Wednesday, April 19, 2017

FBI's Awlaki Surveillance Footage Revealed


From Fox News:
New files obtained through a federal lawsuit show, for the first time, FBI surveillance images of American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on the same day he spoke at a Pentagon lunch to promote post-9/11 outreach to the Muslim community. 
The FBI documents confirm the imam was under bureau surveillance as part of the “IT UBL/Al-Qaeda” investigation, but the information was not shared with the Defense Department’s Office of General Counsel, which sponsored the 2002 Pentagon lunch. 
The high-level FBI surveillance – including specialized teams, as well as video and photos – also calls into question the bureau’s explanation regarding a decision eight months later, in October 2002, by FBI agent Wade Ammerman. 
While Awlaki was held by Customs officers at JFK airport because of an outstanding warrant for the cleric’s arrest from the Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego, Ammerman told Customs to release him. The FBI has maintained Ammerman’s actions were routine.

3 comments:

thelastenglishprince said...

Using him as an exploitation platform instead of taking his ass off the street gave us the Fort Hood massacre.

One of our team members will know exactly where that picture was taken. I have a general idea because of my commute from D.C. out to Falls Church to visit this individual at least once a year.

Jason in KT said...

Google lists the following for "Rio Bravo Glen Forest"

https://www.yelp.com/biz/rio-bravo-falls-church

Here's the best I've been able to line up a possible photo angle:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8539593,-77.1348323,3a,75y,262.32h,93.14t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sgFaZLNCcvpmzBNiaCfzUag!2e0!5s20140701T000000!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

The Sunoco station is right where it should be and Valdemar Travel used to occupy the building behind it, but the line of sight angles aren't lining up the way I would expect them. I don't have any experience with telephoto lenses but I can imagine one capturing a scene like this.

Jason in KT said...

The camera is on Glen Forest facing West. Anwar is standing on the corner of what is now the dry cleaners. The weird zoom is making the row of parked cars appear to be up against the building, and they're not. The "Rio Bravo" sign is at the lowest position on the sign tree where the Bawadi sign is in the most recent images.

Here's a map view. Anwar is in the blue circle and the red line shows the angle at which the photo was taken. https://ibb.co/j4bxak

I had fun with this. :)