Youtube has removed from its site an undisclosed number of the hundreds of jihad-call videos by American-born, Yemen-based Anwar al-Awlaki.
The decision was made following pressure from U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner (D,NY) and an unnamed British official - but was most likely in direct response to the news that a British woman had attempted to murder a Member of Parliament after watching more than 100 hours of Awlaki's videos.
Youtube announced that it had removed some of the videos that it considered in violation of the site's guidelines. The New York Times reported that Weiner had sent YouTube a letter listing hundreds of videos featuring al-Awlaki, who is associated with Al-Qaeda in Yemen and nearby countries.
Just last week, two powerful bombs hidden in cargo planes were intercepted en route from Yemen to Chicago. Hidden in packages addressed to Jewish places of worship in Chicago, the bombs are apparently the work of Al-Qaeda.
A YouTube spokesperson explained that the site had removed videos that violated the site's guidelines prohibiting "dangerous or illegal activities such as bomb-making, hate speech, and incitement to commit violent acts," or came from accounts "registered by a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization," or used to promote such a group's interests. She added that the goal is to balance freedom of expression with averting calls to violence.
Roshonara Choudhry, the young, gifted, British-born Muslim woman who was sentenced to life for attempting to murder former government minister Stephen Timms, explained unabashedly that she was motivated by al-Awlaki's videos and Timms' votes in favor of the war in Iraq.
In the past, YouTube has faced other calls to remove Muslim terrorist videos, with which it complied partially.
