The Washington-based conservative group Judicial Watch on Thursday tried to claim that Yemeni American Anwar al-Awlaki, suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda before he was killed in a US drone strike in 2011, may have bought airline tickets for some of the 9/11 hijackers in 2001.
Based on heavily redacted documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Judicial Watch suggested Awlaki bought airline tickets for 9/11 hijackers and that the FBI withheld this intelligence from the public.
But the FBI denied this claim, specifically citing the documents Judicial Watch claimed showed otherwise.
The document mentions Awlaki, then features several lines of redacted text, and then lists information about the 9/11 hijackers’ airline tickets.
In addition, writes J.M. Berger at ForeignPolicy.com, “all three tickets are attributed to known debit cards held by the hijackers that do not match the card number given for Awlaki in Judicial Watch’s bombshell-smoking-gun-gate FOIA document.”
Furthermore, Awlaki was invited to a luncheon at the Pentagon as an example of moderate Islam in America after the date of the released FBI documents. The notion that the Pentagon would invite someone to dine with US officials that was suspected of being involved in 9/11 soon after the attacks is absurd.
Berger further explains Judicial Watch’s unlikely claim: “to make the case being made by Judicial Watch and Fox, you have to go well past simple suppression of this explosive allegation against Awlaki and argue that the FBI actually falsified documents to support a claim that no one knew about at the time the chronology was compiled and at the time it was released, and that it then inexplicably let the cat out of the bag in a later FOIA request. That’s asking a bit much.”
Judicial Watch’s shoddy reporting here is a stupendous example of confirmation bias. The Obama administration killed Awlaki in a targeted assassination in Yemen in 2011, despite his being an American citizen entitled to constitutional rights to due process.
Ever since, conservatives have had to make excuses for his extrajudicial assassination. Judicial Watch, apparently eager to retroactively criminalize Awlaki and free themselves from having to defend the blatant deprivation of constitutional rights, jumped on the chance to do so without the slightest responsibility to double check or consider the context.
"Ever since, conservatives have had to make excuses for his extrajudicial assassination. Judicial Watch, apparently eager to retroactively criminalize Awlaki and free themselves from having to defend the blatant deprivation of constitutional rights,"
To be fair Muslims aren't on the conservative approved natural rights list. When government jackboot steps on them its called "getting tough on terror". Same goes for the groups of people who arent the left's own naturall rights list.
this has nothing to do with "conservatism".
liberal obama killed awlaki, and the liberal courts backed up his right to kill americans for no reason.
'Senior White House Aid' told Suskind: ~"judicious study of reality…isn't really the way the world really works anymore. We make our own reality. …we act again and you'll study that one, too." Is this JW thing an instance of that mentality deciding it needs to cover the 'study' side, too? It'd really suck if the reality-you-make-yourself doesn't really stick.
Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer has stated that Anwar al-Awlaki was a FBI asset before 9/11.
And given what we know of the performance of top FBI officials prior to 9/11 – especially their actions to block field level efforts to investigate and stop the conspiracy to hijack plances – many of us suspect that senior FBI officials were very involved in planning the attacks.
So no, John Glaser, it is not "absurd" to suggest that Awlaki may having been involved in such a double role and that he neverthelss was on speaking terms with U.S. government officials. He was hardly the only individual who apparently functioned in such a dual role.
Mr. Anwar al-Awlaki never broke any laws while living in the US or abroad. Yet he was imprisoned at the behest of the FBI in Yemen for nearly 2 years in isolation, never knowing why he was imprisoned in the first place and then subsequently released without charge.
The only real 'crime' Awlaki ever committed, for which he was assassinated, was to speak out against the imperial injustices of America.
He was too eloquent and truthful in his speech for Obama to tolerate.
" The notion that the Pentagon would invite someone to dine with US officials that was suspected of being involved in 9/11 soon after the attacks is absurd"
Cybel Edmonds says Bin Laden was on the U.S. payroll on 9/10/2001…. And SHE was the most gagged person in recent American history…..
Only someone with a shallow understanding of 911 could make such a statement…!!! It is not as if the Gov. is out there batting DOWN suspicions of complicity… The Pentagon was one of the worlds most CCTV'd buildings, but how many videos of the strike are from their vast array of CCTV surveillance on that DAY..??? It's either one or zero…. but not the scores of cameras that watched that day… !!!~~~ WTF…. John… Do a little research…. Please…!!!
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One of the bonuses of not knowing who really did do 9/11 is the opportunity to blame almost anybody. For the one thing we can be sure about is that somebody did it.
Why not Awlaki? It's as sensible as saying it was the first Bushco operation.
What bull! There were no 9/11 hi-jackers and if al-Awlaki bought any of these men airline tickets it was part of the handling they were receiving from US, Iaraeli, and Saudi intelligence. This entire article is based on fiction.
Who "received" the 1st 2 hijackers in San Diego? Awlaki.
Who met them in Falls Church and took them north to Patterson, NJ? Awlaki.
Who had his outstanding warrant voided at 7:30AM on October 10, 2002 @ JFK airport and was granted admittance to the US? Awlaki
Glaser is an extraordinarily naive, simplistic columnist.