Press reports have hinted at it for several days, but now the media has just come out and reported it: The same al Qaeda cleric who advised the Fort Hood shooter also counseled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – the Christmas Day bomber. Â Here is Victor Morton in the Washington Times:
This same official explained to the Times:
There is more and more evidence that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who Awlaki works with, sponsored Abdulmutallab’s attack. And Awlaki’s involvement confirms that this was a professional hit attempt – not the work of an “isolated extremist,” as President Obama first claimed. Â Let’s run down Anwar al Awlaki’s dossier in brief once again: Â Awlaki was the “spiritual advisor” for at least two of the September 11 hijackers, according to Congress’s Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. (Awlaki probably assisted at least one more on U.S. soil as well.) Â Awlaki was the inspiration for a terrorist plot in Toronto and the Fort Dix plot too. Â Awlaki has convinced untold numbers of recruits to travel to Afghanistan and Iraq to wage jihad against American forces. Â Awlaki provided religious advice to the Fort Hood Shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. According to Awlaki himself, Hasan wanted an “an edict regarding the [possibility] of a Muslim soldier killing his colleagues who serve with him in the American army.” It is no surprise that Awlaki openly exhorted his followers to act just as Hasan did prior to that fateful day in early November and then praised the attack after the fact. Â Awlaki’s propaganda has been used by a prominent former Guantanamo detainee to demonize the West and convince others of the need to wage jihad. Â And now we are learning that Awlaki was the mentor for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Â When will Awlaki’s reign of terror end? We don’t know. The latest indications are that he survived an airstrike earlier this month.
