The FBI tailed al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki after the September 11 attacks, linking him to NPR, pizza, and prostitutes, reports Politico.
The documents were released to conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch through a FOIA request.
The documents also allege that al-Awlaki paid prostitutes for their services on at least seven occasions in later 2001 and early 2002, frequenting high-end escorts who charged several hundred dollars. One prostitute commented to the FBI that "she thought to herself that he looked like Osama bin Laden."
Al-Awlaki's use of prostitutes isn't much of a shock. It's been known for years that in 1996 and 1997 he was charged with soliciting prostitution. It appears from the documents that prosecutors were considering bringing a federal case against him for interstate travel relating to prostitution. Al-Awlaki left the U.S. for England later in 2002 and moved to Yemen in 2004.
Additionally, FBI notes from Nov. 13, 2001 revealed al-Awlaki taking a Metrobus "through Tyson's Corner to the West Falls Church Metro, where he caught the Orange line to Foggy Bottom" where he ate pizza at "Bertucci’s" alone.
Then two days later he went to NPR to appear on "Talk of the Nation."
Al-Awlaki was killed in September 2011 by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
U.S. officials say that a decade ago the cleric was simply considered a propagandist but in recent years evidence emerged that he was actually involved in organizing terrorist plots, like the 2009 underwear bomb attack on a plane landing in Detroit.