Anwar al-Awalaki, U.S.-Yemeni Cleric, Calls Arab Unrest An Opportunity For Al Qaeda

CAIRO -- A U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric claims in a new article that violent Islamist groups will be able to take advantage of the Arab world's wave of popular unrest, even if it leads to secular governments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries.

Anwar al-Awlaki write in a new edition of al-Qaida's online magazine that any new governments will be weaker than the regimes they are replacing, and that will create opportunities for al-Qaida and its allies to operate with more freedom.

"Even if the upcoming governments wanted to continue with a policy of appeasing the West and Israel, they would not have the strength and depth of power that the previous governments had developed over the past three decades," al-Awlaki writes in the English-language article.

Western experts and government officials have described the overthrow of the Western-allied presidents of Tunisia and Egypt by peaceful and ideologically moderate uprisings as blows to the violent ideology of al-Qaida and other militant groups.

Al-Awlaki writes that such statements by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates "prove that either the intelligence reports these guys are reading are misleading or that they are trying to justify the stance that they are forced to take in support of the Arab masses, by claiming that they are bad for al Qaeda when they know very well that the opposite is the case."

Whatever the outcome of the revolts, "our mujahideen brothers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya .. will get a chance to breathe again after three decades of suffocation," he writes.

Al-Awlaki writes that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi imprisoned thousands of militants who will now have a chance to regroup in the turmoil and rejoin other fighters.

The al-Qaida-linked cleric is believed to have offered inspiration to attacks in the United States. Militants in Yemen have made territorial gains in recent days as its government has weakened in the face of popular demonstrations that have won support of tribal leaders, military defectors and clerics there.

Comments

[Whistlejackett]

04:34 PM on 04/03/2011

Anwar al-Awlaki Listen up dude. You will fail in your endeavors, all the revolutionaries don't want anything but democracy and all the Western nations will see that it happens. You are a has-been. The only way you can infiltrate the West is by slinking like rats, and hiding like you already are.

The world is changing dude, and you can kick and scream all you want, but you will disappear into history like a criminal.

[Dick Stone]

05:31 AM on 04/04/2011

I wish what you say was correct, but I fear these bad guys will gain control in areas that they were not able to operate in the past. We know they are in Yemen, some believe they are behind what is going on in Libya. I don't know the answer and I don't think anyone else really does, but I fear the outcome in Libya will not be good.

[notfooledbyu]

01:09 PM on 04/03/2011

The true answer is somewhere between Shimon Peres' carefully written PR statement and al Qaeda's spin, but it's all but certain that the rise of populace in the middle east is bad for the west.The question is, will we continue to waste our national wealth on fighting goat herders only because they don't like us in defense of "friends" with whom we never seem to be aligned? We could walk away from this entire mess with few or no consequences.

[allperils]

03:19 PM on 04/01/2011

I can imagine one day, in the future, China and Russia will come sweeping in to rescue these Afghans, Iraqiis, Iranians, Libyans from 3 decades of US occupation.

And at the end, the US is forced into isolation. With Asia controlling the oil.

Think this is non-sense?

Think harder. Those two oceans are good for defense, but when you need to go offense, it's not so easy.

[PersonFromEarth]

04:53 AM on 04/02/2011

Again, nice try to no crack pipe.

Russia's army can't even take on the United Kingdom's how can it do so against America's?

Afghanistan, iraq, Iran and Libya aren't near the Atlantic. Donkey.

Iran isn't under US occupation.

Think this is non-sense? You bet

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

12:43 PM on 04/01/2011

Tragic attempt to keep themselves relevant. In the scheme of things AQ is a very small fish.

[Mcgrawaddict]

12:20 PM on 04/01/2011

so darn true .. Absolutely a huge opportunity for AL CIADA

[WeAreUnstoppable]

12:12 PM on 04/01/2011

Hmmm....now you just gave the United States to come to at you at full force, regardless of what you think. The United States comes in many different forms either full face or not; the techniques or strategies will be used but not limited to: military invention, economic sanctions, embargoes, CIA (FBI, DEA) invention, International Monetary fund (US controlled, financial blackout), backdoor deals with their military industrial complex (all companies), pressuring your neighbors though U.S. Foreign Military Assistance fund which will be threatened if they don't act. Either way their influence is great and will spread interest where ever country you decide to call home.

[allperils]

03:16 PM on 04/01/2011

and how well does that work?

You remind me of a Nazi German. Believing to be unstoppable.

[myopinion2]

10:49 AM on 04/01/2011

If this guy would take off the turban and put on a kippa, there'd be a lot of Jewish mothers trying to interest him in a shiddich. clearly one of my closer cousins.

[MIKEinNYC]

11:58 PM on 03/31/2011

How smart are we to create a power vacuum that these islamic crazies can step into?

[YoBear]

12:39 AM on 04/01/2011

Well said. Saddam Hussein kept Al Qaeda in check. Not saying I like Saddam but just sayin.

[Liberalgirlandproud2]

10:56 PM on 03/31/2011

This made me laugh. They sure know how to spin an issue that no doubt makes them very unhappy. I don't believe a word of what he said.

[allperils]

03:28 PM on 04/01/2011

nobody believe what you guys say either.

"No fly zone plus"

what a joke

[joebiteme]

09:10 PM on 03/31/2011

why wouldn't he this pay they will have a country libya, oil, assets and weapons supplied by barak obama

[mulegino]

07:11 PM on 03/31/2011

Fresh from his recent dinner at the Pentagon, the arch-terrorist Awlaki threatens to walk out on the set of SITE INTEL's hit show, "Fear Fatwah", due to unspecified demands.
"Fear Fatwa" is produced by Rita Katz, the Iraqi born Mossad Operative famous for her other hit shows, "Grecian Formula Bin Laden" as well as "Hadassah Madrassa", the terror sit-com starring Adam Pearlman Gadhan and Joseph Cohen Quttb as former Israeli settlers turned Jihadists.

[totaldisbelief]

10:23 AM on 04/01/2011

Isn't that the guy from "Romancing the Stone"?

[mulegino]

11:11 AM on 04/01/2011

It could be. More than a few people have noticed that SITE's "Osama" stand-ins looked more like Lamont on Sanford and Son than Bin Laden.

[MohammedAbbasi]

06:11 PM on 03/31/2011

Come off it! You should have supported non-violent resistance rather than just jump in now!

[Meldy1]

03:41 PM on 03/31/2011

The terrorists just big mouthing meddling they aren't welcome in any coun try in the MEast...bla,bla bla,only and they have nothing to do with the Arab world.The protesters wouldn't want the terrorists in their winning the future..These criminals are just trying to meddle in words.fears mongering.We will demolished them and we aren't afraid of these killers..

[CubnKira]

03:39 PM on 03/31/2011

Not only does al Qaeda 'welcome' the uprisings, they or their splinter groups are behind them, like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the 'rebels' in Libya. al Qaeda has obtained a lot of recruits from Libya. 20% of all foreign fighters against us in Iraq came from Libya.

Just like the Iranian Revolution in 1978, students led and 9 months later, islamic fundamentalism took over. There are fewer freedoms than what the students had before 1978. Sadly, that will also happen with Egypt and Libya. But no one sees the forest for the trees.

[undsoweiter]

04:49 PM on 03/31/2011

No this is not like the Iranian revolution unless North Africa is the same as Persia\ and 1978 is the same as 2011, which they aren't.
Al Qaeda is scrambling to stay relevant.which they won't.

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

02:37 PM on 03/31/2011

Afraid Al Wacky will have a lot of competiton for top dog among other terrorist groups.
Other than that it's just ....Yadda Yadda