People of Interest Flashcards
Anwar al Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi; Arabic: أنور العولقي Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; April 21, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American and Yemeni imam and Islamic militant. US government officials said that he was a senior talent-recruiter and motivator who was involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. With a blog, a Facebook page, the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, and many YouTube videos, the Saudi news station Al Arabiya described him as the “bin Laden of the Internet.” After a request from the US Congress, in November 2010 YouTube removed many of al-Awlaki’s videos from its site. However, al-Awlaki’s influence continues to be apparent amongst Islamists in the West and internationally, and his statements, articles and lectures are regularly cited and used as inspiration by extremists in the West and worldwide.
US officials say that as imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Virginia (2001–02), which had 3,000 members, al-Awlaki spoke with and preached to three of the 9/11 hijackers, who were al-Qaeda members. In 2001, he presided at the funeral of the mother of Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who later e-mailed him extensively in 2008–09 before the Fort Hood shootings. During al-Awlaki’s later radical period after 2006–07, when he went into hiding, he was associated with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted the 2009 Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner. Al-Awlaki was allegedly involved in planning the latter’s attack.
The Yemeni government began trying him in absentia in November 2010, for plotting to kill foreigners and being a member of al-Qaeda. A Yemeni judge ordered that he be captured “dead or alive.” Some US officials said that in 2009, al-Awlaki was promoted to the rank of “regional commander” within al-Qaeda, while others felt that Nasir Al-Wuhayshi still maintained this rank and that al-Awlaki was only by this point the most influential member in the group. He repeatedly called for jihad against the United States.
In April 2010, US President Barack Obama placed al-Awlaki on a list of people whom the US Central Intelligence Agency were authorized to kill because of terrorist activities. Al-Awlaki’s father and civil rights groups challenged the order in court. Al-Awlaki was believed to be in hiding in Southeast Yemen in the last years of his life. The US deployed unmanned aircraft (drones) in Yemen to search for and kill him, firing at and failing to kill him at least once, before succeeding in a fatal American drone attack in Yemen on September 30, 2011. Two weeks later, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a US citizen who was born in Denver, was killed by a CIA-led drone strike in Yemen. Nasser al-Awlaki, Anwar’s father, released an audio recording condemning the killings of his son and grandson as senseless murders. In June 2014, a previously classified memorandum issued by the United States Department of Justice was released, justifying al-Awlaki’s death as a lawful act of war.
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (/oʊˈsɑːmə bɪn moʊˈhɑːmɨd bɪn əˈwɑːd bɪn ˈlɑːdən/; Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, usāmah bin muḥammad bin ‘awaḍ bin lādin; 10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the militant organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.
Bin Laden was born to the family of billionaire Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden in Saudi Arabia. He studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the mujahideen by funneling arms, money and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, and gained popularity from many Arabs. In 1988, he formed al-Qaeda. He was banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to Sudan, until U.S. pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and related attacks. Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.
From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the War on Terror, as the FBI placed a $25 million bounty on him in their search for him. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by SCPO Robert O’Neill during a covert operation conducted by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency SAD/SOG operators on the orders of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Faisal Shazad
Faisal Shahzad (Urdu: فیصل شہزاد; born June 30, 1979) is a Pakistani-American citizen who was arrested for the attempted May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On June 21, 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt. Throughout his court appearance, Shahzad was unrepentant. The United States Attorney indicated there was no plea deal, so Shahzad faced the maximum sentence, a mandatory life term.
Shahzad was arrested approximately 53 hours after the attempt, at 11:45 p.m. EDT on May 3, 2010, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. He was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport, after boarding Emirates Flight 202 to Dubai. His final destination had been Islamabad, Pakistan.
A federal complaint was filed on May 4, alleging that Shahzad committed five terrorism-related crimes, including the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Shahzad waived his constitutional right to a speedy hearing.
Shahzad has reportedly implicated himself in the crimes, and has given information to authorities since his arrest. Shahzad admitted training in bomb-making at a camp run by a militant Islamist faction in the Waziristan region in Pakistan along the Afghan border. As of May 7, Shahzad was continuing to answer questions and provide intelligence to investigators. Pakistani officials have arrested more than a dozen people in connection with the plot.
After pleading guilty to a 10-count indictment in June, on October 5, 2010, Shahzad was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; the charges had included conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting an act of terrorism.
Shahzad is married and the father of two young children, both born in the United States. Since 1997, he had lived mostly in the United States, attending college on extended visas, and earning an undergraduate degree and an MBA at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He worked for two major companies as a financial analyst before quitting his jobs. He separated from his wife, Huma Mian, in 2009 and she returned with their children to her parents in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Farooque Ahmed
Farooque Ahmed (Urdu: فاروق احمد; born 1976) is a Pakistani American from Ashburn, Virginia who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly plotting to bomb Washington Metro stations at Arlington cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House. He was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings. On April 11, 2011, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison after pleading guilty.
Marcos Camacho
Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, “Marcola”, was born in 1968 and is the leader of the organization criminal Primeiro Comando da Capital . He is currently imprisoned in a jail in the state of São Paulo.
