Excerpt:
American-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki likely played an important support role in the Sept. 11 attacks nearly 10 years ago, according to a new book that examines the threat of home-grown terrorism.
The book, "The Next Wave," by Fox News national security reporter Catherine Herridge, reveals new documents that find al-Awlaki was nearly arrested after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon for providing false information on his passport application. Today, al-Awlaki is one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the only known American citizen on a U.S. hit list in the global war on terrorism.
"I believe the evidence supports the conclusion that Anwar Awlaki was an overlooked key player in the 9/11 plot itself, and his contacts with the hijackers were not coincidences but evidence of a purposeful relationship," Ms. Herridge told The Washington Times in an interview Friday.