Product Code Database
Samir ibn Zafar Khan (, ; December 25, 1985 – September 30, 2011) was a Saudi Arabian naturalized U.S. citizen, jihadist militant, and the editor and publisher of Inspire magazine, an English-language online magazine reported to be published by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He was killed in a drone strike in Yemen together with Anwar al-Awlaki.
He lived in Charlotte before leaving the country for Yemen in 2009.Temple-Raston, Dina (August 18, 2010). Grand Jury Focuses On N.C. Man Tied To Jihad Magazine. Morning Edition, NPR He reportedly cut off ties with his family when he left the U.S. After Khan's death, a family friend told CNN that Khan's father did not agree with his son's ideas and had sought help to change his son's radical views on several occasions.
In his book Ticking Time Bomb: Counter-Terrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack (2011), former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman described Australian Muslim preacher Feiz Mohammad, American-Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki, Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal, and Pakistani-American Samir Khan as "virtual spiritual sanctioners" who use the internet to offer religious justification for Islamist terrorism.
It was reported in May 2013 that Al Qaeda devotees native to the United States might have been using the instruction manuals that Khan posted online before his death. It was suspected that the Boston Marathon bombing was carried out according to these manuals.
However, some international law experts claimed that the attack that killed Khan was legal. Duke Law School professor Scott Silliman asserted that Awlaki's activity "put him in the category of a legitimate target," and University of Utah law professor Amos Guiora said, "This attack appears to have met the criteria of proportionality, military necessity and the absence of alternatives to be in full accordance with a state's right to aggressive self-defense."
Commenting on Khan's death, counter-terrorism expert Peter Bergen noted, "The fact that the editor of the magazine (Khan) has also been killed is a problem for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly as it relates to their Western recruitment effort, because the two people who principally spoke to the Western world are now dead."
After Khan's death, his family released a statement criticizing U.S. government and asking, "Was this style of execution the only solution? Why couldn't there have been a capture and trial? Where is the justice? As we mourn our son, we must ask these questions."
|
|
