attorney who defended the blind shiek

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Who is the lead prosecutor of Abdel Rahman?

Andrew C. McCarthy, the lead prosecutor of Mr. Abdel Rahman and his co-defendants, said on Thursday: “The blind sheikh was neither an American nor a hero — he was the antithesis of both. He would have been offended at the former suggestion, and all civilized people at the latter.”

Who called Abdel Rahman the latest in a long line of American heroes who were convicted wrongfully?

What was something of a surprise was that Ms. Stewart, who then called Mr. Abdel Rahman “just the latest in a long line of American heroes who were convicted wrongfully,” was around to do so.

What amendment protects fiery sermons?

Ms. Stewart had argued that her client’s fiery sermons were protected under the First Amendment. But a federal appeals court said, “his speeches were not simply the expression of ideas; in some instances they constituted the crime of conspiracy to wage war on the United States.”

Who sponsored Sheik Omar?

The American-based radicals who sponsored Sheik Omar’s 1990 trip to the U.S. included Mahmud Abouhalima, a CIA-supported veteran of the Afghan campaign. Also helping to make arrangements for the sheik’s visit was Mustafa Shalabi, the Brooklyn-based director of Alkifah, a support fund for mujahideen fighters. Another leader of Sheik Omar’s American network was El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian expatriate who went on to murder Jewish nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Where did Sheik Omar work?

Sheik Omar and his associates created an institution in Peshawar, Pakistan, called the Service Office, which recruited Muslims from around the world as volunteers to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Branches of the Service Office were created throughout Europe and the United States, thereby providing a ready slush fund for terrorists and anti-Western agitators. While the Service Office sluiced money into the coffers of terrorists, Sheik Omar preached his gospel of jihad in Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and in Islamic population centers in Turkey, Germany, England, and even the United States — despite his listing on the State Department’s “watch list.”

What was the FBI seized from Rabbi Kahane?

Following the murder of Rabbi Kahane in November 1990, the FBI seized and impounded 49 boxes of documents from Nosair’s New Jersey apartment; the cache included bomb-making instructions, a hit list of public figures (including Kahane), paramilitary training materials, detailed pictures of famous buildings (including the World Trade Center), and sermons by Sheik Omar urging his followers to “destroy the edifices of capitalism.”

How did Sheik Omar die?

Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman died at age 78 in a federal prison cell in North Carolina from complications of diabetes , a peaceful end to a long life largely devoted to terrorist violence. He had lived at taxpayer expense for roughly one-third of that life. For the better part of a decade prior to his June 1993 arrest, Sheik Omar had covertly been on the federal payroll as a CIA asset.

How much did the FBI pay Salem?

In the aftermath of the 1993 Trade Center bombing, the FBI renewed its association with Salem, paying him a reported $1 million to infiltrate Sheik Omar’s group once again. Salem was many things, some of them unsavory, but he was not a fool; this is why he secretly recorded many of his conversations with law enforcement agents, including exchanges in which it was revealed that the FBI had detailed prior knowledge of the Trade Center bomb plot.

When did Sheik Omar get a green card?

On May 10, 1990, Sheik Omar was granted a one-year visa from a CIA agent posing as an official at the U.S. Consulate in Khartoum, Sudan, and he arrived in New York in July 1990. In November of the same year Sheik Omar’s visa was revoked, and the State Department advised the Immigration and Naturalization Service to be on the lookout for him. So attentive was the INS to this advisory that it granted Sheik Omar a green card just five months later.

Who were the two men who conspired with Omar?

Abouhalima and Nosair were eventually among those convicted of conspiring with Sheik Omar to wage urban warfare in the United States, and in that campaign they made use of skills imparted to them by the CIA and the U.S. military.

Who is the blind sheikh?

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman ( Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن ‎), ( Umar 'Abdu r-Raḥman; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as " The Blind Sheikh ", was a blind Egyptian Muslim leader who served a life sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Butner near Butner, North Carolina, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing .

Who was the Jewish leader who was responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center?

Preaching at three mosques in the New York City area, Abdel-Rahman was soon surrounded by a core group of devoted followers that included persons who would soon be responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which took place five weeks into the Bill Clinton administration. One of Abdel-Rahman 's followers, El Sayyid Nosair, was linked to the 1990 Manhattan assassination of Israeli nationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League .

What did Abdel Rahman say about the US?

support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan, Abdel-Rahman spoke out vociferously against the country. He issued a fatwa in the US that declared it lawful to rob banks and kill Jews in the US. His sermons condemned Americans as the "descendants of apes and pigs who have been feeding from the dining tables of the Zionists, Communists, and colonialists". He called on Muslims to assail the West, "cut the transportation of their countries, tear it apart, destroy their economy, burn their companies, eliminate their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, kill them on the sea, air, or land".

Did the CIA protect Abdel Rahman?

Egyptian officials have testified that the CIA was actively assisting him in entering the US. The CIA also protected Abdel-Rahman after he arrived in the United States. Abdel-Rahman traveled widely in the United States and Canada.

Was Abdel Rahman convicted of a crime?

Although Abdel-Rahman was not convicted of conspiracy in the Sadat assassination, he was expelled from Egypt following his acquittal. He made his way to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, where he contacted his former professor, Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) along with Osama bin Laden.