The Troubled Journey of Major Hasan
Preacher and Provocateur
Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni immigrant parents, presided over the
Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., until about 2002. Hasan may
have attended the mosque while he was in medical training. While his
preaching sounded tame, al-Awlaki met with two of the 9/11 hijackers at his
previous mosque in San Diego, and in April 2001, two of the 9/11 hijackers
worshipped at his Virginia mosque. When Hasan's mother died in May 2001, her
funeral was held there as well (his father had died in 1998). In 2002 al-Awlaki left the U.S., eventually moving to Yemen, where he runs a website
that includes radical Islamists among its audience. The FBI has found a set
of e-mails between al-Awlaki and Hasan from the end of 2008, apparently all of theological and pious natures.