[smoothy]

One more waste of human flesh finally taken out...

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Yemen's Defense Ministry and U.S. officials said another American militant was killed in the same strike alongside al-Awlaki — Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani heritage who produced "Inspire," an English-language al-Qaida Web magazine that spread the word on ways to carry out attacks inside the United States. U.S. and Yemeni officials said two other militants were also killed in the strike but did not immediately identify them.

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

President Barack Obama declared al-Awlaki's killing a "major blow" to al-Qaida's most active affiliate, and vowed a vigorous U.S. campaign to prevent the terror network and its partners from finding safe haven anywhere in the world.

Obama said al-Awlaki "directed" the Christmas plane bombing attempt as well as a failed attempt to mail explosives to the United States, "and he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda."

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

The Yemeni-American had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by Obama in April 2010 — making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

The operation that killed al-Awlaki was run by the U.S. military's elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command — the same unit that got bin Laden.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was traveling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Yemeni government announced that al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" around 9:55 a.m outside the town of Khasaf in a desert stretch of Jawf province, 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa. It gave no further details.

[cdad]

In some ways this story bothers me as it is removing the human potential from the event. Are we at the point now where we can eliminate anyone at the push of a button and annonymously? That's not going to get us very far. Have we reduced war to nothing more then a video game? I understand this guy was the bad guy. But in the same breath I look at how Bin Laden was handled and you can see a major difference in the outcome.

[tomder55]

Cal we crossed that bridge a long time ago. The carriers at Midway never saw the ships they were battling . We have opened the last couple wars with a barrage of cruise missiles fired from many miles away .

Just to prepare everyone.. There will be an argument forwarded here that he was disposed of without due process... that since he was an American citizen he was entitled to a trial etc.
This of course is nonsense .
He was an enemy leader of a movement openly at war against the United States . He knew this was his fate when he began his personal jihad. I hear him and OBL shouting on their way to Hades "From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."
There was no other way this was going to end.

[paraclete]

America killing its own wayward citizens, now that sounds like a plan. Charity begins, as they say, at home, or in this case in a place far away.

[tomder55]

Completely off base. It's like saying Lincoln needed to get a court order to detain the rebels at Gettysburg. This guy was waging war against the US for a foreign entity . Now he's not. End of story .

[cdad]

completely off base. It's like saying Lincoln needed to get a court order to detain the rebels at Gettysburg. This guy was waging war against the US for a foreign entity . Now he's not. End of story .

I disagree. Detaining is very different the exicuting. There was no trial. Does this set a new pecident so they can just kill off those they consider enemies of the state? Even with Timothy McVey they had a trial.

[tomder55]

McVey waged a personal war against the US . It was clearly a criminal act... But ;had he fled the nation to a place ,where normal law and order like extradition is not possible ,to take up arms against us as a leader of our enemies ,then it would've been reasonable for the US to target him. It is no different than targeting any other military leader we are at war against. His attempt to hide behind the protections of dual citizenship doesn't cut it . He used his citizenship as a weapon against us. McVey in his warped way thought he was doing something patriotic . Anwar al-Awlaki was waging war against America with a goal of it's destruction.

[smoothy]

The thing here is , this was not a simple fugative from the law... this is someone who helped commit acts of war against the USA... and congress has agreed there is an actual state of war with the terrorists.

In this specific situation... that scumbag was absolutely no different than any other terrorist scumbag. And could be "taken out".

Its not like simply taking him into custody was an option. Which is good, because tax dollars would have been wasted paying the ACLU to defend his rights to commit terrorism against the USA. And the ACLU would have fluffed up those legal bills to look like a Moon Mission.

If he was a deadbeat dad, skipping out on unpaid parking tickets, or even a simple felon, it would be a different thing.

And after all, what did Timmothy McVey get in the end? The very same thing... just in a different manner after a lot of Lawyers made a lot of money off the escapade. But the differences are he never left the country to commit the act, and wasn't part of a Terrorist organization And that is what was different between those two. Both got what they deserved.

[Curlyben]

All Done.
Congrats.