Overview

Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki was an American-Yemeni imam and Islamic militant who became the first U.S. citizen known to be deliberately targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike without criminal charges or trial. Born in Las Cruces; New Mexico to Yemeni parents; al-Awlaki grew up in the United States and Yemen; earned degrees from Colorado State University and San Diego State University; and served as an imam at mosques in San Diego; Falls Church (Virginia); and briefly in the Washington D.C. area. He had contacts with three of the September 11; 2001 hijackers (Nawaf al-Hazmi; Hani Hanjour; and possibly Mohamed Atta); though the 9/11 Commission could not determine whether the contacts were knowing. After 9/11; al-Awlaki initially condemned the attacks and was presented by media as a moderate Muslim voice; but he subsequently radicalized and relocated to Yemen around 2004. He became a senior recruiter and propagandist for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP); producing influential English-language videos and an online magazine (Inspire) that inspired multiple terrorist attacks. He communicated directly with Nidal Hasan before the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people; and directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed 2009 Christmas Day underwear bomb plot. President Obama authorized his killing; placing him on a CIA "kill list." On September 30; 2011; a CIA drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki along with Samir Khan; another American citizen. The extrajudicial killing of a U.S. citizen without due process raised profound constitutional questions. Two weeks later; his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman was also killed in a separate U.S. drone strike.

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