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(ABC News) – Al Qaeda Recruiter Mocks U.S. Intelligence, Says Accused Shooter Asked for Guidance About Shooting In 2008.
In an interview published on Al Jazeera’s Web site, radical Muslim cleric Anwar al Awlaki says that Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 in last month’s Fort Hood massacre, asked for guidance about killing American military personnel in his very first e-mail.
Awlaki claims that Hasan initiated the e-mail correspondence with a message on Dec. 17, 2008. “He was asking about killing U.S. soldiers and officers,” says Awlaki. “His question was is it legitimate [under Islamic law].”
At least 30 suspected al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in a dawn air raid by Yemeni forces in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa.
Among those thought to have been killed in the raid early on Thursday was Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher, who according to a Yemeni security official was linked to a man who killed 13 people at a US army base in Texas.
“Anwar al-Awlaki is suspected to be dead [in the air raid],” the unnamed Yemeni official was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
According to US officials, al-Awlaki had contacts to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US soldier, who shot dead 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in the US state of Texas.
No confirmation
Nasser al-Whaychi, the head of al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, was thought to have been present at the meeting at the time of the attack but it is not known if he was killed in the raid.
Initial reports also said that two other al-Qaeda commanders, identified by security sources as Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir, were among those killed.
But there was no official confirmation that any of the men had been killed.
Al-Oumir is thought to have been the man who spoke at a rally in Abyane, a rare public appearance by an al-Qaeda leader, footage of which was obtained by Al Jazeera.
A felony arrest warrant for radical Islamic cleric Anwar al Awlaki was rescinded in 2002 a day before he was intercepted as a terror suspect at New York’s JFK airport, forcing authorities to release him, according to sources familiar with the case. The warrant was cancelled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver, even though Awlaki was on a terror watch list, and even though the office’s supervising prosecutor for terror cases had been fully briefed on Awlaki’s alleged terror ties, according to investigators.
Soon after the 2002 warrant was canceled, Awlaki left the United States for good, settling in Yemen.
Awlaki Targeted After 9/11
Awlaki had been investigated by the FBI in 1999 and 2000. Among other things, the FBI discovered he had been in touch with an associate of “the blind sheik,” Omar Abdel Rahman, now in prison for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
After 9/11, however, terror investigators took a fresh look at Awlaki.
JTTF agents in San Diego were keenly interested in Awlaki’s activities because of his close ties to hijackers Nawaf Alhamzi and Khalid Almihdhar. Authorities say the two hijackers had attended the Awlaki-led Rabat mosque in San Diego and the imam had numerous closed door meetings with the men, leading investigators to believe that Awlaki was their spiritual advisor and had known about the 9/11 attacks in advance. When Alwaki moved to a Northern Virginia mosque in early 2001, Alhamzi had visited him there too, along with a third future hijacker, Hani Hanjour.
See my earlier diaries on Fort Hood Killing and Suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan –
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."