Fiend inspires US terror in death
The Somali immigrant who allegedly went on a rampage Monday at Ohio State University was one of many terrorist disciples of al Qaeda hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.
College student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, joins a list that includes Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan and the Boston Marathon bombers, who used al-Awlaki’s rants as justification for their bloodshed.
Hasan, a military psychiatrist, sent e-mails to al-Awlaki before killing 13 people in a 2009 attack at Fort Hood in Texas.
“Underwear Bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was recruited by al-Awlaki for a failed 2009 attempt to blow up an airplane.
Syed Rizwan Farook, who killed 14 people during a 2015 rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., was also an al-Awlaki fan.
Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev watched his videos, too.
Al-Awlaki may have also planned a foiled 2010 plot to hide plastic explosives in printer cartridges and ship them to the US in cargo planes.
Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and spent some of his youth in Yemen. He once preached at a northern Virginia mosque visited by two of the 9/11 hijackers.
Soon after 9/11, al-Awlaki fled to the UK to continue preaching before he returned to Yemen in 2004. He was killed by a US drone in 2011.