Denver Teen’s Death by Drone Remains Shrouded in Secrecy/ (Kid was just looking for his Father)

[KoKo]

Denver Teen’s Death by Drone Remains Shrouded in Secrecy
By: Kevin Gosztola Monday October 15, 2012 1:06 pm


Photo from Facebook group "Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki - A Crime We'll Never Forget"

A lawsuit brought by the teenager’s grandfather provides details. He was born in Denver, Colorado on August 26, 1995. The American teen grew up in the United States. In 2002, he moved to Yemen with his family. He was in his first year of high school in Sana’a, where he lived with his mother, siblings, grandmother and grandfather. He was killed by a drone at a restaurant near Azzan in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa on October 14, 2011.

The teen killed was Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki. He had left home nine days before he turned sixteen to find his father, Anwar al-Awlaki—a Muslim cleric who the Obama administration had placed on a kill list. The teen left a note for his mother, which the Toronto Star’s Michelle Shephard reported begged for forgiveness. The note also explained he missed his father and wanted to talk to him.

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Abdulrahman “crawled out a second-story kitchen window and dropped to the garden below” and “crossed the front yard past potted plants and a carnival ride graveyard — Dumbo, Donald Duck, an arched seal balancing a beach ball — debris from his uncle Omar’s failed business venture to install rides in local shopping malls.”

The family guard spotted Abdulrahman, as he left around 6:30 am on September 4, but Abdulrahman was not stopped. He caught a bus to “a cousin’s house in Shabwa province in the south.”

Why Did the US Put My Father on a Kill List?

It is not entirely known what happened on his journey, but Abdulrahman did not make it to his father before a US drone killed him on September 30. According to Tom Junod of Esquire, “The next day, Abdulrahman called his mother from the ancestral village near the Arabian Sea. He had heard about what happened to his father. He was coming home.”

Political unrest had been heightened. Abdulrahman waited two weeks for roads to become safer so he could make his way home. The night before he was to begin his trip back home he said goodbye to new friends and celebrated with six or seven people, “along with a seventeen-year-old cousin.” They sat by a fire under the moonlight and cooked and ate food. That night he was eliminated in a drone attack.

Anwar al-Awlaki’s sister told Junod, “Abdulrahman was very aware who his father was and knew that the US government was trying to kill him.” His son probably wondered why his father was being targeted. His grandfather said they used to finish in the ocean when they moved to California. They would catch fish and hike in the mountains. “Abdulrahman was very attached to his father.” Why the US government would want to kill his father may have been a question he “thought about all the time,” even if the US had pressed Yemen to keep him in prison after he was arrested in 2006.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/

[RC]

1. The war on terror. The self-perpetuating war.

</war>

[OldDem2012]

4. About as useful as the War on Drugs. nt.

[Karmadillo]

2. Thanks for posting this. I added a more direct link.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/10/15/denver-teens-death-by-drone-remains-shrouded-in-secrecy/

[NYC_SKP]

3. Whether from Denver or from Beirut, this kind of death of a young soul is unforgivable.

The Denver backstory brings it home for US readers, but that it needs to be US-ified is, in itself, a tragic thing.

Syrian or Egyptian or San Franciscan, the loss and tragedy are identical.

Hi, KoKo.

[sabrina 1]

5. What a horrible tragedy. What I don't get is why or what anyone thought was to be gained

from this killing of a young person like this. All it does is generate more hatred.

RIP Abdulrahmann! One more victim of the never ending war on terror started by the unelected Bush and his band of war criminals.

[KoKo]

6. I think it strikes to the heart of the matter about what our US Policy is doing...but..then

I'm a lone voice around here and so are you.

Some would want to say it's because what we fight for and believe is no longer valid in today's Political Reality. I say "HOG WASH!"

If we try to adhere to what "we believed" is our Constitution that the Right Wing rails on about on their controlled Media Web then we would wonder WHY that Same RW doesn't SEE what those of us on the LEFT see.

But, it's not meant to be with TRIANGULATION.

[sabrina 1]

8. ''What those of us on the LEFT see"

I have come to question what those on the 'left' saw. I did think we were on the right side of the issues when we condemned almost all of Bush's policies.

Everyone seemed to be on the same page, about torture, about indefinite detention, about mercenaries, about the wars, about the lies and invasions and drone attacks. And there was outrage on the Left over even the suggestion of the President having the right to kill anyone, without charges or trial, let alone an American citizen, and worse a teenager whose death to this day, has not been explained.

Imagine if Bush was president and this had happened. The outrage would have been heard from the Left around the world.

But the silence from those formerly outraged by these atrocities and abuses of the Geneva Conventions and our own Constitution, is simply deafening now.

The killing of that teenager would have produced thread after thread had it happened under Bush.

I think some people are just not saying anything in case they might be banned. Banned? From a Democratic board for opposing the same things we opposed freely here when Bush was president?

It's an interesting experiment though. I view it as our own personal experience of living during any of the times when the people remained silent because atrocities were not yet aimed at them and WE WONDER WHY they did not speak out.

At least they probably feared for their freedom or their lives. But on an internet forum? Why are people afraid? The worst that could happen is they could be blocked from the forum.

I think continuing to oppose what we claimed we opposed during the Bush years is certainly worth, for the sake of those who are dying or incarcerated or being tortured, risking that small sacrifice.

Otoh, it could be that the Left never really cared about these issues and were feigning outrage because the other team was doing it, making it easy for them to remain silent now.

It's probably a mixture of both.

I admire you for continuing to stand by the same principles we thought we all stood for during the Bush years. If there was a real life example of needing people to stand up for what is right, I know you could most likely be counted on. One of the few, sadly.

'It's not the words of our enemies we will remember, it is the silence of our friends'

Those words mean so much more to me now than they ever did.

[KoKo]

9. I hear you...and what you say...it's heartbreaking ....but, in my life I've found it to be more true

than not.

What you said:

'It's not the words of our enemies we will remember, it is the silence of our friends'

YES...

[Bonobo]

13. "Imagine if Bush was president and this had happened. "

I wish every fucking hypocrite here would just ask themselves that question.

I am sure that they would, to a last person, admit that they would have been outraged that the US killed an innocent American teenager and never said a word about it.

If he was targeted, it is shameful and a crime.

If he wasn't, an apology and payment was owed. In spades. From the President.

Why did it not happen and why are there so many fucking hypocrites?

[msanthrope]

7. I was quite surprised that the family didn't file a wrongful death suit. He wasn't a target, so

I suspect they would have had a good case.

"Two weeks later, another drone strike targeting and killing a prominent al Qaeda militant, Ibrahim al-Banna, also killed Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a teenage cousin and several others. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki's family in Yemen confirmed that he and his cousin were killed by a a drone strike.

It's unclear why the younger al-Awlaki was with al-Banna, but the teenager's death has refocused scrutiny on the U.S. drone campaign, which has grown exponentially since being introduced in 2004 – principally in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, but more recently in Somalia, Yemen and Libya. Drones are now a controversial pillar of national security policy."
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/25/death-of-u-s-teenager-in-drone-strike-stokes-debate/

Filing suit might lead to discovery.

[KoKo]

10. Good Point...I thought I read somewhere they tried...but, you know how that goes in these times..

but, I don't have time to search to verify what I said about them trying right now. I'm on that dreadful "watch" we are all on for this debate.

If I find something I will post...but, it will get few views...but, I will try if I find it.

Thanks for the reply and even thinking about it. It's rare these days.

[msanthrope]

11. Several suits have been filed, but not a wrongful death suit, which indicates to me that the

family knows that discovery would not be kind to them.

A rather interesting take on the Sr. Awlaki--

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/15/world/al-qaeda-cia-marriage-plot/index.html

[KoKo]

12. Thanks, msanthrope, for the CNN View...

Sadly..I have to tell you that I view CNN as the WAR Channel and find nothing there that isn't Pentagon Propaganda.

I don't have time to read the post right now..(waiting for the debate) but, I would not trush CNN who has promoted the Iraq Invasion under Poppy Bush and on promoting WAR/WAR throughout even now.

So...while I like to read news from all sites...CNN lost credibility with me under Poppy Bush...and I've not seen them redeemed IMHO since then.

I do like "Asia Times" and "New Democracy Foundation" plus some other sites in the mix that I read, though. I imagine you read all those sites also and you come up with CNN as the view that you feel rings true to you.

That it doesn't to me...doesn't mean anything more than that we disagree.

I still find no excuse for killing this kid who was an American Citizen before his 16th Birthday as a terrorist.

If this was your kid would you want a Drone by a Government to "take him out?" And under WHAT AUTHORIZATION did they do this? I think that's the real question, and it's Constitutional .

[msanthrope]

14. The point is that he wasn't the target. He was, however, with a target. I think any death of

civilians is disgusting and inexcuseable. The person I blame, however, is the AQAP media chief who chose to involve children in his pursuits.

[sabrina 1]

15. How do you know that? As far as I know there has been no evidence provided

about this case at all. Many people have tried to sue the US Government, victims of torture eg, and have had their cases thrown out of court on the basis of 'national security'.