This whole supposed foiled terrorist plot is turning into another US created fear and terror plot against citizens of america...again. This guy Anwar Al Awalki was not found guilty of anything prior to america getting involved in the investigation. Then all of a sudden his name is thrown up in the air by america as plotting to send packages from Yemen to America to blow up Synagogues...now give me a break already. With all of the installed security at airports around the world, it is near impossible to even send an ANT anywhere without it being found out. And why send a package all the way from Yemen? He wold have done better to fly to america , buy dynamite or some explosive and go to the supposed synagogue and blow it up himself. Yemen UPS service says that no such package ever was mailed through its offices and the person who worked for the UPS office doesn't exist. So the plot thickens
Anwar al-Awlaki charged in Yemen with crimes against foreigners
Anwar al-Awlaki, the man believed to be behind the cargo plane bomb plot, is tried in his absence in Yemen for crimes against foreigners.
Published: 9:53AM GMT 02 Nov 2010
Anwar al-Awlaki is thought to be hiding in southern Yemen Photo: AP
Yemen, under pressure to crack down on militants operating there after a foiled bomb plot involving US-bound parcels, began the trial in absentia on Tuesday of the radical US-born preacher, wanted dead or alive by Washington.
Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been linked to a failed bombing of a US-bound plane in December 2009 that was claimed by Yemen's al Qaeda wing, is thought to be hiding in southern Yemen.
Also on Tuesday, the trial of a Yemeni journalist and al-Qaeda expert was set to continue in Sanaa. Abdulelah Shai is being tried for alleged links to al-Qaeda, including helping to publicise the views of Anwar al-Awlaki.
Awlaqi, who holds both Yemeni and US citizenship, and his relative, Othman al-Awlaqi, were both charged in absentia in a Yemeni court with "incitement to kill foreigners and members of security services."
The charges arose during the trial of Hisham Mohammed Assem, a Yemeni, who was in the court on Tuesday to face charges of killing French energy contractor Jacques Spagnolo near Sanaa last month.
The court action comes as Yemen is in the spotlight after parcel bombs to the United States were traced to the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The US Treasury has blacklisted Awlaki as a "specially designated global terrorist", a move that freezes any assets he may have under US jurisdiction.
Earlier this year, the United States authorised the CIA to capture or kill him. Awlaki has also been linked to an army major who went on a shooting spree that killed 13 people last year at Fort Hood in Texas.
The two parcel bombs were intercepted last week on cargo planes in Britain and Dubai are thought to be the work of al-Qaeda's Yemen-based arm, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Yemeni police arrested a young student at Sanaa University in connection with the parcel bomb plot but released her the next day, saying it had been a case of mistaken identity.
Intelligence officials tracked several shipments of household goods from Yemen to Chicago in September and considered that the parcels might be a dry run for a terrorist attack.
Intelligence officials believe the tracking of the shipments may have been used to plan the route and timing for two parcel bombs discovered on Friday on US-bound planes.
"That was one scenario that was considered," said one official.
The "dry run" involved a carton of household goods including books, religious literature, and a computer disk, but no explosives, shipped from Yemen to Chicago, the report said.
ABC reported that officials believe the earlier flight might have been used to track how long it took and whether there would be any problems for the package getting through the system.
Governments have tightened aviation security after two devices sent in air cargo from Yemen were intercepted in Dubai and Britain.
