LONDON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- YouTube has removed dozens of videos featuring calls to jihad by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemen-based cleric affiliated with al-Qaida, officials said.
The videos were removed Wednesday under pressure from American and British officials, The New York Times reported.
New York congressman Anthony Weiner sent YouTube a letter asking it to remove the videos featuring al-Awlaki, and the request took on greater urgency after two bombs hidden in cargo planes were intercepted en route from Yemen to Chicago last week.
The prime suspect in the bomb plot is the Yemen-based group al-Awlaki is affiliated with, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
In an e-mail, YouTube spokeswoman Victoria Grand said the videos were removed because they violated the site's guidelines prohibiting "dangerous or illegal activities such as bombmaking, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts," or came from accounts "registered by a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization."
Britain's interest in the YouTube videos was heightened Wednesday by two developments.
In one, a young woman who attempted to murder a prominent member of Parliament last year said she watched dozens of al-Awlaki's videos before the attack; the other involved a report from a top British official who said a member of the Yemeni group was arrested earlier in the year in a previously undisclosed bombing plot against the country.
