Ibrahim Al-Asiri, Bomb-Maker Linked to 2009 Christmas Day Plot, Likely Killed in Yemen Drone Strike

[Tx4obama]

Source: AP via HuffPo

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence indicates that the top al-Qaida bomb-maker in Yemen also died in the drone strike that killed radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, two U.S. officials said Friday.

Ibrahim al-Asiri is the bomb-maker linked to the bomb hidden in the underwear of a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

The FBI pulled al-Asiri's fingerprint off that bomb. Authorities also believe he built the bombs that al-Qaida slipped into printers and shipped to the U.S. last year in a nearly catastrophic attack.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Asiri's death has not officially been confirmed.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/30/ibrahim-al-asiri-likely-killed_n_989961.html

---

Note: Be sure to read the whole article - looks like this fella Ibrahim al-Asiri was the most important of the three!

[Tx4obama]

1. Thank you Mr. President.

:patriot:

[DesertFlower]

3. well said. nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Ditto!

:patriot:

[JDPriestly]

7. The rule of law, not men, is not necessarily efficient or inexpensive.

But it is the only way that we can be certain that the powerful do not punish the innocent simply because the innocent are politically inconvenient.

It would have been better to send in troops and bring these men in. You are accepting a report that says that this man was behind those bombings. Governments have lied about such things before.

These men most likely were truly terrorists, most likely were dangerous men. If so, we should have rooted out their entire entourage and not just these leaders.

If these men were terrorists, we have simply left their hangers-on to become the future leaders of this dangerous movement. Because where there are bees there is honey. Where there are these men, there are many more following them. These men will simply become martyrs to others.

This was not a good idea. The rule of law is not some sort of unpleasant ritual that means nothing. It is what makes a nation strong.

When we resort to this kind of killing without due process, we weaken ourselves.

[madokie]

10. I agree, thanks Mr President

[Safetykitten]

11. Agree!

[EFerrari]

14. Shouldn't you wait for confirmation of the dead before you thank Obama for this carnage?

Unreal.

[joshcryer]

2. If confirmed that'd be pretty significant.

And it'd be hard to continue arguing the whole "but, he was a citizen expressing his free speech and not aligned with terrorist" rhetoric.

[JCMach1]

4. Exactly, and don't forget the bombs in the cargo plane plots as well...

I still believe the UPS crash in Dubai a few weeks prior was also there work although intelligence will never admit it. That was the plane that came too damn close to falling on me and my family while driving home.

[JDPriestly]

8. You miss the point. The point is that we cannot have a government

that simply picks who is expendable and who is not.

We have a system of due process, and we have a military that is capable of going into countries and taking out criminals of this sort. The Yemeni government appears to be willing to cooperate with our anti-terrorist efforts.

This murder was not necessary. Had we extradited these men and then gone in to capture them, had we eventually tried them, they most likely would have been convicted. Why do things this way? We will pay for our laziness in the future.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

12. i'm curious, is american due process the only valid one? n/t

[JDPriestly]

15. For an American president who swears to uphold our Constitution,

it is the only valid due process in my view.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

19. allow me to rephrase

does Anwar al-Awlaki have to be tried on an american court for you to consider him to have gotten Due process, or is the court systems in other countries valid as well?

[JDPriestly]

20. Other court systems that respect human rights are fine.

On edit, I have to reiterate that our President cannot rely on the decisions of foreign courts unless we have a treaty permitting him to do so.

The Constitution does not provide that the President of the US can order people under his control to go into a foreign country and order an assassination by drone attack. Simply not there. And I know of no treaty that provides him that authority either.

I don't believe that we are at war in Yemen. Maybe we should be, but I don't think we are -- officially. Only Congress can declare a war.

It is easy to say someone is Al Qaeda, but as we saw in Iraq it is not always true just because our government says it is true. Unfortunately, only fools trust governments.

[joshcryer]

22. But we do have such a government.

[leveymg]

5. Not a very good bomb-maker. None of them worked.

Hmmm. And, I can't imagine a more effective way of luring, tagging and tracking a bunch of AQ wannabes than running the group's internet recruiting operations, or simply letting it run. Hmmm . . .

Did this strike simply wind-up an operation that had passed its usefulness?

[Throd]

9. A guy like that only needs to get it right once for devestating effects.

[IamK]

13. Barack gets to carve another notch in his Nobel Peace Prize....

sweet...

[Tx4obama]

16. If the world is to achieve 'peace' then the terrorists must be eliminated.

And for anyone that didn't know ...

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

[Robb]

17. I was wondering when this would turn up.

Neither al-Awlaki nor Samir Khan seemed worth the effort.

"And by their detonators shall ye know them."

[Tx4obama]

18. Additional article link with additional info regarding al-Asiri

Underwear-bomb maker believed dead in Yemen strike
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_AL_QAIDA_BOMBMAKER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-01-14-05-41

Also,

Dead, Captured, and Wanted
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/10/dead-captured-and-wanted/?hpt=hp_t2

[msanthrope]

21. Good. nt

[tawadi]

23. Underwear-bomb maker believed dead in Yemen strike

Source: AP

Underwear-bomb maker believed dead in Yemen strike

By LEE KEATH - Associated Press | AP – 11 hrs ago

CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi militant believed killed in the U.S. drone strike in Yemen constructed the bombs for the al-Qaida branch's most notorious attempted attacks — including the underwear-borne explosives intended to a down a U.S. aircraft, and a bomb carried by his own brother intended to assassinate a Saudi prince.

The death of Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri would make the Friday drone strikes on a convoy in the central deserts of Yemen one of the most effective single blows in the U.S. campaign to take out al-Qaida's top figures.

The strike also killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who had been key to recruiting for the militant group and a Pakistani-American, Samir Khan, who was a top English-language propagandist.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/underwear-bomb-maker-believed-dead-yemen-strike-171458043.html

[webDude]

24. Breaking news: The Easter Bunny was also killed as collateral damage! Ah,...

those vicious Islamists meeting with a Christian symbol! Surely he was there to spread the Gospel of how he died on the cross and was risen after three days, so he could roam the world and deposit eggs on Easter,

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri

notable for the number of half-assed failed terror attempts he was behind.

The real surprise is he didn't blow himself up before the drone got him - or maybe not. His bombs were famous for NOT blowing things up.

[Ian David]

26. ...

YAY!!!

[formercia]

27. Rather than scattering, they all jumped into a Pickup to escape.

Good thinking.:rofl:

[DCBob]

28. wow, that was a grand slam.. took out some big players there in one strike.

good shot!