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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Terror leader Awlaki paid thousands for prostitutes in DC area, documents show

    Terror leader Awlaki paid thousands for prostitutes in DC area, documents show

    Published July 02, 2013FoxNews.com



    • Anwar al-Awlaki gives a religious lecture in an unknown location in this still image taken from video released by Intelwire.com on September 30, 2011. (REUTERS)



    On the eve of an infamous presentation Anwar al-Awlaki gave at the Pentagon in 2002, the Al Qaeda operative was busy preparing -- with a prostitute he paid $400 for at a Washington hotel.

    It was one of more than a half-dozen liaisons Awlaki had with prostitutes between late 2001 and early 2002, while he was under FBI surveillance, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch and reviewed exclusively by Fox News.
    The documents shed new light on the double life the American-born Awlaki was leading, while living in the Washington area and working as an imam at a mosque in Falls Church, Va.

    In the years before he became publicly associated with Al Qaeda and was targeted for death by the U.S. government, Awlaki was by turns welcomed and investigated by different arms of the government -- not just over his radical ties, but his predilection for prostitutes.

    Yet there is no indication he was ever brought up on charges, leading Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton to question why the cleric seemed to have a "protected status."

    One document obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, was a June 2002 memo from FBI Assistant Director Pasquale D'Amuro detailing Awlaki's encounters with prostitutes in the D.C. area. The memo appeared to propose charges against him, claiming he spent $2,320 on seven different occasions between Nov. 5, 2001, and Feb. 4, 2002.

    It described in detail an interview with the "escort" who saw him on Feb. 4, the day before he was scheduled to have lunch at the Pentagon as an invited guest.
    She claimed she had a 5 p.m. appointment with him that day, and when he arrived at her room, "she looked through the 'peep' hole ... and thought to herself that he looked like Osama bin Laden."

    She later identified him as Awlaki.

    He paid $400 for sex, the memo said. He was described by the escort as "very polite." Awlaki, who has a record with prostitutes -- he was booked in San Diego on charges of soliciting prostitutes in the late '90s -- also told the escort that he likes to use escort services when he travels to Florida, according to the memo.
    The memo described in graphic detail the services rendered for Awlaki during that period. One prostitute described a December 2001 encounter where Awlaki paid $300, in order to watch "as she engaged in erotic behavior and stimulated herself."

    They met again, for the same activities, in mid-January 2002, according to the document.

    Fox News was first to report in 2010 that Awlaki was invited to the Pentagon within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as part of an outreach effort with supposedly moderate Muslims.

    Awlaki would later emerge as a major mouthpiece for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, being linked to recent attacks including the Fort Hood shooting as well as the attempted Christmas Day bombing on a Detroit-bound flight.
    He was the first American known to be included on the government's kill-or-capture list. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.
    One document obtained by Judicial Watch also depicted what was described by the group as a "computer database record" retrieved in February 2002, before his Pentagon lunch. It listed Awlaki's name and included the warning to "approach with caution," listing him under the heading of "terrorist organization member."
    Fitton said the new documents raise questions about the relationship between Awlaki and the U.S. government.

    "One can fairly conclude that the al-Qaeda mastermind had some type of 'protected status' with our government -- despite his terrorist and criminal activities," Fitton said. "We knew from days after the attacks on the World Trade Centers that (Awlaki) was a dangerous character, so why did it take the government ten years to bring him to justice?"

    Fox News asked the FBI for comment, specifically on why Awlaki apparently was not prosecuted and whether the information on his alleged liaisons was shared with the Pentagon. The FBI has not yet commented on the documents.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2XzwccxWq




  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Exclusive Documents: Was Anwar al-Awlaki a government asset?

    By Catherine Herridge
    July 02, 2013
    FoxNews.com

    Outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller was more deeply involved in the post-9/11 handling of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- the first American targeted for death by the CIA -- than previously known, according to newly released documents reviewed exclusively by Fox News.


    The documents, released after Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request and then sued the FBI, show a memo from Mueller to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on Oct. 3, 2002. It is marked “Secret” and titled “Anwar Aulaqi: IT-UBL/AL-QAEDA.”

    While the substance of the memo is redacted in full, with the FBI citing classified material, the memo is one of at least three FBI reports -- whose primary subject is the cleric -- in the nine days leading up to Awlaki’s sudden return to the U.S. in October 2002.

    The documents suggest the FBI was well aware of Awlaki’s movements, raising questions about why more wasn’t done to detain him.

    As part of its ongoing investigation into the cleric, Fox News previously reported that after arriving at JFK airport from Yemen via Saudi Arabia and being detained by customs officers on Oct. 10, 2002, the cleric was allowed into the U.S. under the orders of FBI Agent Wade Ammerman from the bureau’s Washington office -- despite an active warrant for Awlaki’s arrest. The cleric later appeared with a government witness at the home of Ali al-Timimi, who was the target of Ammerman’s counterterrorism investigation. Al-Timimi, who was convicted on non-terrorism charges in 2005, is appealing the conviction which includes a life sentence.

    Another FBI memo, also marked “Secret,” on Oct. 22, 2002, 12 days after the cleric’s return, includes the subject line “Anwar Nasser Aulaqi” and “Synopsis: Asset reporting.”

    National security defense attorney Edward MacMahon Jr., who represented al-Timimi, told Fox News, after reviewing the documents, that they “certainly” indicate that either Awlaki “was an asset or was put in touch with an asset.”

    “It (the document) was requested and I was told it didn’t exist,” MacMahon said, adding the defense team believed Awlaki’s statements would have shown al-Timimi turned down the cleric’s requests to recruit young Muslim men for violent jihad. “Rather than admit that they messed up with Anwar Awlaki, they would rather put Ali al-Timimi in jail for rest of life and withhold all this information from him.”

    Fox News in 2010 reported that the Justice Department suddenly pulled the arrest warrant for the cleric, the same week he returned to the U.S. from overseas. The arrest warrant, initiated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force or JTTF in San Diego, was a “holding charge” so that Awlaki could be pressed by federal investigators on his direct ties to 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.

    The Justice Department, in explaining why it had the warrant pulled, claimed Awlaki had corrected lies about his place of birth on his Social Security card application, in turn making a passport fraud case against him weak. However, Fox News obtained, through FOIA, Awlaki’s Social Security records showing there was no correction – Awlaki only applied for a replacement card using his true place of birth, New Mexico.

    The Judicial Watch records also indicate that on Oct. 1, 2002 – before he returned to the U.S. -- a memo marked “Secret” and “Priority” was faxed from the FBI’s Washington Field Office to FBI headquarters. On Oct. 3, the FBI director’s memo was sent to Ashcroft. And on Oct. 10, the day Awlaki entered the U.S., there was a heavily redacted fax from the FBI at JFK airport including the cleric’s plane ticket, customs form, passport and Social Security card.

    Based on the new documents, there are at least three possible explanations for the cleric’s return and the FBI’s considerable involvement. The bureau was attempting to recruit the cleric as an asset, he was already considered a friendly contact or the bureau wanted to track him for intelligence purposes once he returned to the U.S. The FBI’s involvement in the cleric’s case, and the actions of the FBI director, raise new questions about the secret decision to place the cleric on the CIA targeting list years later.

    “Why would al-Awlaki get the attention of the FBI Director? … Why would a warrant for his arrest be pulled when he’s trying to reenter the country” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “All of that, you know, put two and two together. It seems like he was protected. … And it’s about time this administration and the government generally come clean about their relationship with al-Awlaki. It’s screaming for further clarification.”

    Former Sen. Bob Graham, who led the first investigation into 9/11, known as the Joint Congressional Inquiry, told Fox News in 2011 that he wanted access to al-Awlaki but was told the cleric was out of the country and unavailable. The new documents make clear the FBI was aware of the cleric’s travel to the U.S. before the Joint Congressional Inquiry was complete in late 2002.

    Graham asked Mueller for access to an FBI asset, Abdussattar Shaikh, who briefly lived with two of the 9/11 hijackers in San Diego. Hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar were known associates of al-Awlaki, and Graham concluded Mueller was very protective of the asset program.

    Fox News asked the bureau about the substance of Mueller’s memo, why the bureau was tracking the cleric’s movements, whether Awlaki was an FBI asset and if the FBI sent Awlaki to al-Timimi’s home in Virginia as part of a counterterrorism investigation. The FBI has not provided comment.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2XzwCLm4a


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