What the Times does is “explain” how the U.S. government came to murder an American citizen, Anwar al-Awaki, apparently for the crime of pissing President Obama off. Al-Awaki was born in New Mexico, but moved to Yemen after 9/11. According to the Times,
He first came under F.B.I. investigation in 1999 because of associations with militants and was questioned after the 2001 terrorist attacks about his contacts with three of the hijackers at his mosques in San Diego and Virginia. But at other times, presenting himself as a moderate bridge-builder, he gave interviews to the national news media, preached at the Capitol in Washington and attended a breakfast with Pentagon officials.
In 2002, after leaving the United States for good, he endorsed the notion that the land of his birth was at war with Islam. In London, and then in Yemen, where he was imprisoned for 18 months with American encouragement, Mr. Awlaki inched steadily closer to a full embrace of terrorist violence. His eloquent, English-language exhortations to jihad turned up repeatedly on the computers of young plotters of violence arrested in Britain, Canada and the United States.
The Times describes the President as “shaken by the underwear bombing attempt,” which I hope is not true, but probably is. The Times also says that “at the White House, frustration was mounting” at the failure to murder al-Awaki. Finally, of course, they murdered him, and, by accident, his 16-year-old son, and then lied about his age, claiming that the boy was actually 21.
There is no doubt that al-Awaki was a hate-filled man. He praised the Ft. Hood murders, though there is no evidence that he encouraged their commission. While he has preached violence, he has committed none. It is beyond unfortunate that the Obama Administration feels justified in dealing with public relations embarrassments by murdering those tangentially involved.
*I discussed Ms. Abramson’s decision that it would be OK for her, as NYT EE, to write a continuing column about Scott in my post, “Editorial standards at the New York Times: What has four legs and goes “Woof, Woof, Woof”?
