Meet the terrorist who seems to have preferred garter belts over bomb belts, condoms over bombs, penetration over detonation and boom boom over BOOM.
“How are you doing?”
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.
Of course, this story has a happy ending, albeit not the one Anwar al-Awlaki was hoping for.
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.
(hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, including the happy ending idea).
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
If the FBI knew about his proclivities for prostitutes, why couldn’t they set up a sting operation and capture him instead of having the CIA taking him out with a drone strike? The Obama Administration seems to be as inept as Bush was in dealing with Islamic terrorists.
OK, Walt, so you’re saying Obama’s drone program is a success? This is how you deal with American citizens you don’t like? The continuation of Bush’s “the war on terror” by Obama is an effective way to deal with the Muslim world? As Forest Gump would say, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
The definition of prostitution in Washington, New York and elsewhere in the U.S. is the engagement in sexual conduct with another person in exchange for a fee. This means that if a fee does not pay for sexual conduct, the activity is legally not prostitution. Many escort agencies and freelance escorts proffer the following disclaimer: “This is not an offer of prostitution. Money paid is for time and companionship only. Anything that may occur is a private matter between two or more consenting adults, and nothing additional is contracted for, requested to be contracted for, or compensated for in any manner.” Call it a ruse if you must, but this separation of fee and sexual conduct is the reason why escort businesses advertise openly, while you won’t see any open ads for floating crap games or street corner pharmaceutical sales.
Not a happy ending, but in my view, a necessary ending. He was engaged in a violent insurrection against his own country, and arresting him and getting him out of Yemen was much riskier than snatching Adolf Eichmann off the streets of Buenos Aires and bringing him to Israel.
I think we all know that the Israelis are just better than us at certain things. I don’t often say this, but juvanya is right and you are most certainly wrong Norman. Due process is a very big part of who we are as a people. If we lose that, the terrorists really have won.
A government’s first duty is to preserve, protect and defend its citizens against all enemies, domestic and foreign. Killing Awlaki was justified as a last resort when arresting him was, if not impossible, unacceptably risky.
I am totally creeped out.
If the FBI knew about his proclivities for prostitutes, why couldn’t they set up a sting operation and capture him instead of having the CIA taking him out with a drone strike? The Obama Administration seems to be as inept as Bush was in dealing with Islamic terrorists.
I thought prostitution was legal in the US, especially in light of Clinton’s insistence that he “did not have sexual relations with ‘that woman'”.
and what exactly would a misdemeanor charge of soliciting hookers done?
you are as stupid as judicial watch
OK, Walt, so you’re saying Obama’s drone program is a success? This is how you deal with American citizens you don’t like? The continuation of Bush’s “the war on terror” by Obama is an effective way to deal with the Muslim world? As Forest Gump would say, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
as america doesnt just kill those they dont like, your argument is spurious
alwaki was a terrorist and was in the act of planning attacks on america and american interests
the drone program saves american lives and saves our marines from putting their lives in danger trying to capture or kill these rats
The definition of prostitution in Washington, New York and elsewhere in the U.S. is the engagement in sexual conduct with another person in exchange for a fee. This means that if a fee does not pay for sexual conduct, the activity is legally not prostitution. Many escort agencies and freelance escorts proffer the following disclaimer: “This is not an offer of prostitution. Money paid is for time and companionship only. Anything that may occur is a private matter between two or more consenting adults, and nothing additional is contracted for, requested to be contracted for, or compensated for in any manner.” Call it a ruse if you must, but this separation of fee and sexual conduct is the reason why escort businesses advertise openly, while you won’t see any open ads for floating crap games or street corner pharmaceutical sales.
Assassinating a US citizen without due process is not a happy ending.
Not a happy ending, but in my view, a necessary ending. He was engaged in a violent insurrection against his own country, and arresting him and getting him out of Yemen was much riskier than snatching Adolf Eichmann off the streets of Buenos Aires and bringing him to Israel.
I think we all know that the Israelis are just better than us at certain things. I don’t often say this, but juvanya is right and you are most certainly wrong Norman. Due process is a very big part of who we are as a people. If we lose that, the terrorists really have won.
american by accident of birth
he gave no due process to anyone that he had a hand in murdering
eff him and his entire rat family
We are better than him, Walt. That is kind of my point.
A government’s first duty is to preserve, protect and defend its citizens against all enemies, domestic and foreign. Killing Awlaki was justified as a last resort when arresting him was, if not impossible, unacceptably risky.