How Al Qaeda Leader Anwar Al Awlaki Was Killed

Danish Spy Claims Key Role In Terrorist's Death -- CBS

The following script is from "Morten Storm" which aired on Dec. 30, 2012. Lara Logan is the correspondent. Howard Rosenberg, producer.

Just over a year ago in Yemen, a U.S. drone operated by the CIA unleashed a Hellfire missile killing one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, Anwar Al Awlaki. The American-born cleric had been waging Holy War against his own country. Because he was a U.S. citizen, it was one of the most controversial drone strikes in the campaign against al Qaeda.

To this day, the question of how the CIA zeroed in on Awlaki in that distant desert land remains a mystery. Some of that will be answered tonight and you'll learn how an unlikely Danish spy named Morten Storm managed to get inside Awlaki's world and become one of his most trusted friends. And how, Storm says, he helped lead that fatal missile to its target.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am not sorry to see Anwar Al Awlaki dead .... but his death does open a debate on should the U.S. government order the assassination of an American citizen. As it is .... for the moment .... that debate is absent .... no one on the left (and everyone on the right) do not want to put President Obama on the spot for ordering this kill mission. But I predict .... and under a different administration .... that this debate will occur.

As for this 60 Minutes report .... it is a must see on how Al Qaeda in Yemen operates and how counter-terrorism officials try to get terror leaders like Anwar Al Awlaki.

On a side note .... Morten Storm did his job and he does deserve some of the reward money.

U.S. Covert War Expanding?

U.S. Expands Secretive Drone Base for African Shadow War -- Danger Room

The Pentagon’s secretive drone and commando base in the Horn of Africa is getting a lot bigger and a lot busier as the U.S. doubles down on its shadowy campaign of air strikes, robot surveillance and Special Operation Forces raids in the terror havens of Yemen and Somalia.

Camp Lemonnier, originally a French colonial outpost in Djibouti, a tiny, impoverished nation just north of Somalia, has been the epicenter of America’s Indian Ocean shadow war since just after 9/11. What was once little more than a run-down compound adjacent to Djibouti city’s single-runway international airport is now a sprawling complex of hangars and air-conditioned buildings housing eight Predator drones and eight F-15E fighter-bombers plus other warplanes, as well as around 300 Special Operations Forces and more than 2,000 other U.S. troops and civilians.

Read more ....

My Comment: I guess they are expecting the region to 'heat-up'. Considering who their neighbors are .... Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, etc., I would have to say yes.

U.S. Covert War Expanding?

U.S. Expands Secretive Drone Base for African Shadow War -- Danger Room

The Pentagon’s secretive drone and commando base in the Horn of Africa is getting a lot bigger and a lot busier as the U.S. doubles down on its shadowy campaign of air strikes, robot surveillance and Special Operation Forces raids in the terror havens of Yemen and Somalia.

Camp Lemonnier, originally a French colonial outpost in Djibouti, a tiny, impoverished nation just north of Somalia, has been the epicenter of America’s Indian Ocean shadow war since just after 9/11. What was once little more than a run-down compound adjacent to Djibouti city’s single-runway international airport is now a sprawling complex of hangars and air-conditioned buildings housing eight Predator drones and eight F-15E fighter-bombers plus other warplanes, as well as around 300 Special Operations Forces and more than 2,000 other U.S. troops and civilians.

Read more ....

My Comment: I guess they are expecting the region to 'heat-up'. Considering who their neighbors are .... Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, etc., I would have to say yes.

U.S. Covert War Expanding?

U.S. Expands Secretive Drone Base for African Shadow War -- Danger Room

The Pentagon’s secretive drone and commando base in the Horn of Africa is getting a lot bigger and a lot busier as the U.S. doubles down on its shadowy campaign of air strikes, robot surveillance and Special Operation Forces raids in the terror havens of Yemen and Somalia.

Camp Lemonnier, originally a French colonial outpost in Djibouti, a tiny, impoverished nation just north of Somalia, has been the epicenter of America’s Indian Ocean shadow war since just after 9/11. What was once little more than a run-down compound adjacent to Djibouti city’s single-runway international airport is now a sprawling complex of hangars and air-conditioned buildings housing eight Predator drones and eight F-15E fighter-bombers plus other warplanes, as well as around 300 Special Operations Forces and more than 2,000 other U.S. troops and civilians.

Read more ....

My Comment: I guess they are expecting the region to 'heat-up'. Considering who their neighbors are .... Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, etc., I would have to say yes.

America's Combat Hub For Counterterrorism In The Horn Of Africa And The Middle East

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

U.S. drone camp in the heart of Djibouti

Expansion is underway at the United States’ first counter- terrorism base, fenced within a one-runway airport shared by military and civilian aircraft in the heart of Djibouti. Scheduled to be complete in the next two years at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion, the Pentagon hopes the upgrades will strengthen the U.S. fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.Department of the Navy; CIA World Factbook. Image source: GeoEye via Google Earth. Gene Thorp, Bill Webster and Craig Whitlock/The Washington Post. Published on October 25, 2012

Remote U.S. Base At Core Of Secret Operations -- Washington Post

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti — Around the clock, about 16 times a day, drones take off or land at a U.S. military base here, the combat hub for the Obama administration’s counterterrorism wars in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

Some of the unmanned aircraft are bound for Somalia, the collapsed state whose border lies just 10 miles to the southeast. Most of the armed drones, however, veer north across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, another unstable country where they are being used in an increasingly deadly war with an al-Qaeda franchise that has targeted the United States.

Camp Lemonnier, a sun-baked Third World outpost established by the French Foreign Legion, began as a temporary staging ground for U.S. Marines looking for a foothold in the region a decade ago. Over the past two years, the U.S. military has clandestinely transformed it into the busiest Predator drone base outside the Afghan war zone, a model for fighting a new generation of terrorist groups.

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My Comment: Camp Lemmonier is probably America's most important counter terrorism base outside of the United States.

Meet The Man Who Is Transforming U.S. Counterterrorism Policy

President Barack Obama is briefed on the situation in Libya by John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, in Chilmark, Mass., Aug. 26, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

A CIA Veteran Transforms U.S. Counterterrorism Policy -- Washington Post

In his windowless White House office, presidential counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan is compiling the rules for a war the Obama administration believes will far outlast its own time in office, whether that is just a few more months or four more years.

The “playbook,” as Brennan calls it, will lay out the administration’s evolving procedures for the targeted killings that have come to define its fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It will cover the selection and approval of targets from the “disposition matrix,” the designation of who should pull the trigger when a killing is warranted, and the legal authorities the administration thinks sanction its actions in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond.

Read more ....

My Comment: He has not only transformed America's counterterrorism policy under President Obama, but there is a very good chance that it will still continue under a Romney administration if Mitt Romney should win the election.

Is This A Valid Reason For Killing A 16-Year-Old American In A Drone Strike?

Team Obama's Justification For Killing A 16-Year-Old American In A Drone Strike Is Stunning

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama's reelection campaign, recently became the first person on Team Obama to address the killing of 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, Conor Friedersdorf of the The Atlantic reports.

Abdulrahman was the son of New Mexico-born cleric and al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Alwaki. Both were killed in separate drone strikes last year.

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My Comment: Breitbart is right .... this is one issue that Democrats DO NOT want to talk about. What's my take .... Americans have already been targeted and killed, of course there should be a public debate on it.

A New U.S. Blueprint In Hunting Terrorists

Plan For Hunting Terrorists Signals U.S. Intends To Keep Adding Names To Kill Lists -- Washington Post

Editor’s note: This project, based on interviews with dozens of current and former national security officials, intelligence analysts and others, examines evolving U.S. counterterrorism policies and the practice of targeted killing. This is the first of three stories.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the “disposition matrix.”

The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S. officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the “disposition” of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.

Although the matrix is a work in progress, the effort to create it reflects a reality setting in among the nation’s counterterrorism ranks: The United States’ conventional wars are winding down, but the government expects to continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years.

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My Comment: In short .... more drone strikes on a global level.

Are CIA And Special Forces 'Hit Squads' On The Hunt For The Attackers Of The U.S. Consulate In Libya?

Flames: The White House has admitted they knew the deadly assault, pictured, was an act of terrorism within 24 hours

Obama Orders CIA And Navy SEALS To Hunt Down Terrorists Who Attacked US Consulate In Libya -- Daily Mail

* Letter from lawmakers to Hillary Clinton indicates that consulate was bombed twice months before the September 11 attack
* White House pulls all U.S. personnel out of Benghazi
* Libyan president Mohamed Magarief said that attacks were 'pre-planned'
* U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens was killed along with fellow Americans Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty

President Barack Obama has ordered the CIA and the Pentagon to hunt down the terrorists who attacked the US consulate in Libya.

It's unclear what the president plans to do once the perpetrators of the September 11 assault in Benghazi are found, but he has mobilized the military's Joint Special Operations Command to help carry out the mission.

JSOC and the CIA teamed up to send Navy SEAL commandos into Pakistan in 2011 for a raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

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My Comment: More proof that the White House now knows that this was a terrorist attack by an Al Qaeda affiliated group and not a spontaneous demonstration and riot over some obscure YouTube video. But sending a hit squad to (I guess) Libya is President Obama's response to this attack ..... hmmmm .... how times have changed because if past Presidents did this ... they were usually called "cowboys".

Urgent Request Sent From Afghanistan For Palantir system

Military Leaders Urgently Push For New Counterterrorism Software -- Washington Times

A U.S. military command has sent an urgent request to the Pentagon to fund counterterrorism intelligence computer software for special operations troops globally, including the Palantir analytical system.

Palantir is at the center of two investigations in Washington. Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, has accused the Army of making it difficult for conventional soldiers in Afghanistan to buy Palantir off the shelf because the Pentagon is protecting its own system.

Read more ....

My Comment: Politics and returning favors to corporate supporters trumps working systems that the soldiers want every-time.