The decision to add Anwar al-Awlaki to the U.S. target list followed a National Security Council review because of his status as a U.S. citizen. Officials said Awlaki posed a direct security threat to the United States.
“Awlaki is a proven threat,” a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. “He’s being targeted.”
Rep. Jane Harman, chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, described Awlaki as “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us.”
“He is very much in the sights of the Yemenis, with us helping them,” said Harman, who recently visited Yemen for talks with U.S. and Yemeni officials.
She told Reuters that Awlaki’s U.S. citizenship made going after him “certainly complicated.”
But Harman said President Barack Obama and his administration “made very clear that people, including Americans who are trying to attack our country, are people we will definitely pursue… are targets of the United States.”
Yemen has carried out air strikes with U.S. assistance targeting al-Qaeda leaders, but there have been conflicting reports about whether Awlaki was present during any of those attacks. Officials believe he remains in hiding in Yemen.
U.S. intelligence agencies had viewed Awlaki as chiefly an al-Qaeda sympathizer and recruiter for Islamist causes with possible ties to some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.
But that assessment started to change late last year with revelations about Awlaki’s contacts with both the Nigerian suspect in an attempted bombing of a transatlantic passenger jet as it approached Detroit on Dec. 25 and to the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people at a military base in Texas on Nov. 5.
Source: Al Arabia