American-Born Imam Worked With Al-Qaeda

What a surprise, a Muslim Imam suspected of working with al-Qaeda:

Even before the 2001 terrorist attacks, American-born imam Anwar al-Aulaqi drew the attention of federal authorities because of his possible connections to al-Qaeda. Their interest grew after 9/11, when it turned out that three of the hijackers had spent time at his mosques in California and Falls Church, but he was allowed to leave the country in 2002.

New information later surfaced about his contacts with extremists while in the United States. Now, U.S. officials are saying for the first time that they believe that Aulaqi worked with al-Qaeda networks in the Persian Gulf after leaving Northern Virginia. In mid-2006, Aulaqi was detained in Yemen at the request of the United States. To the dismay of U.S. authorities, Aulaqi was released in December.

"There is good reason to believe Anwar Aulaqi has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States, including plotting attacks against America and our allies," said a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

I was the insurance agent for the large San Diego mosque referred to in the story for a couple of years prior to the 9/11 attacks, and visited there a couple of times to meet with the administrator. If there was ever a time in my life when I was in America but felt like I was in a foreign country it was during those visits to the mosque.

The men in the mosque muttered in Arabic to each other and eyed me as the infidel they thought me to be, and inside I saw the doorways marked for "women only" and "men only". I insured another small mosque in Vista, but never got the feeling from those people that I had in San Diego. Although they needed my services, I was the enemy in San Diego, and frankly, I was glad when they took their business elsewhere (especially after 9/11). It was a spooky bunch of people.

We now know that the San Diego mosque was a pretty radicalized place given that the hijackers felt at home there. I'm not sure what the situation down there is now, but I doubt it's gotten any safer for your average American.