Anwar al-Awlaki Killed

It is rare that you wake up to news this good, but this morning American-born al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in an American drone strike in Yemen.

In February of this year, then-head of the Natioanl Coutnerterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, told the House Homeland Security Committee that AQAP -- which was responsible for the 2009 "Underwear Bomber" and the November 2010 plot to blow up planes over the Eastern seaboard using explosives-filled printer cartridges -- and its charismatic spiritual leader al-Awlaki are "probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland."  In addition to those plots, al-Awlaki also inspired Nidal Hussein's shooting rampage at Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13 servicemen and women, and Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.  Also killed in the attack was Samir Khan, an American citizen who edited Inspire magazine, al-Qa'ida's English-language Internet journal that focused on recruiting American Muslims.

The United States had been trying to target al-Awlaki for over two years, with several near misses, more details of which are likely to emerge in the coming days.  Although there are serious legal issues raised about using drone strikes against American citizens, this killing undoubtedly weakens AQAP.  As I have said in Wanted Dead and Alive and subsequent articles, the killing of the broader network of senior operatives in al-Qa'ida and its affiliates will likely prove more decisive than the killing of Osama bin Laden.  And today we took out a major player in that network.

Wormer, DEAD!  Neidermeyer, DEAD!  Awlaki . . .

[P.S. I'll have a longer note explaining my brief hiatus, as well as a ton of unpublished posts to add over the course of the weekend]