>"According to U.S. government officials, as well as being a senior recruiter and motivator, he was centrally involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda"
We are better off with him dead. He was American, but his allegiance was to al Qaeda and he was planning to murder civilians.
Does your sense of morality and ethics end at the border, shouldn't these types of values be a bit more universal?
You and I have no evidence that he was anything other than a loudmouth who bagged on the U.S. on the web and responded to emails from anyone who sent them.
Remember when Saddam had those tractor-trailer biological weapons factories driving around Iraq ready to release clouds of Anthrax on American civilians? That was also based on classified information from a US government official.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-05-29/cia-confident-iraq-tr...
Completely fabricated.
"not enough evidence for me to believe it" said someone on HN with your handle.
Show us the evidence (a demand you seem to be fond of) and prove that in a public court, that's called due process. I will believe it then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki
The difference between 'recruiter' and a guy who sent some emails to some people is unfortunately a distinction that is up to some dweeb with more top-secret security clearances than medals on a North Korean general.
I assume it's the same thing in China, they just have more dweebs that can disappear people.