Anwar al-'Awlaki

Anwar al-'Awlaki
أنور العولقي
is the subject of this good article at Washington Post from February 2008, to which I will add a little.

Most of al-'Awlaki's followers are in the UK, but some are in other English-speaking countries, and a few anglophones are elsewhere in Europe. His work in terrorist incitement, at least on the internet, is almost entirely in English; few of his followers have any knowledge of Arabic. About forty of his talks are available for download from the British group that named themselves after al-Qa'ida when their previous name "al-Muhajiroon" was banned. Al-'Awlaki's material gets copied to a multitude of pro-terrorism English-language blogs. He also operates his own blog-style website, in English.

As the article says, al-'Awlaki is more dangerous than most of his fellow rabble rousers, but his methodology is broadly the standard one:

-- indulging his audience in self-pity

-- eulogizing dead assassins and terrorists

-- promising his followers a Muhammadan paradise in return for their anti-social violence

-- promising eternal torture in hell to anybody who opposes him or his followers.

Death is al-'Awlaki's favorite topic.

The lecture about Yusuf al-'Ayeeri is entitled Constants on the Path of Jihad. Yusuf al-'Ayeeri
يوسف العييري
was the first leader of al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (as it later became known) and one of AQ's first webmasters. He was eliminated in 2003 in KSA.

The article mentions the bizarre Abdul-Majid az-Zindani
عبد المجيد الزنداني
with whom al-'Awlaki has been affiliated. See
United States Designates bin Laden Loyalist from the US Department of the Treasury, for some information on him. Az-Zindani is the richest man in Yemen.