as recruiter, schemer and problem began da man. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com he is the most important al-qaeda leader to be taken out since osama bin laden. the breaking news this hour, we re learning more about the air strike in yemen that killed anwar al-awlaki. first, a reminder of why this american born cleric was so dangerous. president obama says he took the lead in planning to murder americans. he s been linked to those terror suspects of the decade including the so-called underwear bomber, the accused ft. hood attacker, three of the 9/11 hijackers and the man who allegedly tried to blow up a car in times square in new york. we have in depth coverage of the mission to kill al-awlaki and the implications. first, to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. several administration officials say it was a cia hit. the cia and pentagon had been working with the yemenese for nearly two years to kill anwar al-awlaki. we had always
since osama bin laden. the breaking news this hour, we re learning more about the air strike in yemen that killed anwar al-awlaki. first, a reminder of why this american born cleric was so dangerous. president obama says he took the lead in planning to murder americans. he s been linked to those terror suspects of the decade including the so-called underwear bomber, the accused ft. hood attacker, three of the 9/11 hijackers and the man who allegedly tried to blow up a car in times square in new york. we have in depth coverage of the mission to kill al-awlaki and the implications. first, to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. several administration officials say it was a cia hit. the cia and pentagon had been working with the yemenese for nearly two years to kill anwar al-awlaki. we had always had tremendous concern that after getting bin laden, that someone like al-awlaki was a primary target because of his continuing efforts to plan attacks against the united stat
planning a simultaneous ground tack as well, sick people armed with weapons. brian todd is working the story and has more on who this guy is, what, if any, overseas connections he might have. and how the fbi caught him. joining us also fran townsend. so, brian, this was an fbi sting. what do we know about how it went down? it appears to have been a very elaborate sting. authorities were tracking mr. ferdaus for the better part of this year. at least since january of 2011. they do indicate that he began some of his various plotting last year but they have tracked him at least since january. they have used undercover agents and at least one cooperating witness who started taping conversations with him earlier this year. so this was a fairly elaborate sting operation that lasted until today when they actually sold him what he thought was some explosive material. they said not a lot of it was the real thing because they were obviously trying to trick him, but it lasted until to
photos of planes similar to ones they say he was planning to use. as you can see they re big enough to carry a serious load. the department of justice also believes he was planning a simultaneous ground attack involving six people armed with automatic weapons. brian todd is working the story and has more on who this guy is, what, if any, overseas connections he might have. joining us also fran townsend. so, brian, this was an fbi sting. what do we know about how it went down? it appears to have been a very elaborate string. authorities were tracking mr. ferdaus for the better part of this year. they do indicate that he began some of his various plotting last year but they have tracked him at least since january. they have used undercover agents and at least one cooperating witness who started taping conversations with him earlier this year. so this was a fairly elaborate sting operation that lasted until today when they actually sold him what he thought was some explosive mat
what, if any, overseas connections he might have. joining us also fran townsend. so, brian, this was an fbi sting. what do we know about how it went down? it appears to have been a very elaborate string. authorities were tracking mr. ferdaus for the better part of this year. they do indicate that he began some of his various plotting last year but they have tracked him at least since january. they have used undercover agents and at least one cooperating witness who started taping conversations with him earlier this year. so this was a fairly elaborate sting operation that lasted until today when they actually sold him what he thought was some explosive material. they said not a lot of it was the real thing because they were obviously trying to trick him, but it lasted until today when they actually took him down. did he ever have any connection to real people at al qaeda? they say the federal authorities say he did not. there is no indication according to a law enforcem