Report: CIA tried wife plot to kill Awlaki

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The CIA paid an alleged al-Qaida spy $250,000 to play matchmaker for al-Qaida's Anwar al-Awlaki in a failed bid to assassinate him, a Danish newspaper reported.

Awlaki, a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric, was killed Sept. 30, 2011, in a drone strike in Yemen.

ABC News, citing a report in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, said the CIA recruited Morten Storm, a Danish Muslim, as a double-agent.

Storm was close to Awlaki, who asked the Dane to find him a European woman to be his third wife, the report said Monday. Storm told Jyllands-Posten in 2010 he found a match, a 32-year-old Croatian named Aminah, who contacted him on Facebook to express her interest in marrying Awlaki, it said.

The marriage was arranged through a series of Facebook videos between the two, with Storm acting as intermediary, the report said.

The CIA had asked Storm to give the woman a suitcase with a tracking device that would give the U.S. Air Force a location for a drone strike. The plot was foiled when the woman ditched the suitcase, ABC reported.