February 6, 2010

U.S. Imam Praises Detroit Terror Attack, Says Bomber was his Student

Chris Carter

An American-born, pro-jihad cleric has reportedly praised the failed Christmas airliner attack and claimed the perpetrator was his student.

Anwar al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen – born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents – and before leaving the U.S. in 2002, served as an imam in Denver, San Diego, and the Washington, D.C. area. While in San Diego, he became the “spiritual advisor” for two of the 9/11 hijackers (and had contact with a third). He also admits to having advised the man who gunned down 14 unarmed Americans at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Al-Awlaki now lives in Yemen, and counter terrorism experts believe that he works for al Qaeda.

 

In a recent Al Jazeera interview, al-Awlaki states that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian student who attempted to detonate a bomb on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, was in fact a student of his.

 

Al-Awlaki's pro-jihad internet lectures and materials are very popular, and he is even active on social networking sites like Facebook.

 

Abdulmtallab attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in December while en route from Amsterdam to Detroit by hiding a bomb in his underwear. He has stated that more attacks are planned, that his is the first of many forthcoming plots. He is currently in federal prison in Milan, Michigan.

 

“Brother mujahed Umar Farouk – may Allah relieve him a – is one of my students, yes,” said al-Awlaki in the interview, which published Tuesday. “We had kept in contact, but I didn't issue a fatwa (religious ruling/declaration of war) to Umar Farouk for this operation.”

 

Al-Awlaki expressed his support of the failed Christmas attack, but said that he would have preferred a military target.

 

“I support what Umar Farouk did after seeing my brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan being killed,” al-Awlaki said. “If it was a military plane or a U.S. military target it would have been better...(but) the American people have participated in all the crimes of their government.”

 

The other two known terrorism cases that he had ties to were indeed military targets: the victims in Maj. Hasan's Fort Hood massacre were mostly soldiers, and Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar – the 9/11 hijackers that al-Awlaki mentored – were two of the five operatives who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, which killed 64 passengers and 125 people in the Pentagon. Hani Hanjour – another Flight 77 hijacker – attended services at the Dar al Hiraj mosque in Falls Church, Va. while al-Awlaki was an imam there.

 

“Some 300 Americans are nothing compared to thousands Muslims they have killed,” he added of the innocent civilians on the flight to Detroit.

 

But according to a recent study, the same could be said of al Qaeda.

 

Eighty-five percent of al Qaeda's victims are in fact Muslims. The handful of Westerners killed by al Qaeda attacks pale in comparison to the thousands of their own people the terrorist group has killed.

 

Published with permission by The US Report

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Chris Carter hosts the talk radio program Unto the Breach, which covers international terrorism and issues of national security. He is a research analyst at the Counterterrorism Research Center of the Family Security Foundation. He also serves on the information committee of the 2010 Medal of Honor Convention project, and writes for The US Report. Visit him online at The Victory Institute.

 

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The Imam praising a failed bomber, that is great. Praising a failure.

posted by: Gordon
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 00:58 AM

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I hope everyone agrees that this Imam is still welcome in this country. I don't care where he was born, U.S. citizen or not, he is NOT and American,not by any stretch of the word. If, for instance, this Imam was a Christian Minister, or a Catholic Priest, our government would be trying to hang him as a home grown terrorist, or at the very least prosecuting him for inciting terrorist acts. But no, the press gives him creedance, our questionable American citizen president remains silent, because the Imam is Muslim. Invitations continue to go out to all Muslim countries stating we want you in America. Bring your holy Qur'an and your peaceful religion. We, as the federal government welcome all terrorists, after all, terrorists are Americans too. Wait a minute, oops, that's right, terrorists get the exact same rights as true American Citizens. What a mockery of justice, and a slap in the face to real Americans. The only thing our President should be feeling right now is ashamed. He doesn't though, and we all know why, because he is determined to destroy America, and all it stands for, and all it ever stood for. Snuffing out the Freedom and Liberty Beacon is Obama's goal. Unfortunately the rest of the D.C. elite are allowing it to happen. I wonder if Congress and the Senate realize that they are irrelevant yet?

posted by: Jerry
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 10:49 AM

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