Anwar al-Awlaki (also spelled Aulaqi) was an American-Yemeni cleric killed in late 2011, who was identified in 2009 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a known, important "senior recruiter for al Qaeda", and a spiritual motivator.
Al-Awlaki's name came up in the context of a dozen terrorism plots in the US, UK, and Canada. The cases included suicide bombers in the 2005 London bombings, radical Islamic terrorists in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case, radical Islamic terrorists in the 2007 Fort Dix attack plot, and Faisal Shahzad, charged in the 2010 Times Square attempted bombing. In each case the suspects demonstrated devotion to al-Awlaki's message, as they listened to his lectures and sermons on laptops, audio clips, and CDs.
Al-Awlaki’s recorded lectures appeared to inspire Islamist fundamentalists who comprised at least six terror cells in the UK through 2009. Michael Finton (Talib Islam), who attempted in September 2009 to bomb the Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in Springfield, Illinois, admired al-Awlaki and quoted him on his Myspace page. In addition to his website, al-Awlaki had a Facebook fan page. A substantial percentage of fans were from the US and identified as high school students.
In October 2008, Charles Allen, U.S. Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis, warned that al-Awlaki "targets U.S. Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen." Responding to Allen, Al-Awlaki wrote on his website in December 2008: "I would challenge him to come up with just one such lecture where I encourage 'terrorist attacks'".
9/11 attacks
Khalid al-Mihdhar was one of the five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks. While in San Diego, witnesses told the FBI Mihdhar and fellow hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi had a close relationship with Anwar Al Awlaki, an imam who served as their spiritual advisor. Authorities say the two regularly attended the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque Awlaki led in San Diego, and Awlaki had many closed-door meetings with them, which led investigators to believe Awlaki knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.
Anwar al-Awlaki headed east and served as Imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in the metropolitan Washington, DC area starting in January 2001. Shortly after this, his sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers including Hazmi. The 9/11 Commission concluded that two of the hijackers "reportedly respected Awlaki as a religious figure". Police found his telephone number in the contacts of Ramzi bin al-Shibh (the "20th hijacker") when they searched his Hamburg apartment while investigating the 9/11 attacks. The imam's precise role in the September 11 attack remains a painful, unanswered question for many Americans when he shows up so frequently in a timeline of events. In 2011, the House Homeland Security Committee investigated whether Anwar al-Awlaki might have contributed to the 9/11 attacks.
Little Rock military recruiting office shooting (June 2009)
In the 2009 Little Rock military recruiting office shooting, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Leon Bledsoe, a convert to Islam who had spent time in Yemen, on June 1, 2009 opened fire with an assault rifle in a drive-by shooting on soldiers in front of a United States military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. He killed Private William Long and wounded Private Quinton Ezeagwula. Muhammad claimed to be affiliated with and sent by Al-Qaeda. He had previously been arrested in Yemen in November 2008, with a fraudulent Somali passport, explosive manuals, and literature by al-Awlaki.
Fort Hood shooter (November 2009)
Shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan was investigated by the FBI after intelligence agencies intercepted at least 18 emails between him and al-Awlaki between December 2008 and June 2009. The terrorism expert Jarret Brachman said that Hasan's contacts with al-Awlaki should have raised "huge red flags" to intelligence analysts. According to Brachman, the late al-Awlaki was a major influence on radical English-speaking jihadis internationally. The Wall Street Journal reported that "There is no indication Mr. Awlaki played a direct role in any of the attacks, and he has never been indicted in the U.S."