Radical Muslim Cleric Connected to Airline Bomb Suspect and to Ft. Hood Massacre
Radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki now appears to have a common connection with terrorist suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
Hasan is the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and AbdulMutallab is accused of trying to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
AbdulMutallab may have had direct contacts with radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN Thursday.
Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he believes there is a connection between AbdulMutallab and the American-born cleric.
According to CNN, al-Awlaki admitted that Hasan communicated with him via e-mail starting about a year before the shooting rampage — seeking advice about killing U.S. troops, the cleric said.
al-Awlaki said he lauded the Fort Hood attack because it was aimed at troops, whom he accused of fighting an unjust war against Islam.
“It is a military target inside America and there is no dispute over that,” al-Awlaki said. “Also, these military personnel are not ordinary; they were trained and ready to fight and kill oppressed Muslims, and commit crimes in Afghanistan.”
The 9/11 Commission Report says al-Awlaki had contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers while they were in the United States, CNN stated.
CNN reported that Al-Awlaki is believed to have fled to Yemen in 2003 or 2004. Since then, he has been referred to as a “rock star” by some of those who incite radicalism on the Internet.
It’s time to update the 2010 Predator priority target list.
