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In 2009, al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was communicating with U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a self-described “soldier of Allah,” about killing Americans. The FBI dropped surveillance on Hasan, who on November 5, 2009, murdered 13 Americans at Fort Hood. Two years later, Awlaki was killed in a drone strike, and it now emerges that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) provided “full funding” for Awlaki’s college education.

Born in New Mexico in 1971, Awlaki faked documents to show that he had been born in Yemen, which he said was “a deliberate falsehood offered at the urging of American officials who knew his father so that he could qualify for a scholarship reserved for foreign citizens.” While studying civil engineering at Colorado State University, Awlaki reported himself in the care of “USAID/Sanaa.”

The USAID beneficiary worked as a Muslim cleric in Denver, Falls Church, Virginia, and San Diego, where he preached in a mosque attended by 9/11 terrorists Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. US intelligence reportedly regarded al-Awlaki as a terrorist sympathizer “until about 2009,” the year he set up the bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

USAID support for Awlaki stunned many observers, and so has the revelation that the agency served as “a front for CIA operations and operatives.” Catherine Traywick of Foreign Policy flags a “covertly launched” social media platform in Cuba in 2010, aimed at creating “a Twitter-like service that would spark a ‘Cuban Spring’ and potentially help bring about the collapse of the island’s Communist government.” It didn’t.

The Obama administration never supported Cuban dissidents, never denounced human rights violations by Fidel Castro’s Stalinist regime, and never called for free elections as a condition of improved relations. By 2010, the CIA’s approach to Communist states and Islamic terrorism had undergone a fundamental transformation.

Obama’s choice to head the CIA was John Brennan, who voted for the Communist Gus Hall in 1976, and who never should have been hired in the first place. In Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies at Home and Abroad, Brennan reveals his belief that Islamic jihad is “a holy struggle in pursuit of a moral goal” and has nothing to do with terrorist attacks. As the author shows, on September 11, 2001, the CIA had not the slightest clue what was going on.

Obama shared Brennan’s belief that Islamic jihad had nothing to do with Islam – or violence. So it makes sense that the CIA failed to stop al-Awlaki from setting up Nidal Hasan’s murder spree at Fort Hood. That done, al-Awlaki “personally directed and approved” the plan to bomb Northwest Airlines flight 253 headed for Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009.

Nigerian national Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had a visa issued on June 16, 2008 that was valid until June 12, 2010. The mighty CIA failed to uncover the plan, and it fell to passengers and crew to subdue the “underwear bomber,” saving nearly 300 lives. “We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Obama proclaimed, but as at Fort Hood the president failed to call the attack terrorism and did not identify or condemn the bomber.

A full 14 years later comes the revelation that USAID funded Anwar al-Awlaki’s education. It also emerges that USAID provided at least $122 million to groups aligned with “designated terrorists and their supporters.” It remains unclear how much of that is from USAID or the CIA using the agency as a cover. On the other hand, some realities remain clear.

Obama shifted the CIA and FBI focus from Islamic terrorism to his domestic opposition. Brennan’s Undaunted certifies the change by targeting enemies “at home” before those “abroad.” Brennan also signed the letter charging that the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation,” which all 51 signers knew was false.

Trump pick John Ratcliffe needs to reveal what the CIA knows about USAID funding for terrorists, and Musk’s DOGE needs to turn USAID upside down. While this unfolds, other sources of information could be available. The San Diego mosque where Anwar al-Awlaki preached was also attended by Ammar Najjar, grandson of Muhammad Abu Yousef al-Najjar, mastermind of the Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

“I attended an Islamic school in San Diego as a child,” Ammar explains. “The school was part of a mosque called Masjid Abu Baker, where hundreds of people prayed and maintained strong relations with local elected and law enforcement officials. I knew of three men at that mosque, Khalid al-Mihdhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, who were issued visas.”

Ammar claims his father, Yasser al-Najjar, “migrated from the Middle East to America on a student visa,” met a Mexican-American lady named Abigail and raised a family in San Diego county. The grandson, now calling himself Ammar Campa-Najjar, claims he moved from San Diego to Gaza then back again. The self-described “Mexican-Palestinian American” served in the Obama administration.

Rolling Stone billed him as a “rockstar Democratic candidate” but he lost runs for Congress in 2018 and 2020, followed in 2022 by a defeat in his run for mayor of Chula Vista, a city in San Diego County. In 2023, the Munichian candidate joined the U.S. Navy. In 2025, this rockstar Democrat needs to be put under oath and questioned about US government support for terrorists. The people have a right to know.