Friday, April 16, 2010
Anwar al-Awlaki
American efforts to assassinate the controversial Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki will not be aided by the government of Yemen. Al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen now living in Yemen, was recently added to a CIA hit list, but Yemeni officials have refused to help with the manhunt.
Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that al-Awlaki was viewed as a preacher before 9/11, but that now he is viewed as a terrorist. He is now being sought by Yemeni authorities.
The controversial figure has been linked to those behind the Fort Hood shooting and the attempted bombing of a commercial airliner on Christmas Day.
His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, a former minister of agriculture and rector at the University of Sanaa, has said his son will halt his anti-American messages if Washington removes him from the list. “If Washington stops targeting [him] by threatening to abduct, capture, or kill him, Anwar will cease his statements and speeches against it,” he told Al Jazeera.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Yemen Refuses to Hunt Al-Awlaki for U.S. (by Charles Fromm, Inter Press Service)
Al-Awlaki Wanted by Yemen’s Authority (by Afrah Nasser, Abdul-Aziz Oudah and Shuaib M. al-Mosawa, Yemen Observer)
Yemen's Awlaki Family Offers Deal (Al Jazeera)
First U.S. Citizen Added to CIA Assassination List (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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