# Falls Church mosque

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Falls Church mosque," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/falls-church-mosque/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*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.*

- **Location:** Route 7, Falls Church, Virginia
- **1993 imam:** [Anwar al-Awlaki](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/anwar-al-awlaki)
- **Notable 2001 connection:** 9/11 hijackers prayed there the night before the attacks
- **Kiriakou's 1993 visit:** CIA Arabic-class field trip, mosque tour, Q&A, tea

The **Falls Church mosque** is a large mosque located on Route 7 in Falls Church, Virginia. In 1993, the imam was [Anwar al-Awlaki](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/anwar-al-awlaki). [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/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]

## See also

- [Anwar al-Awlaki](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/anwar-al-awlaki)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:25:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=12305s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
2. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:25:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=12337s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/
3. Mossad, Terrifying CIA Technology, Blackwater & The Most Secret CIA Unit (2025-08-31), at 3:26:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3FxH39oYsA&t=12368s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-31-dalton-fischer-mossad-blackwater/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/falls-church-mosque/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt