Anwar al-Awlaki

Anwar al-Awlaki
أنور العولقي
Anwar al-Awlaki in 2008
Born
Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki

April 21 or 22, 1971[1][2]
Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.
DiedSeptember 30, 2011 (aged 40)
Al Jawf Governorate, Yemen[3]
Cause of deathDrone strike
CitizenshipUnited States
Education
Occupations
  • Lecturer
  • cleric
  • imam
Known forLectures across Asia and the Middle East;
Inspire magazine; and spokesman[4][5]
Children5[6] (including Abdulrahman and Nawar)
ParentNasser al-Awlaki (father)

Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki (Arabic: أنور العولقي, romanized: Anwar al-'Awlaqī; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American-Yemeni lecturer and alleged jihadist who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a drone strike from the U.S. government.[7][8] U.S. government officials have claimed that al-Awlaki was a key organizer for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.

Al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1971 to parents from Yemen. Growing up partially in the United States and partially in Yemen, he attended various U.S. universities in the 1990s and early 2000s.[9] Al-Awlaki also worked as an imam despite having no religious qualifications and almost no religious education.[10] Al-Awlaki returned to Yemen in early 2004 and became a university lecturer[11] after a brief stint as a public speaker in the United Kingdom.[10] He was detained by Yemeni authorities in 2006 and spent 18 months in prison[11] before being released without facing trial.[10]

Following his release by the authorities in Yemen, Al-Awlaki's message became overtly supportive of violence, and he condemned the U.S. government's foreign policy towards Muslims. He was linked to Nidal Hasan, the convicted perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to detonate a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.[11] The Yemeni government tried al-Awlaki in absentia in November 2010 for plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda. A Yemeni judge ordered that he be captured "dead or alive".[12][13] U.S. officials said that in 2009, al-Awlaki was promoted to the rank of "regional commander" within al-Qaeda.[14] He repeatedly called for jihad against the United States.[15][16] In April 2010, al-Awlaki was placed on a CIA kill list by President Barack Obama.[17][18][19] Al-Awlaki's father and civil rights groups challenged the order in court.[17][19][20][21] The U.S. deployed unmanned aircraft (drones) in Yemen to search for and kill him,[22] firing at and failing to kill him at least once.[23] Al-Awlaki was killed on September 30, 2011.[8]

In June 2014, a previously classified memorandum from the U.S. Department of Justice was released; the memorandum described al-Awlaki's killing as a lawful act of war.[24] Civil liberties advocates have called the killing of al-Awlaki an extrajudicial execution that breached al-Awlaki's constitutional rights.[25] The New York Times wrote in 2015 that al-Awlaki's public statements and videos had been more influential in inspiring acts of Islamic terrorism in the wake of his killing than they were before his death.[26]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference foxnews2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference att was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Born in US, Al-Awlaki was his birth nation's sworn enemy". NBC News. September 30, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference washingtonpost3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Rettig, Jessica (September 30, 2011). "Death of Anwar Al Awlaki Doesn't Solve Yemen's Problems". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  6. ^ al-Haj, Ahmed; Abu-Nasr, Donna (November 10, 2009). "U.S. imam wanted in Yemen over Al-Qaida suspicions". NBC News. Associated Press. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  7. ^ Finkel, Gal Perl (March 7, 2017). "A New Strategy Against ISIS". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki 'killed in Yemen'". BBC News. September 30, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  9. ^ Rhee, Joseph; Schone, Mark (November 29, 2009). "How Anwar Awlaki Got Away". ABC News. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  10. ^ a b c Burke, Jason (October 2, 2011). "Anwar al-Awlaki obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c "Obituary: Anwar al-Awlaki". BBC News. September 30, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  12. ^ Ghobari, Mohammed; Kasolowsky, Raissa (November 2, 2010). "Yemen charges U.S.-born cleric with plot to kill foreigners". Reuters. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  13. ^ "Cleric says American 'devils' must die". United Press International. November 8, 2010. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
  14. ^ Sudarsan, Raghavan; Shear, Michael D. (December 25, 2009). "U.S.-aided attack in Yemen thought to have killed Aulaqi, 2 al-Qaeda leaders". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 25, 2009.
  15. ^ Newton, Paula (March 10, 2010). "Purported al-Awlaki message calls for jihad against US". CNN. Archived from the original on April 19, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  16. ^ Shane, Scott; Worth, Robert (November 8, 2010). "Challenge Heard on Move to Kill Qaeda-Linked Cleric". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  17. ^ a b Miller, Greg (April 6, 2010). "Muslim cleric Aulaqi is 1st U.S. citizen on list of those CIA is allowed to kill". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2010.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference nytimes1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b Leonard, Tom (April 7, 2010). "Barack Obama orders killing of US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on April 11, 2010. Retrieved April 8, 2010.
  20. ^ "Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta; American Civil Liberties Union". ACLU. September 13, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  21. ^ Perez, Evan (December 8, 2010). "Judge Dismisses Targeted-Killing Suit". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference drones deployed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ "Anwar al-Awlaki Targeted By U.S. Drones After Osama Bin Laden Raid". ABC News. May 6, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference lauterphelps was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Nelson, Steven (June 23, 2014). "Drone Memo Justifying Assassination of U.S. Citizen Released". U.S. News & World Report. Washington, D.C. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  26. ^ Shane, Scott (August 27, 2015). "The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki". The New York Times Magazine.