Profile: Anwar al-Awlaki
Terrorist Propaganda
Posted: November 24, 2009
Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been designated by the U.S. as a "key leader" for Al Qaeda, has encouraged American Muslims to attack non-Muslims and Western interests through his literature, sermons and other materials on his blog for several years.
Some of al-Awlaki's sermons instruct American Muslims to carry out "violent jihad" against non-Muslims. In "Constants on the Path of Jihad," one of al-Awlaki's sermons which has been posted on several Web sites commonly used by Muslim extremists and is based on the writings of Yousef al-Ayyiri, the founder of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, al-Awlaki says, "Jihad will also carry on until the Day of Judgment since we are told to wipe out kufr [non-Muslims] from the world." He also argues that jihad is global and "does not depend on any particular land…no borders of barriers stop it."
In another sermon posted on his Web site in February 2009, titled "44 Ways to Support Jihad," al-Awlaki explains that "Jihad is the greatest deed after believing in Allah and is the most needed." His lecture provides guidance on how to support jihad, such as giving money to the "mujahideen" (Muslim warriors) or their families after they've died, encouraging others to "fight jihad," conduct weapons training and raise children "on the love of Jihad and the mujahideen." He also asks Muslims to support jihad through "WWW Jihad," which he describes as establishing discussion forums and email lists to facilitate the sharing of "Jihad literature and news."
In addition to posting lectures on his blog, al-Awlaki has published articles in several online magazines published for Western and English-speaking audiences. Al-Awlaki wrote for Jihad Recollections, an English-language online publication put out by Al-Fursan Media, an apparent collaboration of online terrorist sympathizers.
Al-Awlaki, described by government officials as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) "leader of external operations," has also contributed to most if the editions of Inspire, Al Qaeda's first-ever English-language magazine disseminated via the Internet. In the inaugural issue, al-Awlaki called for the assassination of all those involved in the controversial cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, including the cartoonists, publishers and the Western political systems that support them. All Western interests, according to al-Awlaki, are therefore permissible targets. "This would make the attacking of any Western target legal from an Islamic viewpoint," al-Awlaki argues. "Assassinations, bombings, and acts of arson are all legitimate forms of revenge against a system that relishes the sacrilege of Islam in the name of freedom."
Al-Awlaki, who has been described by the FBI as "a known associate and propagandist" for Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, communicates with readers of his blog by enabling them to "contact the sheikh" with questions. Since December 2008, Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, exchanged more than a dozen emails with al-Awlaki in which he asked for "religious guidance," according to authorities. Media reports indicate that Hasan may have also told al-Awlaki that he looks forward to meeting al-Awlaki "in the afterlife."
While it is difficult to gauge the extent of al-Awlaki's following, al-Awlaki's group on the social networking site Facebook had more than 5,000 "fans" prior to the Fort Hood shootings (the group was removed after the attack). A subsequent Facebook group has approximately 650 followers.
One indication of al-Awlaki's widespread influence is the number of extremists that have been arrested who were found in possession of his materials. "He has involved himself in every aspect of the supply chain of terrorism," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. This entails "fundraising for terrorist groups, recruiting and training operatives, and planning and ordering attacks on innocents."
The following is a sampling of those who have been arrested on various terror-related charges who were previously in contact with al-Awlaki or were found with his materials:
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Jose Pimentel, who was arrested in November 2011 for planning to attack military personnel and other targets in the United States, posted at least fifteen videos of al-Awlaki on his YouTube channel. On his Web site, Pimentel calls al-Awlaki "The Destroyer Of The US" and posted transcripts of his messages. Pimentel reportedly accelerated his bomb-building efforts in response to al-Awlaki's death in an American strike in September 2011.
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Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, who was charged for attempting to attack a Military Entrance Processing Station in June 2011, subscribed to a YouTube channel featuring al-Awlaki videos. In one of the videos he made, Abdul-Latif laments that President Obama has "put a hit out on Anwar al-Awlaki, our brother sheikh."
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Naturalized U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, who was arrested in December 2010 for attempting to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb at a Maryland Army recruiting center, conveyed to an undercover informant his admiration for al-Awlaki. On his Facebook profile, Martinez similarly stated his esteem of al-Awlaki, writing, "I love Sheikh Anwar al Awlaki for the sake of ALLAH. A real inspiration for the Ummah, I dont care if he is on the terrorist list! May ALLAH give him Kire amen [sic]."
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Federal authorities recovered CDs containing lectures and speeches given al-Awlaki at the home of Ahmed Farooque, a Virginia man who was arrested in October 2010 for allegedly planning coordinated terror attacks at Metro stations in the Washington Metropolitan Area.
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Shaker Masri, an American citizen arrested in August 2010 for planning to travel to Somalia to join Al Shabaab, allegedly followed al-Awlaki's speeches and sermons. In anticipation of their future terrorist activities and attacks, Masri encouraged a government source to review videos and speeches featuring various Al Qaeda leaders, including sermons given by al-Awlaki.
- According to his plea agreement, Paul Rockwood Jr., an American convert to Islam who planned revenge attacks against those he believed "desecrated Islam," was a strict adherent of the "violent jihad-promoting ideology" propagated by al-Awlaki. Rockwood admitted in federal court that he devoted himself to al-Awlaki's teachings, including "Constants on the Path of Jihad" and "44 Ways to Jihad" – two al-Awlaki sermons that urge followers to support jihad through a variety of means.
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Zachary Chesser, an American citizen from Virginia who was arrested in July 2010 for attempting to provide material support to an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group based in Somalia, told federal authorities that he watched online videos featuring al-Awlaki. Chesser also told federal authorities that he exchanged several e-mails with the Yemeni-based cleric. In one e-mail, Chesser explained to al-Awlaki that he had previously "prayed to Allah to let him be in Al Shabaab." Chesser, who distributes terrorist propaganda materials through a variety of Web sites, blogs and social networking sites, gained media attention in April 2010 when he threatened the creators of South Park for satirizing issues surrounding the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
- Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte – two American citizens from New Jersey who attempted to travel to Somalia in June 2010 to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group – allegedly watched several al-Awlaki videos. The men allegedly watched al-Awalki's May 2010 video in which the Yemen-based cleric warned of future attacks against Americans in the U.S. and abroad. The men also listened to al-Awlaki's "Constants on the Path of Jihad" sermon.
- Federal authorities have alleged that al-Awlaki exchanged e-mails with Barry Walter Bujol, Jr., an American citizen who was charged in June 2010 with attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Among other things, Buloj allegedly asked al-Awlaki how to provide money to the "mujahideen," or Muslim warriors, overseas.
- American officials have reported that Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan who attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, 2010, told investigators he was influenced by al-Awlaki.
- Al-Awlaki admitted that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who attempted to detonate a bomb on a transatlantic flight to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009, was one of his students. Al-Awlaki further disclosed that he had met with Abdulmutallab as recently as the fall of 2009 and that he supports Abdulmutallab's attack "as America supports Israel's killing of Palestinians and its killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq."
- Al-Awlaki has also been linked to Sharif Mobley, an American formerly employed at several U.S. nuclear power plants who was arrested in Yemen in March 2010 for his alleged involvement in terrorist attacks and his suspected links to Al Qaeda.
- Mohamoud Hassan, who traveled to Somalia in November 2008 to train with the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al Shabaab, also listened to the "Constants on the Path of Jihad" sermon. According to his relatives still living in Minnesota, Hassan, a former engineering student, was killed in Mogadishu in September 2009. Hassan was one of several Somali-American men from Minnesota who have traveled to Somalia to train with Al Shabaab since the fall of 2008. That December, al-Awlaki praised Al Shabaab and called on all Muslims to "help them with men and money."
- Several terrorists convicted outside the U.S. also watched al-Awlaki sermons. Members of the so-called Toronto 18, a group of 18 Canadian residents who plotted a series of terrorist attacks against the Toronto Stock Exchange and other government buildings in Canada, watched videos of al-Awlaki's sermons on a laptop at a training camp operated by members of the group, according to Canadian authorities.
- British authorities found al-Awlaki materials in the possession of Aabid Hussain Khan, a British man who distributed terrorist related materials online to a network of contacts in the U.S., Europe and Canada, as well as in the possession of accused accomplices of the 2005 London suicide bombers.
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