Cue the Ron Paul, Michael Moore, CAIR and leftist ACLU outrage….
WASHINGTON      (The Blaze/AP) — The same U.S. military unit that got Osama bin Laden used a  drone and jet strike in Yemen on Friday to kill an American-born cleric  suspected of inspiring or helping plan numerous attacks on the United  States, including the Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up a jetliner, U.S.  and Yemeni officials said.

Anwar al-Awlaki  was killed in a strike on his convoy directed by the CIA and carried out  with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command’s firepower, according  to a counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity to  discuss intelligence.
Al-Awlaki had been under observation for  three weeks while they waited for the right opportunity to strike, one  of the U.S. officials said.  Another source told Fox News the operation was carried out by two Predator drones that launched Hellfire missiles.
The cleric known for  fiery anti-American rhetoric spread on the Internet was suspected of  inspiring the mass shooting at Fort Hood Army base in Texas in 2009 and  of taking a more direct role in planning the attempted Christmas bombing  of a Detroit-bound jetliner and other terror attempts against  Americans.
He is the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since bin Laden’s death in May.
U.S.  word of al-Awlaki’s death came after the government of Yemen reported  that he had been killed Friday about five miles from the town of  Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital Sanaa.
The  air strike was carried out more openly than the covert operation that  sent Navy SEALs into bin Laden’s Pakastani compound, U.S. officials  said.
Counterterrorism cooperation between the  United States and Yemen has improved in recent weeks, allowing better  intelligence-gathering on al-Awlaki’s movements, U.S. officials said.  The ability to better track him was a key factor in the success of the  strike, U.S. officials said. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity  to discuss intelligence matters.
Al-Awlaki’s  death is the latest in a run of high-profile kills for Washington under  President Barack Obama. But the killing raises questions that the death  of other al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden, did not.
Al-Awlaki  is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, who had not  been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the  government’s authority to kill an American without trial.
U.S.  officials have said they believe al-Awlaki inspired the actions of Army  psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of  premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in  the attack at Fort Hood, Texas.
In New York,  the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times  Square car bombing attempt said he was “inspired” by al-Awlaki after  making contact over the Internet.
Al-Awlaki  also is believed to have had a hand in mail bombs addressed to  Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in  October 2010.
Al-Awlaki’s death “will  especially impact the group’s ability to recruit, inspire and raise  funds as al-Awlaki’s influence and ability to connect to a broad  demographic of potential supporters was unprecedented,” said terrorist  analyst Ben Venzke of the private intelligence monitoring firm, the  IntelCenter.
But Venzke said the terror group  al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula will remain the most dangerous regional  arm “both in its region and for the direct threat it poses to the U.S.  following three recent failed attacks,” with its leader Nasir  al-Wahayshi still at large.
Al-Awlaki wrote an  article in the latest issue of the terror group’s magazine justifying  attacking civilians in the West. It’s titled “Targeting the Populations  of Countries that Are at War with the Muslims.”
Al-Awlaki served as imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, for about a year in 2001.
The  mosque’s outreach director, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, has said that  mosque members never saw al-Awlaki espousing radical ideology while he  was there and that he believes Awlaki’s views changed after he left the  U.S.  (read more)