U.S. prosecutor defends dropping case

DENVER, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A passport fraud case against a radical Muslim cleric was withdrawn in 2002 because it would have been hard to prove, a U.S. prosecutor in Denver says.

Anwar al-Awlaki has become notorious recently because of his e-mail exchanges with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood massacre.

U.S. Attorney Dave Gaouette told The Denver Post the 2002 case involved Awlaki's application for a passport in 1993, while he was a student at Colorado State University.

Awlaki, born in Las Cruces, N.M., listed Yemen as his birthplace on an application for a Social Security number. He used the Social Security number to obtain a passport.

Ray Fournier, a U.S. diplomatic security agent in San Diego, tipped off authorities in Colorado about Awlaki's giving Yemen as his birthplace. Gaouette, who was then an assistant prosecutor, said prosecutors decided at a meeting with Fournier to withdraw the charge partly because the alleged fraud seemed pointless.

"The bizarre thing is if you put Yemen down, it would be harder to get a Social Security number than to say you are a native-born citizen of Las Cruces," Gaouette said.

Awlaki also had ties to two members of the group that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.