General Discussion

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts) Thu May 12, 2016, 05:56 PM May 2016

Court Papers Reveal Qaeda Operative’s Work as Trainer and Bomb Expert

WASHINGTON — The Qaeda bomb-making instructor carefully demonstrated for his student how to mix the chemicals to make a volatile powder, then supervised a test explosion and added a sinister final tip: tape bolts around the homemade bomb to produce lethal shrapnel.

The explosive expert’s identity, revealed by a Qaeda operative facing sentencing next week, came as a surprise: He was Anwar al-Awlaki, the American imam who had joined Al Qaeda in Yemen and become the terrorist network’s leading English-language propagandist.

Mr. Awlaki had long been known for public oratory on behalf of Al Qaeda before he was killed in a drone strike in 2011 on President Obama’s orders, making him the first American citizen killed without criminal charges or trial in the campaign against terrorism.

But new court filings in New York offer the most detailed account yet of a hidden side of Mr. Awlaki’s work inside Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen — as a hands-on trainer who taught recruits how to make bombs, gave them money for missions and offered suggestions about how to carry out suicide attacks.

The papers, part of a sentencing memorandum submitted by the government, were filed Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan in the case of Mr. Awlaki’s former bomb-making student, Minh Quang Pham, a Vietnamese-British convert to Islam. He has pleaded guilty to three terrorism-related counts and is to be sentenced Monday.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/world/middleeast/anwar-al-awlaki-qaeda.html?referer=

Remember the good old days when DUers used to argue he had nothing to do with AQ and was completely innocent?

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Court Papers Reveal Qaeda Operative’s Work as Trainer and Bomb Expert (Original Post) Blue_Tires May 2016 OP

Really who said he was innocent and had nothing to do with AQ? Rex May 2016 #1

You can start with Jeremy Scahill and the ACLU.... Blue_Tires May 2016 #3

Nice try. Few to none said he had nothing to do with AQ. Igel May 2016 #4

Someone facing sentencing fingered him. Wilms May 2016 #2

Rex

(65,616 posts)

1. Really who said he was innocent and had nothing to do with AQ?

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu May 12, 2016, 06:02 PM

May 2016

First I've heard of it.

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)

3. You can start with Jeremy Scahill and the ACLU....

Reply to Rex (Reply #1)

Thu May 12, 2016, 07:31 PM

May 2016

Igel

(35,320 posts)

4. Nice try. Few to none said he had nothing to do with AQ.

Reply to Rex (Reply #1)

Thu May 12, 2016, 07:51 PM

May 2016

But the question as posed is misleading and irrelevant, but as soon as we answer, "Well, nobody" then there's an assertion lurking that will be deemed to be affirmed. Even by those who say "nobody."

The claims weren't that he had nothing to do with AQ. The claims were that he may have been somehow linked, but he had *done* nothing. It makes it sound he was targeted for association, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being a seeking and not a slaughterer, certainly not because he was a danger or helped produce danger.

And by implicature, many assumed and tried to propose that he was innocent.

"Where's the proof?" (In other words, "We don't have a good reason so there was none." No, questions are not semantically neutral. Otherwise the question, "Do you like humping goats while Malia watches?" would be a fine question to ask during the next Presidential press conference. It wouldn't be. Questions are not neutral.)

"How could we do that without a trial?"

"He was an American. Where's the presumption of innocence?"

"He didn't do anything wrong. He was killed because he was too close to somebody that wanted to keep him from talking."

Of course, pointing out names would be a violation of the TOS. I'm not even giving adequate quotes. But the outrage was real and not confined to a few people.

Wilms

(26,795 posts)

2. Someone facing sentencing fingered him.

Reply to Blue_Tires (Original post)

Thu May 12, 2016, 06:03 PM

May 2016

Noted.

Reply to this discussion