For those in weak mental state, imam had the right ‘poison’

NEW YORK — Five years after Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by an American drone strike, some think he keeps inspiring acts of terror.

Investigators say a bomb that rocked New York a week ago, injuring more than two dozen people, was the latest in a long line of incidents in which the attackers were inspired by al-Awlaki, an American imam who became an al-Qaida propagandist.

Federal terrorism charges against the bombing suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, say a bloodstained notebook — found on him after he engaged in a shootout with police in New Jersey and was arrested — included passages praising al-Awlaki. And Rahami’s father has said he went to the FBI two years ago in part because he was concerned about his son’s admiration for al-Awlaki and the time he spent watching his videos advocating jihad, or holy war.

Terror experts say al-Awlaki remains a dangerous inciter of homegrown terror.

He spoke American English, and his sermons are widely available online. And since he was killed in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011, martyred in the eyes of followers, those materials take on an almost mythic quality for some people. His primary message: Muslims are under attack and have a duty to carry out attacks on non-believers at home.

Among the attackers who investigators and terror experts say were inspired by al-Awlaki and his videos: the couple who carried out the San Bernardino, California, shootings, which left 14 people dead in December, and the brothers behind the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others in April 2013.

“The horrific acts of violence they advertise are just a twisted form of advertising,” said Zachary Goldman, co-founder of the New York University Center for Cybersecurity.

He said al-Awlaki was particularly effective because of “his ideas and pernicious way of offering comfort to those in need of it at the same time as he poisons them.”

Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have called for curtailing the ability of terrorists to promote their views on the Internet.

The director of the Centre on National Security at Fordham Law School, Karen Greenberg, said being discussed is a way “to take searches for jihadist propaganda and deflect it toward a counternarrative.”