By Wikipedia LONDON – The American ambassador to the UK has been criticized for an official visit he made last week to a London mosque deemed to have accentuated…
Anwar al-Awlaki is a Muslim lecturer, spiritual leader, and former imam believed to be a senior talent recruiter and motivator "for al-Qaeda and all of its franchises. " With a blog and a Facebook page, he has been described as the "bin Laden of the internet. " In 2009, he reportedly was promoted to the rank of regional commander within al-Qaeda. Al-Awlaki's sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers. They were also attended by the accused Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan. In addition, U.S. intelligence intercepted at least 18 emails between Hasan and al-Awlaki from December 2008 to June 2009, including one in which Hasan wrote: "I can't wait to join you [in the afterlife]. " After the Fort Hood shooting, al-Awlaki praised Hasan's actions. Reportedly, there were close contacts between al-Awlaki and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspect in the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 al-Qaeda terrorist attack on Christmas Day 2009. According to the suspect, al-Awlaki was his recruiter, and one of his trainers. Yemeni authorities, searching for al-Awlaki because of his suspected al-Qaeda ties, have been unable to locate him since March 2009. He was initially reported as having possibly been killed in a Yemeni air strike on a meeting of al-Qaeda leaders at his house in the mountains of eastern Shabwa in December 2009. But by the following month, the working assumption was that he had survived.
