U.S. missile targeted Qaeda figure in Yemen

Updated at 7:08 p.m. ET

A U.S. official confirmed to CBS News Friday that a U.S. drone aircraft targeted a central figure of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group behind 2009's Christmas bomb attempt aboard a commercial airliner and last fall's failed plot to hide bombs in printers on transcontinental planes.

That figure, radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, was not hit when a missile was fired at a car in southern Yemen on Thursday, killing two brothers and another person. Two of the deceased were believed to be al Qaeda militants, the official confirmed to CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

Awlaki was also the inspiration for alleged Fort Hood gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan.

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"We were hoping it was him," the official told CBS News.

Special Section: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood
Special Section: Terrorism in the U.S.

Yemen's Defense Ministry confirmed the deaths of the brothers in Shabwa province, but would not provide any further details.

In September, the country's foreign minister said it was no longer allowing missile strikes by pilotless planes. But after al Qaeda smuggled explosives aboard cargo planes bound for the U.S. in late October, it is believed the strikes resumed.

Yemen, which is wracked by massive protests against the country's deeply unpopular president, is also home to one of the most active branches of al Qaeda, which has planned several attacks against the U.S.

Shabwa provincial security and tribal officials reached by telephone identified the two brothers as Abdullah and Mosaad Mubarak, but they did not explain why they were sure the attacks were carried out by pilotless aircraft.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the local branch calls itself, is estimated to number around 300 fighters with built up strongholds in the provinces of Shabwa, Abyan, Jouf and Marib, regions of daunting mountain ranges where central authority has nearly no presence.

In addition to attacking government targets, the group has inspired attacks by Muslims inside the United States and twice smuggled explosives aboard aircraft headed to America.

The U.S. originally carried out a campaign of drone strikes similar to the one that killed many al Qaeda figures in Pakistan until a local official was accidentally killed. In September, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said the strikes had been suspended.

The U.S. has poured money into training Yemeni counter-terrorism forces with $150 million in annual military assistance and up to 100 trainers at any given time.

The popular protests calling for the ouster of long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh across the country, however, have disrupted government efforts against al Qaeda.

On Thursday, thousands of protesters again hit the streets to demand that Saleh step down, marching in the south and central Yemen. In at least two of the protests, Saleh supporters attacked marchers.

In the central city of Bayda, activists said supporters of Saleh burned some tents in a protest camp in the city's square as protesters prayed.

Hundreds more protesters arrived at the camp to denounce the burning as others collected donations to replace the tents, said an activist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals.

"We will rebuild," the protesters shouted.

In the town of Damt, in the southern province of al-Daleh, supporters of Saleh organized a march in his support, waving automatic rifles and sticks. The crowd stormed a record store, beating its owner for playing anti-Saleh songs, said Mohammed al-Marfadi, a local activist.

They also attacked an ice cream vendor who had wrapped his head in a national flag with the word "go" scribbled over it.

[finklestein]

AUDIO CLIP: Top Insider Prepared to Testify 911 Was False Flag Attack- Steve Pieczenik

http://blip.tv/file/5118363

Interviewed by Alex Jones on May 3, 2011 this section at 8 minutes 20 seconds here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dxhpsFrQc

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations Steve R. Pieczenik says he is prepared to tell a federal grand jury the name of a top general who told him directly 9/11 was a false flag attack (inside job.) Also says Bin Laden has been "on ice" literally since 2001. Pieczenik served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Nixon, Ford and Carter, while also working under Reagan and Bush senior, and still works as a consultant for the Department of Defense. Former US Navy Captain. Served as a senior policy planner under Secretaries Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George Schultz and James Baker and worked on George W. Bush's election campaign against Al Gore. Also is on Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a medical doctor and a best-selling author who works with Tom Clancy.

TRANSCRIPT: "The event of 911 was carried out for one purpose...to mobilize the American public to go to a war that they didn't need that they knew nothing about where we had pre-positioned soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq 6 to 9 months beforehand, ...it was based on Paul Wolfowitz's, Dick Cheney's, Bush junior, Steve Hadley, Elliot Abrams, in the White House, Khalazid, Dennis Ross who is still an envoy...Condoleeza Rice, all the people who were in the military particularly the Air Force generals who were involved, they can deny it any way they want I hae a whole list of names, they all know who they are, and the intel and CIA operatives who worked under SOLECs, Special Operations for Low Intensity Conflict were all involved...it was called a stand-down and false flag operation in order to mobilize the American public under the false pretense that we had been attacked by Al Qaeda and bin Laden which is an absolute unmitigated lie. I was even told by a general on the staff of Wolfowitz, I will go in front of a federal committee and swear on perjury who that name was so we can break this open...The issue of Osama bin Laden who had died...really brought out the issue of the great war and the great lie that was created for us to make sure we had some kind of commitment to a war that was not necessary in which so much blood and guts were shed for unnecessary reasons."

CREDENTIALS SEARCH:

UK Guardian on recent book on killing of Aldo Moro:

"An American envoy has claimed that he played a critical role in the fate of Aldo Moro, the former Italian prime minister who was murdered by terrorists in 1978. who as, an international crisis manager and hostage negotiator in the State Department, said that Moro had been "sacrificed" for the "stability" of Italy."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1581425/US-envoy-admits-role-in-Aldo-Moro-killing.html

He is also quoted in New York Times here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/08/us/seat-of-power-and-woe.html

Member listing at Council on Foreign Relations:
http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=P

Citations at National Military Intelligence Association:
http://www.nmia.org/?AIJ0410

ABC Television News Archive, 1986 segment on terrorism featuring Pieczenik as expert source:

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=98903

May 3, 2011

BREAKING: "Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations Steve R. Pieczenik says he is prepared to tell a federal grand jury the name of a top general who told him directly 9/11 was a false flag attack" "Bin Laden had already been "dead for months," and that the government was waiting for the most politically expedient time to roll out his corpse. Pieczenik would be in a position to know, having personally met Bin Laden and worked with him during the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the early 80?s" Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under three different Presidents and still works with the Defense Department, shockingly told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job. Pieczenik cannot be dismissed as a "conspiracy theorist". He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations, Nixon, Ford and Carter, while also working under Reagan and Bush senior, and still works as a consultant for the Department of Defense. A former US Navy Captain, Pieczenik achieved two prestigious Harry C. Solomon Awards at the Harvard Medical School as he simultaneously completed a PhD at MIT...."

MORE
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/04/top-us-government-insider-bin-laden-died-in-2001-911-a-false-flag/

FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjtNiTm99e8

[James93x]

Plan B for Abu Dhabi? Return oil prices up with an armed drone war against Yemen ...

[pastormaker]

Of course the name of the third dead person who isn't believed to be a Qaeda militant isn't important.

[ZungRee]

lol, those coward drone pilots dont care who they kill. Women, children, reporters, entire city blocks, they dont care.

www.anon-toolz.at.tc

[brian_norwood]

And your point is what exactly?

[dgarza7]

just like the terrorists.

[Ammeh]

Finally, some well thought decisions by the U.S. government. Keep at them with vengeance. At this moment they are leaderless, scared, and possibly even disorganized. Do not let them regroup for more problems. This organization should be wiped off the surface of the earth. Only then, will they think twice prior to engaging.

[euge005]

It would be better for this traitor to actually capture it, bring it back to a real court, convict it and hang it. Then bury it at sea.

[baileyccc]

These ragheads spend most of their time trying to stay alive, that leaves little time for their terror activities.

[us_1776]

These are not pilotless aircraft.

They are being flown by a pilot. The pilot is just not inside the aircraft itself.


I really love it. bin Laden gets killed and only a few hundred people turn out around the entire world to protest his death.

al-Qaeda is finished. They have no mainsteam support anywhere.
Young Arabs want nothing to do with al-Qaeda or terrorism. They want democracy and a life free of dictators.


.

[Unsilent_Majority]

The drones can in fact be programed to fly to a certain location and destroy its target in which case they are not flown remotely. My guess would be however pre-programed missions are for stationary targets only and not something like a moving car.