Updated: US Murderer Attended Anwar Awlaki’s Mosque in VA, Communicated Later
Update 6: FBI: “The investigation to date has not identified a motive…”
Update 5: Anwar’s blog down. It was hosted in the US.
Update 4: Hassan communicated with Awlaki, and others, according to US CT officials, but the messages didn’t constitute a threat and were consistent with research.
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — U.S. counterterrorism officials detected communications between a radical Muslim religious leader and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Nov. 5 shootings at a Texas Army base that left 13 dead, a U.S. official said.
The official said Hasan’s communications were with Anwar al Awlaki, who news reports said was the imam at a Falls Church, Virginia, mosque when Hasan and his relatives worshipped there. U.S. authorities, who intercepted the communications before the attack at Fort Hood, determined the messages didn’t pose a threat, said the official, who requested anonymity.
Update 3: FYI, Awlaki was arrested in 2006 in Yemen, leading to the arrests of eight westerners on charges of smuggling arms to Somalia. All were later released although the Yemeni government had earlier reported that they confessed.
Update 2: In October, al Qaeda in Yemen issued an odd statement referencing Texas: “Many university teachers in western countries started contacting us and providing us with important information,” said the unidentified militant, adding “the families of killed American nationals also began contacting us,” and “if the entire population of Texas were to perish, we would not have done our duty to the Muslims. We will continue to fight the Americans and will never let them go,”
Update: Anwar is pleased with Hasan’s attack at Fort Hood and calls him a hero. Full statement is here at NEFA.
Original post: This story refers to the doctor who opened fire at a military base in the US last week. With so many websites blocked in Yemen, Anwar’s isn’t. He’s currently “not available” to post or contact his admin. One interesting factoid about Anwar is there is no record of him leaving the US in 2002. He probably obstained a false passport from someone..
Telegraph: Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
As investigators look at Hasan’s motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
Charles Allen, a former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, has described al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, as an “al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers… who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen”.
