Earlier this month I wrote exclusively here at PJ Media about “The U.S. Government’s Failed History of Muslim Outreach since 9/11“. Perhaps the most colossal failure was the case of Al-Qaeda financier Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was wined and dined at the White House by both the Clinton and Bush administrations. In fact, Alamoudi was the first person authorized by the Department of Defense to certify Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military.
But as I reported back in November, there was an intersection between the politically-connected Al-Qaeda financier Alamoudi and the Al-Qaeda cleric Awlaki: Awlaki helped train the U.S. military’s Muslim chaplains under the auspices of the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America (IIASA).
IIASA was controlled by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Higher Education (that’s right, the Wahhabis were training our military chaplains), and one of their hand-picked faculty members was Anwar al-Awlaki, as noted by Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson back in Dec. 2003:
Anwar al-Aulaqi, the former imam at a mosque in San Diego, also has lectured at the institute. A congressional report on Sept. 11 released this July said Mr. Aulaqi counseled two of the hijackers while they stayed in San Diego and then transferred to a mosque that both hijackers attended in northern Virginia shortly before the attacks. Mr. Aulaqi, who is now believed to be in Yemen, has denied knowing of the hijackers’ plans.
According to Simpson, at least 75 military Muslim chaplains and lay personnel were trained at IIASA where Awlaki taught.
Previous installments in this series:
Rewind: New York Times hailed Awlaki as “a new generation of Muslim leader”
Rewind: NPR says Awlaki can “build bridges between Islam and the West”
Rewind: Anwar al-Awlaki leads prayers inside U.S. Capitol for congressional Muslim staffers
Rewind: Awlaki lectures on Islam inside the Pentagon after 9/11 attacks
Rewind: Awlaki defends Taliban in 2001 Washington Post live chat on Ramadan
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