Cleric for Fort Hood shooter acting like a dead man

Washington Post:

A day after Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched an airstrike on a meeting of suspected al-Qaeda leaders, it remained unclear whether an extremist Yemeni American cleric linked to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings was among those killed in the assault.

Yemeni defense sources had said Thursday that they thought Anwar al-Aulaqi was among those killed in the attack in southeastern Yemen, according to 26sep.net, a Web site linked to Yemen's military.

But a Yemeni official said Friday that there was no confirmation that Aulaqi and two top al-Qaeda leaders were killed or injured.

The pre-dawn strike killed at least 30 suspected militants and was the second such assault in the past week.

Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and radical Internet preacher who exchanged e-mails with Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people last month at Fort Hood, Tex., was thought to have attended the meeting, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials. U.S. officials say they think Aulaqi was probably killed.

Aulaqi's relatives said they believe he is alive, although they have not heard from him since the attack. "He was not at the meeting. He was not even in the area," said Nasser al-Aulaqi, the cleric's father.

The elder Aulaqi, who denied that his son has ties to al-Qaeda, said he had spoken with tribal leaders and relatives in the area of the strike. Five bodies have been retrieved from the site and buried, according to tribal leaders.

"Our tribesmen said Anwar was not there. They would not bury him in a small grave. They would ask all the tribesmen of Aulaqi to attend his funeral," the father said. "He wouldn't be buried in secret in the night."

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That assumes there are enough body parts to bury. I the cleric were alive, he might not want to call a news briefing at this point, but there is no reason why he would not be communicating on the internet, unless of course he is too dead to do so.

One of the interesting dogs not barking at this point are the anti war Democrats who would be all over President Bush for this kind of intervention without specific Congressional authorization.