Anwar al-Awlaki: Unterschied zwischen den Versionen

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, who fought with Osama bin Laden in the Soviet Afghan war and was designated a terrorist in 2004 by the United States and the United Nations. 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. He publically blamed the United States for pressuring Yemeni authorities for keeping him in prison and said that he was continuously questioned by FBI agents while in prison. 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. This is when he began 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), he began to play a vital role in setting the strategic direction for the group. 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.