Large mosque on Route 7 in Falls Church, Virginia; the site at which John Kiriakou, in 1993 as a CIA Arabic-language trainee, met then-imam Anwar al-Awlaki on a class field trip; the same mosque at which the September 11 hijackers prayed the night before the attacks.
The Falls Church mosque is a large mosque located on Route 7 in Falls Church, Virginia. In 1993, the imam was Anwar al-Awlaki. John Kiriakou visited the mosque that year as part of a CIA Arabic-language-training field trip — a day-long itinerary of Arab-American businesses in Falls Church under a no-English-permitted rule — that ended at the mosque for a tour and Q&A with the imam.[1][2][3]
Eight years later, the September 11 hijackers prayed at the same mosque the night before the attacks.[3]
