Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., has called on the White House to re-impanel the Sept. 11 Commission to investigate the FBI's post–Sept. 11 probe of Anwar Awlaki, an American-born imam who met privately with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers before fleeing the country and inspiring other terrorists, including the Fort Hood attacker.
Wolf points to recent revelations that the Justice Department issued a felony arrest warrant for Awlaki (aka Aulaqi) in June 2002, when he was living in Northern Virginia and preaching at a local mosque – only to withdraw the warrant the day before Awlaki returned to the U.S. from a trip to Saudi Arabia.
In October 2002, Awlaki – who at the time appeared on a terrorist lookout as the subject of several terror probes – was briefly detained by federal agents at JFK International Airport in New York City after arriving on a Saudi jetliner. The FBI field office in Washington advised agents to release him, however, noting that the federal warrant had been pulled back the previous day.
The law-enforcement actions generated an extensive paper trail, including a thick case file, an arrest warrant signed by a federal judge and INS incident logs, which have been unearthed by investigative reporters since the Sept. 11Commission finished its work. Neither Sept. 11 commissioners nor members of Congress saw the documents, despite requesting all such documents and interviewing FBI case agents involved in the Awlaki probe who knew of the documents.
"Why was this information withheld?" Wolf asked FBI Director Robert Mueller in a recent letter. "Why has Congress not been fully briefed on the events of October 2002?"
In addition, "I am troubled that the Sept. 11 Commission did not have access to many of the documents with regard to this incident," he wrote.
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Was this Bush keeping us safe? Sounds like more of Bush covering up for his buds the Saudis.
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