The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reportedly provided “full funding” for al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki to attend college in Colorado, unearthed documents apparently show.
Al-Awlaki was an American-born jihadist who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011, during the Obama administration. He was a central figure of al Qaeda, including having direct contact with Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan before he opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, killing 13 people, U.S. officials reported at the time.
Amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) investigations of federal government agencies in search of overspending, corruption and fraud, political eyes have been locked on USAID funding.
USAID is an independent government agency charged with managing foreign aid programs that has been exposed by Republican lawmakers, DOGE and think tanks for bankrolling a series of questionable programs across the years, including helping launch an Iraqi version of “Sesame Street” and promoting transgender activism in nations such as Guatemala.
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Anwar Al-Awlaki, pictured here at Dar al Hijrah Mosque on Oct. 4, 2001, in Falls Church, Virginia, was an American-born jihadist who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. (Tracy Woodward/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Social media accounts erupted this week with a copy of a document reportedly showing USAID also funded al-Awlaki’s tuition to Colorado State University. The document, which investigative reporters unearthed and posted to X over the weekend, shows that a USAID form dated June 1990 outlined al-Awlaki was reportedly granted funding to attend the college by fraudulently claiming he was a Yemeni national and qualified for an exchange visa.
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Al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1971 to parents from Yemen. He was raised both in the U.S. and Yemen, U.S. media reported in 2011 following his death.
The unearthed document previously was reported by George Washington University’s research and archival institution, the National Security Archive, Fox Digital found.
Anwar Al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1971 to parents from Yemen, and was raised both in the U.S. and Yemen. (Tracy Woodward/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“This form, dated 1990, confirms that Anwar al-Awlaki was qualified for an exchange visa and that USAID was providing ‘full funding’ for his studies at Colorado State University,” the National Security Archive reported in 2015 accompanied by a copy of the document. “The document lists Anwar’s birthplace incorrectly as Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, which he later said was a deliberate falsehood offered at the urging of American officials who knew his father so that he could qualify for a scholarship reserved for foreign citizens,”
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The document reports al-Awlaki fraudulently reported he was born in the Yemen capital Sana’a and was studying civil engineering at the Colorado university. When asked to list an address, the document reports that al-Awlaki was in the care of “USAID/Sana’a.”
Anwar al-Awlaki worked as a Muslim cleric in cities such as Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia, before moving to Yemen in 2004. Patricia Morris and Imam al-Awlaki, right, are photographed inside Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. (Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Colorado State University’s media team for comment on the document and al-Awlaki’s attendance but did not immediately receive a reply.
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He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University in 1994, according to previous media reports on his 2011 death.
He worked as a Muslim cleric in cities such as Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia, before moving to Yemen in 2004. Al-Awlaki was preaching at a San Diego mosque in 2000 when he reportedly first met Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, two of the 9/11 hijackers.
The unearthed document reportedly connecting Anwar al-Awlaki to USAID funding comes amid the Trump administration’s apparent dismantling of the agency. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images )
He was arrested in 2006 in Yemen on suspicion of holding terrorist ties, with U.S. intelligence viewing him as a terrorist sympathizer until about 2009, NBC News previously reported. He was linked to the shooting at Fort Hood in Texas that year, as well as the attempted bombing of a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.
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The Obama administration authorized operations to capture or kill al-Awlaki in 2010, with a drone strike on Sept. 30, 2011, killing him in Yemen.
“The death of Awlaki marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates,” President Barack Obama said of the death in 2011. “Furthermore, the success is a tribute to our intelligence community and to the efforts of Yemen and its security forces, who have worked closely with the United States over the course of several years.”
President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend the launch of a SpaceX Starship rocket in November 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The unearthed document reportedly connecting al-Awlaki to USAID funding comes amid the Trump administration’s apparent dismantling of the agency. Signage for the agency was removed from its headquarters in early February, while the USAID website was shut down and previously only showed a message stating “direct-hire personnel” would be placed on leave Feb. 7, except those on “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”
A federal judge on Friday ordered a temporary block to the Trump administration’s plan to put roughly 2,200 employees of the agency on leave. The order remains in effect until at least Feb. 14.
Democrats and government employees have railed against DOGE and its chair, Elon Musk, including USAID employees calling DOGE’s investigation a “mafia-like takeover” of the agency and reporting they are “psychologically frightened” he would share their private data publicly.
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Trump said during an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, which aired Sunday, that DOGE and his administration remain on a mission to cut government waste.
“We have to solve the efficiency problem,” Trump said. “We have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all the things that have gone into the government. You take a look at the USAID, the kind of fraud in there.”
