TerrorismAnwar al-Awlaki’s sermons, lectures still accessible on YouTube
Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born leader of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike on 30 September 2011. Yet, six years later, Awlaki continues to radicalize and inspire Westerners to terror, due to the ongoing presence and availability of his lectures online, including on YouTube. As of 30 August 2017, a search for Anwar al-Awlaki on YouTube yielded more than 70,000 results, including his most incendiary lectures.
Anwar al-Awlaki // Source: yahoo.com
The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is highlighting Anwar al-Awlaki’s Violent Legacy in a collection of resources on the U.S.-born cleric who had for years served as a radicalizing figure for U.S. and European extremists. Awlaki, the leader of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike on 30 September 2011. In announcing his death, President Barak Obama said Awlaki “took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.”
Yet, CEP says, six years later, Awlaki continues to radicalize and inspire Westerners to terror, due to the ongoing presence and availability of his lectures online, including on YouTube. As of 30 August 2017, a search for Anwar al-Awlaki on YouTube yielded more than 70,000 results, including his most incendiary lectures. CEP has documented nearly ninety extremists in the United States and Europe with ties to Awlaki, including Cherif Kouachi, who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks; Omar Mateen, who killed forty-nine people in Orlando; Ohio State car attacker Abdul Razak Ali Artan; Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev; and many others.
— Read more in Anwar al-Awlaki’s Violent Legacy (Counter Extremism Project, September 2017)
