Brother of al-Qaeda leader who inspired Charlie Hebdo attacks reveals fondness for Katy Perry
Ammar al-Awlaki, whose brother killed by a drone strike in 2011 after years spent recruiting for al-Qaeda, has a passion for Disney films and Katy Perry
Ammar al-Awlaki is Yemen's environment minister
By Andrew Marszal
6:36PM GMT 06 Feb 2015
His brother was one of al-Qaeda's most feared terrorists, a sworn enemy of the West who recruited jihadists including the Charlie Hebdo gunmen and the Detroit "underwear bomber".
But Ammar al-Awlaki prefers to splits his time between his job as Yemen's environment minister, and indulging his passion for Disney films and Katy Perry, the American pop singer, his social media accounts reveal.
Awlaki is known in his native Yemen as as an influential power-broker. His ministerial position sees him attend UN climate conferences around the world, rubbing shoulders with Western dignitaries.
Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in 2011
He hails from a powerful tribe linked to the al-Farid bin Naser political dynasty.
That family was torn apart in September 2011 when Ammar's brother Anwar, a US-born al-Qaeda leader, was killed in a drone strike, along with his 15-year-old son.
Anwar had previously been named as the West's number one enemy by the MI5, and was known to be on a CIA assassination list.
Just months earlier before his death, Anwar had been visited by Saif Kouachi, who went on to murder 12 people at the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Yet that utter rejection of Western values is notably absent in Ammar al-Awlaki's social media accounts, profiled by the Daily Beast on Friday, which mix commentary on Yemen's political crisis with references to American culture.
On Twitter, he compared officials' back-and-forth over an Aden port contract with the lyrics to Katy Perry's song “Hot ‘n Cold.”
When Yemen's president resigned last month, Awlaki posted an image of a contrite-looking Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies, claiming the character bore comparison to Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's son Jalal, accused of graft during his father's rule.
Awlaki even published a photo of his son alongside a character from the Disney movie Up, noting the similarity between their glasses.
It remains to be seen which Hollywood franchise will prove to be analogous to Yemen's current political crisis, which saw Houthi rebels formally seize power by dissolving the country's parliament yesterday.
