Top official admits FBI had al-Awlaki in custody before letting him go in 2002
Posted on August 2, 2012 at 5:35 PM EST
The FBI, for the the first time, has admitted publicly that it knew the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was returning to the US in October 2002 and that an FBI agent discussed the American’s return with a US attorney before he was detained and then abruptly released from federal custody.
Al-Awlaki, who would become the first American targeted for death by the CIA, eventually was killed last September in Yemen by a US drone strike. Since September 2009, 26 terrorism cases have been tied to him and his digital jihad, according to the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
Read more:Â nypost.com
