family, he is nothing more than a child killer." He claimed his son was far from any battlefield. After the audio, Nasser al-Awlaki began to deny he was endorsing violence after some media outlets interpreted his audio in that way.
Written Works
- 44 Ways to Support Jihad—Essay (January 2009)—A practical step-by-step guide to pursuing or supporting jihad. Writes: "The hatred of kuffar [those who reject Islam] is a central element of our military creed," and asserts that all Muslims must participate in Jihad in person, by funding it, or by writing. It further elloborates that all Muslims must remain physically fit, and train with firearms "to be ready for the battlefield". According to U.S. officials, considered a key text for al-Qaeda members.
- Al-Awlaki also wrote for Jihad Recollections, an English language online publication published by Al-Fursan Media.
- Allah is Preparing Us for Victory – short book (2009).
Anwar al-Awlaki on YouTube
Literature
- Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 Report, by the U.S Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and U.S House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- Benford Robert D. and David A. Snow, Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol 26 (2000), ßß.611-639
- Goffman Erving, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, Harvard University Press, 1974
- Meleagrou- Hitchens Alexander, As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al-Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad, International Crime Centre For Radicalisation and Political Violence, London, 2011
- The 9/11 Commission Report, printed in the USA, first edition, W.W Norton&Company Inc, New York. Mentions of Anwar al-Awlaki (there spelled Aulaqi) pp. 221, 229, 434, 517, 523
- Ramsden Michael, Targeted Killings and International Human Rights Law: The Case of Anwar Al-Awlaki, Journal of Conflict and Security Law,Vol.16 No.2, Oxford University Press, 2011