The Yemen raid and the Awlaki factor

Strangely, we don't really know the motive for the Yemen raid that went so terribly wrong. NBC claimed that the real target was Al Qaeda leader Qasim al-Rimi, but the Pentagon denies that allegation. Since Al-Rimi survived the attack, a cynic might suggest that he was airbrushed out of the picture because his escape reflects badly on Trump. A growing number of people claim that Trump allowed an "iffy" operation to go forward in order to show up his predecessor.

They also told the billionaire, who has no political or military experience whatsoever, that the Obama Administration would have been courageous enough to do it. Considering how vindictive, malicious and insecure Trump appears to be, it is not hard to believe he may have agreed to the raid for that particular reason.

Fortune does not always favor the bold. But if al-Rimi was not the target, who or what was? Articles like this one do not offer much clarity. Was this really all about grabbing computers?

I was particularly intrigued by the presence of Anwar al-Awlaki's 8 year-old daughter, an American citizen. Did the SEALs know that she was there? If so, were those computers sufficient justification for placing an 8 year-old-girl in the middle of a firefight? If not -- well, her presence was one hell of a coincidence, wasn't it?

In a number of previous posts, I've taken a skewed view of the 2011 death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Al Qaeda rabble-rouser. In short and in sum, I have long wondered if he was really a deep-cover American agent -- and I'm not the only one who raised that question. Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer (whom some of you will recall) thought that Awlaki was a triple agent -- secretly working for us, but, on a deeper level, really working for them. Lawyer Joanthan Turley argued in a legal pleading that Awlaki was an American asset -- a claim which FBI Director Robert Mueller pointedly did not deny. The Australian (a Murdoch newspaper) once came that close to declaring that Awlaki worked on behalf of Uncle Sam.

This 2013 Cannonfire post offers a brief list of some of my reasons for suspicion:

1. He was born in New Mexico, even though he claimed to be a native-born Yemeni when he applied for an American Social Security card. (If you can figure that one out, please share with the rest of the class!)

2. He went to George Washington University, a school with strong CIA ties. (Any foreign national going to that school is a likely target for an Agency recruitment effort.)

3. Despite having undeniable ties to three of the 9/11 hijackers, the Pentagon invited him to speak at a formal luncheon. This was after the attack on the World Trade Center.

4. He was allowed to fly in and out of the country with impunity. Whenever he was outside the country, the FBI would issue statements to this effect: "Gosh, we'd really like to interview the guy, but he's beyond our reach." Yet whenever he was within our borders, he was left alone.

5. His death has been announced more than once.

6. A Murdoch-owned newspaper in Australia once as much as admitted that Awlaki cooperated with Yemeni authorities in an effort to round up Al Qaeda members in Yemen.

7. In 1994, Awlaki set up secure communications for Bin Laden using military phone lines.

8. During Awlaki's time in this country, the authorities routinely turned a blind eye to his legal problems. He was twice busted for soliciting prostitutes, yet nothing came of either incident. The man had a guardian angel.

9. He was not officially tied to the 9/11 attacks until 2008, even though he had helped the hijackers rent an apartment.

10. For the most part, nobody censored or impeded his YouTube calls for Jihad.

For more, see here and here and here. In this post, I note that there is no real proof that Awlaki was killed in 2011. I quote from a news story which has since been taken offline:

Yemen's security agencies have no substantial evidence that al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a recent airstrike in the eastern province of Mareb, an official security source said Thursday.

Yemen would not confirm the kill.

Neither did that country confirm the death of Awlaki's son. There was no pressing reason for Obama to order the droning-death of a 16 year-old boy -- thus, it is fair to wonder if this death was staged.

Perhaps the boy's death was announced to cover his exfiltration.

Perhaps Awlaki and his son are still alive.

And perhaps the "death" of that little girl is yet another example of subterfuge.