• In first public acknowledgement, Holder says 4 Americans died in US drone strikes

    Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

    Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6.

    By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

    The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that U.S. drone strikes have killed four American citizens since 2009, including the previously undisclosed death of a North Carolina resident who left the United States for Pakistan and was later indicted on federal terrorism charges.


    Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to congressional leaders and chairman of key congressional committees made public on the eve of what was billed as a major counterterrorism speech by President Barack Obama, also confirmed the deaths in drone attacks in Yemen of three other Americans that already had been widely reported: those of radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki , his teenage son, Abd al-Rahmn Anwar al-Awlaki; and Samir Khan, the American who ran al Qaeda’s web-based propaganda magazine Inspire.  Previously the Obama administration had only acknowledged the senior Awlaki’s killing and refused to publicly confirm or deny reports of the other deaths.

    The letter also confirmed that U.S. drones had killed Jude Kenan Mohammed of Raleigh, N.C., more than a  year after a local news report quoted a friend as saying he had died in an attack in Pakistan in November 2011.

    Holder said in the letter that the senior Awlaki was the only U.S. citizen targeted in a drone strike.

    Anonymous / AP

    Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric and recruiter for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, is shown in an October 2008 file photo.

    He also provided new details about what the U.S. says were Awlaki's operational roles in terror plots, including his role in a 2010 attempt to bomb cargo planes by putting bombs in printer cartridges.

    It also included an explicit explanation of the U.S. policy for targeted killings of Americans, much of which was included in a “white paper” obtained by NBC News in February.

    Mohammed’s death appears to have been news to the FBI, which as of Thursday still listed him on its “most wanted” list, saying, “On July 22, 2009, a federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Jude Kenan Mohammad for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons in a foreign country. Mohammad is at large … (and) is believed to be in Pakistan.”

    A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told NBC News: “We don’t know when he was killed. That fact was classified.”

    FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in an email: "Jude Kenan Mohammed remained wanted until there was official confirmation of death.  Until now, the matter was classified and it is now appropriate for the wanted poster to be removed from our website." 

    Obama is expected to discuss the drone program Thursday in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

    Release of Holder’s letter came as classified documents obtained by NBC News raised new questions about the CIA-run drone program and whether it is consistent with public comments by Obama and other administration officials describing  the strikes as “very precise” and targeted at specific al Qaeda operatives and their associates. In fact, the documents show, the agency has frequently attacked low-level militants and foreign fighters in Pakistan whose names and nationalities were not known, as well as militant groups not directly connected to al Qaeda.

    The documents, similar to those recently reported by McClatchy Newspapers, offer a window into the secretive drone program and how its actual operations sometimes differ from the public accounts provided by the administration.

    They appear to officially confirm that the agency has engaged in “signature strikes” – a much discussed and controversial practice that has never been publicly acknowledged -- in which CIA drone operators target individuals based on the “signature characteristics” of suspects but whose actual identities are not clear.

    They surface at a time that U.S officials appear to be scaling back the drone program – amid warnings from some  former military and intelligence officials that the attacks may be creating a backlash harmful to U.S. interests in the long run.

     When Obama was asked about the drone program last year during a Google News forum, he called it “a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists.” In an April 2012 speech, then White House counter-terrorism adviser and now CIA Director John Brennan said: “The United States Government conducts targeted strikes against specific al Qaeda terrorists,” while acknowledging that drone targets included “associated forces.”

    But a CIA list of 53 drone strikes in the fall of 2010 indicates that fewer than half – 22 -- listed al Qaeda operatives as the targets. Other strikes were aimed at targets that included suspected members of the militant al-Haqqani network in Pakistan, which is believed to have harbored and worked with al Qaeda; members of the Pakistani Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist military group that aims to overthrow the Pakistani government; and members of another Pakistani terrorist network identified as the “Commander Nazir Group.”  Fourteen of the strikes listed the targets only as “other militants.”

    Agency lists for other periods show a higher proportion of strikes being specifically aimed at Al Qaeda operatives. For example, during a nine month period between January and September 2011, 28 out of 42 strikes listed al Qaeda members as targets.

    But in other accounts of the strikes, agency officials refer to the targeting of individuals whose identifies do not appear to be known. One 2009 attack was described as being aimed at “military aged males”  at a site “associated with al Qaeda explosives training.” Another, in 2010, described the target as “four adult males conducting weapons training.”

    The CIA and White House did not respond to requests for comment about the documents. But U.S. officials have vigorously defended the drone program and their public accounts of it, while saying they are limited in what they can say because of its classified nature and the potential impacts of full public disclosure in Pakistan. As for the use of signature strikes , they have argued that “when you have a bunch of guys building explosives, you don’t need to know who they are. They are an imminent threat.”

    NBC News’ Pete Williams, Chuck Todd and Tom Curry contributed to this report.

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  • American drone deaths highlight controversy

    MSNBC

    Samir Khan (left) and Anwar al-Awlaki, both U.S. citizens, were killed in in Yemen by an American drone strike.

    By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

     

    Of the scores of people dubbed terrorists who have been targeted by American military drone strikes, three men -- all killed in the fall of 2011 -- were U.S. citizens.

    And their lives illustrate the complexity of the issue, recently brought to light amid a newly discovered government memo that provides the legal reasoning behind drone strikes on Americans.

    Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were killed by a missile strike in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011, while al-Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman, was killed in the country just weeks later. 

    Since the attacks, family members have called the deaths unjust and sued the U.S. government, calling the killings unconstitutional.

    Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico, became well known for his fiery anti-American sermons posted throughout the Internet.


    Samir Khan, who'd lived in both New York and Charlotte, N.C., produced a magazine called “Inspire” that became known for its extreme jihadist views.

    But the most controversial drone strike took place on Oct. 14, 2011, when 16-year-old Abdulrahman was killed by U.S. forces.

    Family of the Denver-born teenager say he had no ties to terrorist organizations and was unjustly targeted because of his father.  

    Nassar al-Awlaki, grandfather of Abdulrahman and father to Anwar, said he tried to protect his grandson as Anwar al-Awlaki’s profile grew.

    In December, Nassar al-Awlaki told CNN, “In Anwar it was expected because he was under targeted killing, but how in the world they will go and kill Abdulrahman. Small boy, U.S. citizen from Denver, Colorado.”

    Nassar al-Awlaki said his grandson snuck out of their Yemen home one night, leaving a note for his mother saying he would return in a few days. The boy never returned, killed instead while eating at an outdoor restaurant.

    “Since the issue regarding Anwar came, I tried to insulate the family of Anwar from everything, regarding this matter,” Nassar al-Awlaki told CNN. “I took care of him, and suddenly after 2 year absence from his father, he decided to go to our government in Yemen to seek information from his father. That was the only reason he went, and he did not tell us.”

    The Obama administration has remained mostly mum regarding Abdulrahman's death, and at times has struggled to explain it. 

    Read more: Memo details legal case for drone strikes

    "I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well-being of their children," former White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said to a gaggle of reporters in October. "I don't think becoming an al-Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business."

    During his presidential campaign, Republican Rep. Ron Paul criticized the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, saying: “Al-Awlaki was born here, he is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. No one knows if he killed anybody. ... But if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it's sad.”

    Anwar al-Awlaki’s ties to the United States go back to his father Nassar, who came to the country to earn a master’s degree. His son was born in New Mexico, and though the family returned to Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki came back to the U.S. for college, eventually becoming an iman.

    Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, he became a popular spokesman for moderate Islam, and was often used to juxtapose perceptions that Islam is a religion that spreads hate.  But less than a decade later, he was hiding in Yemen as a name on the CIA's kill list.

    “I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding on every other Muslim,” he said in an audio message in March 2010.    

    Conversely, Khan was never interested in the peaceful side of Islam. The New York Times reports that as a teen, Khan’s attraction grew exponentially to militant sites on the Internet after 9/11. Parental concerns and intervention from community leaders proved unsuccessful. Khan was 25 when he died in Yemen.

    In July 2012, Samir Khan’s mother, Sarah, joined Nassar al-Awlaki in a lawsuit against four senior national security officials.

    “I don’t really necessarily agree with some of the things Anwar said against the United States, but does that mean they should kill him outside the law?” asked Nassar al-Awlaki.

    A secretive memo from the Justice Department, provided to NBC News, provides new information about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration's controversial policies. Now, John Brennan, Obama's nominee for CIA director, is expected to face tough questions about drone strikes on Thursday when he appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.

    Update: A fourth American-born citizen, Kamal Derwish, was killed by predator drone in Yemen in 2002. Derwish was not the primary target of the strike, but was riding in an SUV carrying an al-Qaida leader.

  • Americans tied to Israel caught in the chaos of Gaza conflict

    View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

    By Rachel Elbaum, NBC News

    Harvard student Edan Razinovsky spent the weekend agonizing over whether he should book a ticket to Tel Aviv, as the Israeli army was calling up reservists from around the country, including Razinovsky's former unit, for a possible ground invasion into Gaza. 


    Razinovsky, 26, moved to the U.S. from Israel when he was a toddler, and voluntarily joined the Israeli army two years ago for an 18-month stint. He remains officially registered as a reservist although as a student living abroad he isn’t obligated to return.

    “When you are in the army, you train for conflict and you are prepared, but to actually go in is somewhat surreal,” said Razinovsky. “My former commander left me a voice mail the other day, saying the unit had been called up, and I have been going back and forth as to whether I should go or not.”

    Razinovsky isn’t the only American caught up in the chaos. Americans both inside and outside of Israel have had their lives turned upside down in the last week and a half, from reservists who have felt the need to return to Israel, to brides-to-be forced to alter wedding day plans. There are no official figures as to how many American Jews live in Israel, but around 2,000 Americans move to Israel every year.

    In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza

    Razinovsky is now waiting to see how the conflict develops, and feels strongly that if his unit needs him, he will fly over, even if it means sacrificing the semester at Harvard.

    Last week, the Israeli Defense Forces called up around 31,000 reservists with authorization to mobilize up to 75,000. Anecdotal reports suggest that quite a few Americans who have served in the Israeli army have now returned to serve in the current conflict.

    Daily life thrown
    Avi Schwartz, who grew up in Silver Spring, Md., is used to juggling the off-again, on-again clashes, having lived in Israel for more than 10 years. But as the operator of a tour company, the current conflict has forced him to think of ways to reposition his business.

    “About half of a women’s group we were expecting to come this week cancelled,” said Schwartz, 34, as an air raid siren went off in Jerusalem. “There are still groups that want to come despite the violence, and now we are trying to find and organize tours for those that want to show their support for Israel.”

    When Debbie Shuval moved to Israel from Manhattan in August to attend business school, she didn’t count on having to explain a war to her three young kids.

    Clinton heads to Mideast on peace mission, Hamas remains defiant

    “The kids see soldiers all the time, and my 3-year-old son often tells me that when he’s big he will also go to the war,” said Shuval. “The most difficult part of this flare up has been hearing about friends who have been called up. It makes the conflict feel so much more real; living in Jerusalem, the relative quiet can give you a false sense of calm.”

    A wedding to remember
    While Razinovsky was busy staying in contact with his commanders, Pnina Weiss spent the weekend reorganizing her wedding with just a few days to go. Rockets raining down from Gaza into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, where her wedding hall was located, had thrown her plans into disarray.

    Fewer than four days later, and thanks to the generosity of friends, family and strangers, Weiss was able to rearrange her affair to take place in a hall 16 miles north of Tel Aviv, closer to her parents’ home in Raanana, where tree-lined streets are more reminiscent of Southern California than the Middle East.

    She has yet to taste the food, and will be using centerpieces and decorations donated by a friend of a friend who is getting married the night before.

    Despite the quick turnaround, Weiss’ wedding will be a smaller affair than originally planned. She had organized the wedding for Thanksgiving weekend to make it easy for friends and family in the U.S. to attend. At least 11 family members from America have cancelled with another 30 or so from Ashkelon also too nervous to travel on unprotected roads or to leave their kids alone.

    “Putting off the wedding wasn’t an option,” said Weiss, who moved to Israel from Dallas when she was four. “I’m 34 and I’ve waited many years for this so what does the rest matter? I know on Thursday I’m getting married. It will definitely be a wedding that no one will forget.”

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  • Report: US student fighting for life after chimps attack at South Africa's Jane Goodall Institute

    Erin Conway-Smith/AP, file

    Chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa in this Feb 2011 photo.

    By NBC's Rohit Kachroo and msnbc.com staff

    An American studying chimpanzee behavior in South Africa was “fighting for his life” after he was attacked by two of the animals, according to a report.

    The chimpanzees dragged the man for more than a mile, under a fence and into their enclosure at Jane Goodall Institute Chimp Eden near Nelspruit, The Telegraph newspaper reported.


    The paper said the victim of the attack had not been named. However, it said it understood he was a “young university student from the United States who had been observing the animals at the reserve for several weeks.”

    Jeffrey Wicks, a spokesman for private ambulance firm Netcare911, told the Telegraph that witnesses said the man was leading a group of tourists when the attack happened.

    "A ranger at a chimpanzee sanctuary near Nelspruit is fighting for his life after he was attacked by two frenzied animals while leading a tour group at the park this afternoon," he added. "According to eyewitnesses, two chimpanzees grabbed the man by his feet and pulled him under the perimeter fence and into the enclosure."

    Armed escorts for paramedics
    Paramedics needed armed escorts as they went in to treat the victim, NBC’s Rohit Kachroo reported. It was unclear whether this caused any delay.

    The victim was stabilized at the scene and taken by ambulance to a private hospital in Nelspruit, NBC said. There have been no similar attacks at the reserve, which opened more than six years ago.

    David Oosthuizen, Jane Goodall Institute executive director, confirmed the reserve was on lock down following the incident, The Telegraph said.

    NBC's Meredith Vieira sits down with Charla Nash, who recently underwent a face transplant that's helped her regain the life she had before being brutally attacked by a chimp.

    "We understand that the gentleman is stable and we really feel for him," he told the paper. "This has been very upsetting for everyone – it is just horrific. We are an organization that's respected worldwide for the work we do so anything like this is very bad."

    Victim of chimpanzee attack shares progress, optimism

    He added that some of the animals kept there had been abused before they were rescued and taken to the institute.

    "These chimpanzees have six times the strength of a human being so you have to respect them and we certainly do," he said.

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  • NBC: 2 Americans kidnapped in Egypt released, police say

    Two Americans who were taken hostage in Egypt have been released. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

     

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 1:03 p.m. ET: CAIRO -- NBC's Charlene Gubash reports the three former hostages, including two American women, were released to military officials and not police because police are mistrusted by the Egyptian Bedouin tribesmen.

    The Governor of South Sinai has also invited the Americans for dinner, Gubash reports. Their itinerary includes Sharm, Cairo to visit pyramids and Alexandria.

    Updated at 10:37 a.m. ET:  CAIRO -- South Sinai Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib tells The Associated Press that he has sent a car to pick up the kidnapping Americans after the deal was made following negotiations with Egyptian Bedouin tribesmen.

     

    The two American women and one guide were seized Friday from a minivan that was returning them from the monastery to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.  Naguib said earlier the kidnappers wanted the release of fellow tribesmen who were arrested but he isn't releasing details about the negotiations.

    NBC's Charlene Gubash says the tourists were on a tour with Seed-Faith Foundation, described online as faith-based travel. 

    Updated at 10:46 a.m. ET: Two American tourists kidnapped in Egypt on Friday have been released, local police tell NBC News.

    Updated at 10 a.m. ET: Egyptian generals are negotiating with Bedouin tribesmen thought to have kidnapped two Americans and their guides near a popular Red Sea resort on Friday, NBC News' Charlene Gubash reports from Cairo.

    Thousands of people poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where tear gas was used to disperse the crowd. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    The kidnappers are demanding the release of of 33 Bedouins detained last week, she says, adding that Egyptian police now know the whereabouts of the hostages.

    Updated at 9:10 a.m. ET: The U.S. State Department said it was working to confirm the citizenship of the two tourists who were kidnapped along with their guide in Egypt on Friday.

     

    The U.S. Embassy in Cairo released the following statement to NBC News:

    "Egyptian authorities have confirmed to us that two tourists, who they say are American citizens, have been kidnapped in Sinai. We are trying to confirm their citizenship and in the meantime are working closely with the Egyptian authorities to do everything possible to ensure the tourists' safety."

    Updated at 7:10 a.m. ET: Two American tourists and their guide have been kidnapped near a popular Red Sea resort in Egypt, South Sinai's chief of police confirmed to NBC News Friday.

    Egypt protesters besiege Cairo ministry

    The news came just days after Bedouin tribesmen released about two dozen Chinese cement factory workers taken hostage in the country last week.

    Egypt has faced deteriorating security and a surge in crime since the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak nearly a year
    ago. Protesters accuse the military council that has assumed power and the police force of negligence.

    On Friday, the military and police officials told The Associated Press that abductors sped away in a sedan and a pickup truck after taking the Americans, leaving behind three other people who had been in the minivan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, did not know the nationalities of those left behind.

    The group had been traveling between St. Catherine's Monastery to the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

    Authorities said a search was under way.

    Chinese abducted
    On Saturday, 29 Chinese workers were captured by rebels in the Sudanese border state of South Kordofan. The 25 workers freed on Wednesday were in good condition, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing an embassy official there, Ma Jianchun.

    Analysis: Egyptians share blame in soccer tragedy

    Residents of Sinai say they are neglected by the central government in Cairo, and periodically attack police stations and block access to towns, villages and industrial sites to show their discontent.

    The isolated desert region has become more lawless since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak a year ago and threw the security apparatus into disarray.

    Original post: Two American tourists in Egypt have been kidnapped, South Sinai's chief of police confirmed to NBC News on Friday.

    Five tourists were on their way from St. Catherine's Monastery to the very popular Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh, the police told NBC News. He added that Bedouin tribesmen took two and an Egyptian guide and let the remaining three go with the car.

    The two are most likely being held to exchange for release of prisoners and land the Bedouin tribe want, NBC reported. They may have also been kidnapped in revenge for a recent crackdown by police.

    NBC News, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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