In wake of Bin Laden killing: US targets American citizen in Yemen

Barely five days after the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the US launched a Predator drone strike aimed at assassinating an American citizen in Yemen.

The May 5 drone attack, which took place in Yemen’s Shabwa province, was planned as a targeted assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born Islamic cleric with US citizenship, according to US and Yemeni officials cited Friday evening by the Wall Street Journal.

According to media reports last year, Obama placed Al-Awlaki on a “targeting list” after his administration asserted a right not even claimed by the Bush White House—to carry out the extra-judicial execution of any US citizen deemed by the president to be a “specially designated global terrorist”, without presenting any evidence or securing any judicial sanction. Al-Awlaki—who has made anti-American videos and tapes justifying Islamist terrorism—has never been indicted for any crime in the United States.

The missile fired with the intent of killing Al-Awlaki instead took the lives of two brothers, identified by the Yemeni defense ministry as Musaid Mubarak and Abdullah al Daghari. The car they were driving was struck by a Hellfire missile, killing them instantly and wounding a bystander.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/obam-m07.shtml

Same old, same old. Welcome to the new America.

in the bunch that split off from bin Laden's group in a row over money some years ago. Bin Laden's group was the smaller group but arguably the more lethal.

In any case, they're going to have to spend more and more of their effort on security, which means less and less on mayhem.

He's resisting arrest by hiding in a foreign country so Obama is acting within the law. And by the way, this is war, and Al-Awlaki chose the side of the enemy.

now risk falling into the abyss towards which we careen. Who among us shall walk us back from the abyss?

Glenn Greenwald has said it best:

"Once you embrace the bin Laden Exception, how does it stay confined to him?"

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/06/bin_laden