http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62H1VK20100318
Yemen preacher urges jihad on United States: tape
Cynthia Johnston
DUBAI
Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:27am EDT
(Reuters) - A U.S.-born radical cleric linked to shootings at a U.S. army base and the failed bombing of a U.S. plane appeared to urge Muslims to conduct a jihad against the United States in an audiotape heard on Thursday.
U.S. counterterrorism officials said in late February they were considering adding Anwar al-Awlaki to the U.S. target list to kill or capture top militants if he appeared to pose a direct security threat. He is believed to be living in southern Yemen.
"To the Muslims in America, I have this to say: How can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful coexistence with a nation that is responsible for the tyranny and crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters?" the audiotape said....
Awlaki, a U.S. citizen of Yemeni descent, returned to Yemen in 2004 where he taught at a university before he was arrested in 2006 for suspected links to al Qaeda and involvement in attacks.
He was released in 2007 because he said he had repented, a Yemeni security official said. But he was later charged again and went into hiding.
In December, a Yemeni security official said Awlaki may have been one of 30 militants including top two leaders of al Qaeda's Yemen arm killed in an air raid in Shabwa province in southeast Yemen.
He later resurfaced. In January, a local government source in Shabwa said officials were in talks with tribal sheikhs to try to persuade him to surrender, or be taken by force.
In late February, U.S. counterterrorism officials said U.S. spy agencies believed Awlaki to have played a bigger role than first thought in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's decision to start launching attacks against U.S. targets....