The debate offer the u. S. Drone program in the region. Also b, is this the first time an american citizen has been killed by a drone attack outside of Anwar Al Awlaki who was an american who became a terrorist and taken out by a u. S. Drone strike. To be clear white house statement says counterterror operation. They do not specify that it was a drone strike. So we should hear from the white house and im reaching out now to specify what kind of operation this was. Was a drone strike aircraft or elements on the ground involved. Thats one thing we have to look into. Keep in mind all those things have inherent risks. Drone strikes killed civilians before. You mentioned al awlaki strike the one previous weve known before pesifying drone specifically. Keep in mind there was another operation on the ground in somalia with Ground Forces that killed not an american but an International Hostage from south africa. So all these options at the president s hands, all of them are risky in these cont
there were no ground forces involved. and the significance of the american ahmed farouq. i imagine many have heard about gadahn he was an americana convert, he and in so many videos. they might not have heard about farouq but he was a significant figure in al qaeda and the al qaeda branch. do we know if this is the same counter-terrorism operation, same mission at all, or is that still unclear? it is clear based on the white house statement. so you have one counter-terror operation, one drone strike that killed ahmed farouq deputy emir operational leader of al qaeda in the indian subcontinent. it was that operation that killed the american warren weinstein and the italian giovanni lo porto. it was a separate strike that killed adam gadahn. same area afghanistan/pakistan border region both in january, but a separate strike.
tragic tragic counter-terrorism operation that went wrong in which an american hostage warren weinstein and italian national giovanni lo porto were killed as well as these two high value al qaeda targets adam gadahn and ahmed farouq. ahmed farouq not as well-known nick paton walsh. he s somebody said to be the deputy emir of a new al qaeda offshoot al qaeda indian subcontinent adam gadahn nick very well-known to those who follow national security stories. let s deal initially with farouq gadahn a well-known al qaeda member prevalent in a lot of propaganda american citizen, million dollar award out for information leading to his capture. a high-profile figure. we can accept if the u.s. was aware they were going after him
ground troops involved. this was not a capture mission that was possible here according to the president himself. but an interesting point in what he says. while he determines that farouq and adam gadahn both u.s. nationals, farouq and gadahn both nationals from al qaeda were killed in this strike and the subsequent one later, it does say neither was specifically targeted in the strike at the compound where warren weinstein and giovanni lo porto were killed. the question of course will be asked exactly what was it that the cia noticed at this compound that led them to believe a strike was in order. there have been a lot of reviews of this very favorite tool of the obama counter-terrorism policy. much embraced by him when he came in 2009 heavily used around border area of afghanistan and pakistan. i should point out not clear if it happened in afghanistan or pakistan. he certainly allowed grand expansion of much of this program and recently has begun to review it tightening of the