Attorney General Eric Holder has publicly said the United States wants to neutralize the Yemen-based Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is said to be the first U.S. citizen added to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing. During an interview on ABC, Holder was asked how much of a threat al-Awlaki posed.

Eric Holder: “He would be on the same list with bin Laden. He’s up there. I don’t know whether he’s one, two, three, four. I don’t know. But he’s certainly on the list of the people who worry me the most.”

Pierre Thomas: “Does the U.S. have a preference, in terms of Awlaki — dead, captured or prosecuted?”

Holder: “Well, we certainly want to neutralize him. And we will do whatever we can in order to do that.”