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1286158490565
Alleged terrorist did
early recordings in
Denver
By P. SOLOMON BANDA Associated Press Writer
Posted: 10/02/2010 09:31:06 AM PDT
Updated: 10/02/2010 09:31:06 AM PDT
DENVER—More than a decade has passed since
Anwar al-Awlaki left Colorado, but the American-
born imam's legacy still resonates in the place
where he recorded innocuous sermons long before
he began posting Internet rants promoting
terrorism.
Increasingly virulent over the years, al-Awlaki's
recent English-language sermons have inspired
several terror plots in the United States and Britain,
authorities say. One sermon, posted in May by al-
Qaida's offshoot in Yemen, where al-Awlaki is
believed to be in hiding, called for killing Americans
for supporting wars he says have killed a million
Muslims.
People who knew al-Awlaki in Colorado are
surprised by his high-profile radical role today.
They recall a deeply religious man with no overt
political agenda or talk of terrorism, just a plain-
speaking style that one religious leader said "would
hit the heart."
Las Cruces, N.M.-born al-Awlaki attended Colorado
State University in 1990-94, earning a degree in
civil engineering, according to school records. He
lived in Denver for a few years before moving to San
Diego sometime in the mid- to late 1990s.
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Members of the Denver and Fort Collins mosques
that al-Awlaki attended remember a young student
who would lead Friday night prayers.
"He was like a lot of students who were from
overseas," said Moin Siddiqui, a retired Colorado
State statistics professor who attended the Islamic
Center of Fort Collins in the early 1990s. "With
hindsight wisdom you might
be able to say he must have been special. But he
was not."
Taj Ashaheed remembers al-Awlaki leading prayers
at the Denver Islamic Society's al-Noor mosque in
1994. He had a similar take.
"There was nothing radical, no talk of terrorism,"
Ashaheed said.
With al-Awlaki's recently revealed links to terrorism,
most attendees at the Denver mosque declined to
comment.
A former Denver Islamic Society community leader
said al-Awlaki's speaking style may have captured
the ear of Homaidan al-Turki, a Saudi Arabian
linguist who attended prayers at the mosque and
began recording al-Awlaki's sermons.
"His speech was soft and tender and it would hit the
heart," said the former leader, who asked not to be
identified out of concern for his safety.
Al-Turki distributed al-Awlaki's sermons through
his Denver-based company, Al-Basheer Publications
& Translations.
Al-Awlaki's recordings include "The Hereafter" and
"The Lives of the Prophets," which place experiences
of Muslim prophets into the context of modern
society. They've been popular among young
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Muslims for years.
"If you want to be pure, you are looked at as
fundamentalist or extremist, you have to go with the
society with its impurities and dirt to get along," al-
Awlaki says on a recording about the Prophet Lut.
A sampling of clips reveal a fundamentalist view of
Islam, but nothing that promotes attacks on America
or its allies. They primarily are translations of
Islamic religious works, including stories about
beliefs in the afterlife. His delivery isn't charismatic,
but straightforward and crisp.
"Those tapes were just basically stories, stories
about the Prophet Mohammed, his friends, his
family," said Aman Ali, a comedian and journalist
who recently gained national attention for visiting
30 mosques in 30 states during Ramadan to
promote understanding.
"I wouldn't say they were popular, but they were out
there."
For Ali, al-Awlaki's name resurfaced again in 2008,
when one of five men arrested for planning an attack
on Fort Dix, N.J., claimed inspiration from al-Awlaki.
"I'm like, 'Wait, the storyteller dude? Really? What's
going on?'" said Ali, who calls the imam's current
views "disgusting and despicable."
For U.S. officials, al-Awlaki is of particular concern
because he is one of the few English-speaking
radical clerics able to explain to young Muslims in
America and other Western countries the philosophy
of violent jihad.
Law enforcement officials said al-Awlaki exchanged
e-mails with Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist
suspected in the November shooting at Fort Hood,
Texas, and with Barry Walter Bujol, a Houston-area
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man accused of trying to supply al-Qaida with
personnel, currency and other items.
Michael Leiter, director of the National
Counterterrorism Center, said al-Awlaki played a
direct role in the plot that allegedly sent Christmas
Day bombing suspect Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab
to attack a Detroit-bound airliner packed with nearly
300 passengers.
Federal agents investigating the 9/11 attacks visited
al-Turki, the Saudi linguist in Denver, in December
2001. A year later, he became the subject of a full-
scale investigation, according to documents filed in
a federal court case unrelated to terrorism.
The documents did not specifically cite al-Awlaki's
recordings or al-Turki's distribution of them as part
of the 9/11 investigation. Federal law enforcement
officials declined to comment.
Terrorism charges were never filed against al-Turki.
Investigators also found no evidence linking al-
Awlaki to the 9/11 plot, though the 9/11
Commission Report said two of the 9/11 hijackers
reportedly developed a close relationship with him
in San Diego.
Al-Awlaki did face a passport fraud charge in
Colorado in 2002 which was deemed invalid by
prosecutors and dropped.
Al-Turki, though, faced several state charges
involving allegations that he kept an Indonesian
housekeeper a virtual slave and sexually assaulted
her. He is serving a 28-year state prison sentence
on a 2006 conviction on those charges.
He has insisted in court documents he was
prosecuted because of his publishing business and
because of anti-Muslim sentiment. His lawyer,
former U.S. Attorney Henry Solano, declined to
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comment.

Other Colorado residents have been linked to terror

plots, but none have been publicly associated with
al-Awlaki. They include Najibullah Zazi, a former
airport shuttle driver from Aurora who pleaded
guilty to planning to bomb the New York City
subway, and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Leadville,
arrested in an alleged plot to kill an artist over a
sketch depicting the head of the Prophet Muhammad
on a dog's body.

"It can happen anywhere," said FBI spokesman Dave

Joly in Denver. "We don't have a specific nexus that
links Colorado to anything... There's no rhyme or
reason."

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