Al-Awlaki faced loss ofUS passport before drone strike killed him, documents show

Six months before American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
waskilled by an American drone strikein Yemen, he was invited to the
U.S. Embassy in Sana'a – in order for the embassy to revoke his
passport -- according to newly released State Department documents.
The documents, obtained by Judicial Watch and reviewed by Fox News,
show that the embassywas instructed to send a messageto al-Awlaki
requesting that he pick up an "important letter" in person at the
embassy in March 2011.
This letter, which embassy employees were instructed not disclose to
al-Awlaki before his appearance at the embassy, was the revocation of
al-Awlaki's passport, based on a determination by the State Department
that his "activities abroad are causing and/or likely to cause serious
damage to the national security or the foreign policy of the United
States."
There's no evidence available that he ever collected the letter.
A former Diplomatic Security agent who worked for the State Department
in the Middle East toldFox News the revocation of the passport was
"highly unusual." The agent, who asked to remain unnamed, added,
"there may be a legal finding by the Justice Department that allowed
State Department officials to take this extraordinary step."
Al-Awlaki was killed in September 2011 in Yemen by a CIA-led U.S.
drone strike. Pulling the passport would have had two effects – it
would box al-Awlaki in, limiting his travel, and it would allow the
administration to argue the CIA drone campaign targeted a foreign
national, not an American citizen. Al-Awlaki was a dual Yemen-U.S.
national.
Judicial Watch obtained the documents from the State Department
through a Freedom ofInformation Act result first submitted in
September 2011, right after the strike.
Documents turned over in compliance with a related recordsrequest also
reveal the State Department noting the death of al-Awlaki's
16-year-old son, also born in the United States. The son was killed in
a U.S. drone strike two weeks after his father.
Though the circumstances of the death are well documented, the State
Department took the routinestep of producing a "Report of Death of
American Citizen Abroad," in which the cause of death was listed as
"unknown."
Culled from foxnews.com