July 2, 2013
Documents published Tuesday by the government watchdog Judicial Watch indicate that radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaida member killed by a September 2011 American drone attack, frequented prostitutes in the Washington, D.C., metro area shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks.
The documents were written following Federal Bureau of Investigation interviews with the women. The alleged terrorist was never charged with the reported crimes.
One of the FBI documents, acquired by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, says that a woman interviewed by agents said "she performed oral sex" on Awlaki, who "paid her $400 in cash" on Nov. 5, 2001. (Alan: Pharisaism thrives among the sanctimonious, whether Muslim or Christian.)
Another woman told agents that on Nov. 23, 2001, "a man visited her in the evening... [t]his person stood out as somewhat suspicious because of his full beard, something that seemed out of place in America right now, given the recent terrorist attacks."
The documents say the woman could not remember his name, but "positively identified" Awlaki as the man when shown a photo. The alleged terrorist paid her $400 for a "one hour appointment" that included having sex, she said.
The radical cleric appears to have been posthumously exposed as a hypocrite. During his life he condemned "moral decay" among Americans. "We [Muslims living in America] are very conservative when it comes to family values," he said in a 2001 PBS interview quoted by The New York Times. "We are against the moral decay that we see in the society."
But the FBI files seem to show a not-so-pious Awlaki.
In one case, Awlaki visited an escort who worked for a company based in Northwest D.C., on Dec. 13, 2001, the files say. Around 2:30 p.m. Awlaki showed the woman three credit cards to establish his identity - and she wrote his name down. He paid "$220 in cash, whereupon she performed oral sex on him (using a condom)," she told FBI agents.
"[Awlaki] finished very quickly and wanted [redacted name] to perform oral sex on him again," the documents say. He balked at the idea of paying twice, the woman told agents.
A fifth woman showed agents an address book of frequent customers, including an entry for "Anwar-DC." She said that on two occasions - the first in December 2002 and the other on Jan. 13, 2002 - Awlaki paid her $300 for sexual services. This was the only woman who was visited twice.
On Feb. 4, 2002, an escort visiting D.C. booked a 5 p.m. appointment with Awlaki, who provided his name and address, she told agents. When he arrived, the woman looked out from her hotel room's peep hole and "thought to herself that he looked like Osama bin Laden." He paid her $400 and they had sex. Before leaving he said he liked to use Florida-based escort services.
Shortly after the radical preacher's D.C. tour, he moved to the U.K. and onward to his ancestral homeland, Yemen. Awlaki's 2011 death was controversial because he held American citizenship and was killed in a drone strike without a trial or hearing. The Obama administration acknowledged in May that Awlaki and his son were among the four Americans killed by drone strikes since 2009.
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"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease
with which theories can be put into practice.
The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is
their realization. We are at last
beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in
primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with
imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only
unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed
on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Thomas Merton http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html
"Perfection" -- in any sense that insists on puritanical "precision" or categorical "separation of good and evil" -- lends
itself to obsession over "righteousness" quickly morphing into
self-righteousness.
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