Friday Drone Attack Kills Anwar Al-Awlaki's Son In Yemen

Three drone attacks in Yemen Friday night killed seven suspected militants including Anwar Al-Awlaki's son, a security official said.

Carried out in the Shabwa district, where the younger Awlaki had been holed up for more than eight months, the attack comes just weeks after the September 30 strike that killed the senior Al-Awlaki.

The attack was confirmed by a senior security official in Yemen through CNN, who said he had first hand knowledge of the deaths, but was not authorized to speak to the press.

President Obama hailed the September attack as a "major blow" against the al Qaeda terrorist group, but has not yet made an official response to yesterday's attack.

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Donald Rumsfeld Warns US Attack Is Unavoidable If Defense Cuts Proceed

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In an exclusive interview with Human Events, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the US is bound to face another 9/11 type attack if Congress proceeds with its planned defense cuts.

Rumsfeld says it's not the military it's the entitlements that are dragging America into debt. “The Department of Defense is not what’s causing the debt and the deficit.  It’s the entitlement programs.  If we make that mistake, we’re doomed to suffer another attack of some kind, and our intelligence will be less strong and less effective.”

From Human Events:

Before legislators attempt to take out the nation’s crushing debt on the Defense Department, they must understand that spending on the military is low compared with historical averages, said Rumsfeld.  He noted that military spending from Eisenhower though LBJ topped 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP), far less than today’s 4.7%. President Obama has already imposed $400 billion in military cuts, and there could be $800 billion more in slashing to follow in the very near future if congressional leaders do not agree on a debt-reduction deal.
Rumsfeld stressed that the military cuts looming today may be similarly disastrous to those that occurred at the end of the Cold War?—a precursor, he claims, to creating the vulnerable environment that bred 9/11.  The mindset then was, “we can cut the defense budget, we cut the intelligence budget, and we’ll be okay.  The answer was that we weren’t okay.  We didn’t have the kind of intelligence capability we needed.”

Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary for both Gerald Ford and George W. Bush.

Read the full interview at Human Events.

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UPDATE: Calderon Condemns Casino Attack, Blasts U.S. For Its "Insatiable Demand For Drugs"

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Mexican president Felipe Calderon on Friday declared three days of mourning after two dozen gunmen burst into the Casino Royale in Monterey Mexico Thursday, doused the building with fuel and set the structure ablaze trapping dozens of people inside.

Calderon also said the U.S. is failing in its efforts to stem the drug trade and prevent the import of U.S. weapons into Mexico. He called on the American government: "to reflect on the tragedy we are living in in Mexico and many other Latin American countries, in large part from the insatiable consumption of drugs involving millions and millions of Americans" (viahttp://twitter.com/#%21/mpoppel).

Calderon offered a $2.4 million reward for the capture of those responsible.

From Martha's Vineyard President Obama is calling the attack "barbaric" and "reprehensible" -- confirming  U.S. intentions to continue its fight against Mexican cartels.

CBS reports survivors say the armed men entered the casino in what looked to be a robbery, but instead poured gasoline from tanks each of them carried and screamed at the workers and guests to get out.

In terror, many people ran farther into the building where they were trapped by the flames and died.

Fifty-two deaths have so far been confirmed.

Calderon says the attack was likely the work of a local drug cartel but one has yet to be named.

Mexican cartels often target casinos, threatening to burn them down if they refuse to pay extortion.

This is the second time in three months the Casino Royale was attacked.

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