Yemen Refuses To Pursue Wanted Cleric For U.S.

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Yemeni forces are not going after a radical U.S.-born cleric who has reportedly been added to the CIA’s list of targets to be killed or captured, the foreign minister said Saturday.

The United States has not handed over evidence to support allegations that Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, is recruiting for al-Qaeda’s offshoot in the impoverished country on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, the minister said.

“Anwar al-Awlaki has always been looked at as a preacher rather than a terrorist and shouldn’t be considered as a terrorist unless the Americans have evidence that he has been involved in terrorism,” Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told reporters on Saturday, adding that the government was not hunting the US-born cleric believed to be living in Yemen. “The detailed information … and evidence gathered by US agencies has not been given to Yemen.”

However, al-Qirbi also told Al Jazeera television that al-Awlaki “is wanted by Yemeni justice for questioning, so that he can clear his name … or face trial.”

Though Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico, he lived in Yemen with his family for most of his early life. He returned to attend college and graduate school and it was during this period he began serving as an imam for various mosques around the country.

The US has sought in recent months to heighten cooperation with Yemen, where it believes a relatively new offshoot of Al Qaeda is gaining strength. It has also pledged to double its modest military aid to Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest state. The state’s ability to govern has been compromised by a secessionist movement in the south and a rebellion in the north that was only recently resolved.

The Barack Obama administration took a somewhat extraordinary step last week in authorizing the targeted killing of the cleric.

A handful of intelligence and counterterrorism officials briefed members of the press on the decision last week, during which Reuters quoted government officials as saying that “Al-Awlaki is a proven threat,” and that “he’s being targeted”.

Though known only as an Islamic scholar, espousing controversial views, U.S. intelligence officials cited new information on his direct involvement with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as justification for his targeting.

“He’s gotten involved in plots,” an unnamed official told the New York Times last week. “The danger al-Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,”

For more information, please see:

The Philadelphia Inquirer – Yemen Declines To Pursue Cleric Targeted By U.S. – 11 April 2010

The Christian Science Monitor – Yemen Balks At Possible U.S. Possible Strike On Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki – 12 April 2010

IPS – Yemen Refuses To Hunt Al-Awlaki For U.S. – 13 April 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive