Anwar al Awlaki: the new Osama bin Laden?

Anwar al Awlaki, a preacher broadcasting his Islamist ideology in sermons on the internet, is a clear and present danger, says Philip Johnston.

Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki Photo: AP

By Philip Johnston

9:00PM BST 17 Sep 2010

You may not have heard of him before – but this is the new face of international terrorism. His name is Anwar al Awlaki – and unlike Osama bin Laden, who has not been seen in public for many years, he is loud, obvious and very dangerous. If there is an attack any time soon in London or in another Western capital, the chances are that Awlaki will be behind it. The CIA has put him on their hit-list of assassination targets, and in a rare speech on Thursday, Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, name-checked Awlaki as the West’s Public Enemy No 1.

“The operational involvement of Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki with al-Qaeda is of particular concern given his wide circle of adherents in the West, including in the UK,” said Evans.

So, who is Awlaki and why are intelligence agencies so worried about him? To some extent, he is the creation of the West’s success in restraining al Qaeda’s activities in Afghanistan and the lawless borderlands of north-west Pakistan. Bin Laden’s terror organisation, if not exactly beaten, has been scattered. Where, once most of the terrorist plots against Western targets could be traced back to Pakistan (specifically, the tribal areas of Waziristan), the proportion dropped to 75 per cent three years ago and is now down to 50 per cent. The reason is that a lot of al-Qaeda’s foreign fighters, especially the Arabs, have relocated to Somalia or to Yemen – and it is there where Awlaki rules the roost.

But he is not a gun-toting terrorist warlord like bin Laden. Awlaki, 39, is a preacher, broadcasting his Islamist ideology in sermons on the internet. The web gives him a global reach – literally into the bedrooms of disenchanted and gullible young Muslims who may already have been radicalised by an extremist imam or friend. For the intelligence services, this poses a dangerous new threat because it is so hard to keep under surveillance. Plotters meeting can be watched and followed; but if the conspiracy is internet-based, with would-be terrorists acting alone simply because they have heard Awlaki’s call to jihad on their PC, the chances of stumbling upon it are reduced.

The first time that many people heard Awlaki’s name was at the turn of the year. It is said that he recruited and mentored Umar Abdulmutallab, the young African who attempted to blow up a plane carrying hundreds of passengers over Detroit on Christmas Day, by detonating a device in his underpants. However, Awlaki has been on Western intelligence’s radar for some years, as his connections with terrorist plotters, including the September 11 hijackers and the July 7 London bombers, gradually became apparent.




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I came across this article when i was checking my old bookmarks. Very funny. Now , Imam Anwar Al Awlaki was martyred.


 From the Humble Servant of The Lord .. Mohamad Azhaari Shah Sulaiman