Newly surfaced documents have revealed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded college tuition for Anwar al-Awlaki, who later became a key al-Qaeda figure, through a fraudulent exchange visa application in 1990.
The revelation comes as USAID faces intense scrutiny by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the Trump administration attempting to shut down the embattled agency and merge it with the State Department.
Documents obtained by Fox News show USAID granted al-Awlaki's request for an exchange visa after he falsely claimed to be a Yemeni national, providing "full funding" for his studies at Colorado State University.
Critics have considered this sort of spending as "the most reckless use of taxpayer funds" under USAID's management.
Critics have considered this type of spending as "the most reckless use of taxpayer funds"
GETTY/REUTERS
The June 1990 file revealed that USAID provided full funding for al-Awlaki as a J-1 scholar, a visa category typically reserved for overseas students seeking short-term study opportunities.
In his application, al-Awlaki listed his address as "USAID/Sana'a" and claimed Yemen capital Sanaa as his birthplace.
When authorities later discovered the deception, they issued an arrest warrant for al-Awlaki on fraud charges in 2002, which was subsequently withdrawn by prosecutors, according to records from the National Security Archive.
Contrary to his visa application claims, al-Awlaki was actually born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Yemeni parents and was raised between the United States and Yemen before applying for the USAID funding.
According to documents, al-Awlaki later admitted the false birthplace was a "deliberate falsehood" suggested by American officials who knew his father.
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The scheme proved successful, as al-Awlaki went on to study at Colorado State University, graduating in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.
Following his graduation, he began working as a Muslim cleric, establishing himself in various American cities including Denver, San Diego, and Falls Church, Virginia.
At a San Diego mosque, al-Awlaki reportedly first encountered Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who would later become two of the September 11 hijackers.
During this period, he began preaching that American television had corrupted global morality, claiming Allah had sent AIDS as punishment.
Behind his public persona, the father-of-three was secretly soliciting prostitutes, who were later questioned by the FBI about his beliefs.
His activities were eventually exposed when an escort service operator warned him that "an agent named Wade" had been questioning her staff about him.
The June 1990 file revealed that USAID provided full funding for al-Awlaki
GETTY
Al-Awlaki fled to the UK, where he adopted more hardline anti-Western rhetoric.
He subsequently relocated to Yemen, where he embraced extremist ideology and eventually became a key figure in al-Qaeda.
By 2009, al-Awlaki was linked to a shooting at Fort Hood and an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound flight.
The Obama administration subsequently placed him on a target list and authorised operations to capture or kill him.
Despite a brief arrest in Yemen in 2006 on suspicion of terrorist ties, he was released in 2007 after reportedly repenting.
On September 30, 2011, President Obama announced al-Awlaki had been killed in a drone strike, saying: "The death of Awlaki marks another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates."
He praised the operation as "a tribute to our intelligence community" and highlighted the cooperation with Yemeni security forces over several years.
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