9/11 Report: The "Secret Imam"

Mentioned in the "final" 911 Report, everything points on Anwar Al-Awlaki (Aulaqi)

Photo: Anwar Al-Awlaki

Failure to Communicate

Newsweek -Aug. 4 issue

The congressional probe of 9/11 suggests the attacks could have been prevented. Who’s to blame? And what did the Saudis know? More than the Bushies will admit

"...FBI officials had once depicted the hijackers as “loners” who stayed out of sight. In fact, the report found, before September 11 agents had investigated at least 14 people who had met with and had dealings with the hijackers. One intriguing figure identified by title, but not by name, in the classified version of the report is a San Diego imam who acted as a “spiritual advisor” to Alhazmi and Almihdhar.

The FBI had investigated the cleric, Anwar Aulaqi, once before, suspecting he had ties with terrorists who had tried to blow up New York landmarks in the ’90s. But the Feds dropped the probe. The bureau later discovered that Aulaqi moved to Falls Church, Va., at about the same time as Alhazmi and another of the hijackers, Hani Hanjour. Aulaqi later left for England; the bureau has yet to charge him with any crime.

Aulaqi is still well remembered back in San Diego. Lincoln Higgie, an antiques dealer who lived across the street from the mosque where Aulaqi used to lead prayer, told NEWSWEEK that he distinctly recalls the imam knocking on his door in the first week of August 2001 to tell him he was leaving for Kuwait. “He came over before he left and told me that something very big was going to happen, and that he had to be out of the country when it happened,” recalls Higgie. If only the FBI had sources like that..."

Dar Al-Hijra Mosque, Falls Church, Virginia

Imam Anwar Al Awlaki is currently an Imam at the Dar Al-Hijra Mousque in Falls Church, Virginia. Born and raised in the US, Sh. Awlaki obtained BS in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, MA in Education Leadership from San Diego State University and is currently doing a PhD in Human Resource Development at George Washington University.

He is the author of a series of Audio lectures on the "Lives of the Prophets", covering the stories of the Prophets from Adam to Jesus (pbut) of which over 20,000 copies have been published. The series is drawn from Imam Ibn Kathir's "Al-Bidayah wa An-Nihayah".

He is currently involved in the ongoing study of Shariah in Yemen. His shuyukh include prominent scholars in Yemen.

Chance to foil 9/11 plot lost here, report finds

By Kelly Thornton

Also mentioned in the report was an unnamed Muslim cleric who became a spiritual adviser to Alhazmi and al-Midhar. Anwar Al-Awlaki is the former leader of the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque on Saranac Street on the border of San Diego and La Mesa, which was attended regularly by the hijackers and their acquaintances.

The FBI opened a counterterrorism inquiry into imam Anwar Al-Awlaki's activities in June 1999. When the imam moved to one of the largest Muslim communities in the country at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., Alhazmi and hijacker Hani Hanjour followed and began attending that mosque, the report said.

Omar al-Bayoumi, who was suspected of being an advance man for the hijackers, was investigated by the FBI in 1998, but the report said only that it was related to counterterrorism.

Al-Bayoumi, a student, was suspected of being a Saudi intelligence official. In January 2000, he had a meeting at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles and then went to a restaurant where he met Alhazmi and al-Midhar, the report said.

kelly.thornton@uniontrib.com

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