We should have given this criminal the death penalty years ago. He should not be receiving medical treatment at our expense.

With "Blind Sheik" Nearing Death, FBI On Terror Alert
December 14, 2006

United States officials tell the Associated Press that a terrorist leader convicted on charges of conspiring to blowup several New York landmarks is nearing death, prompting the FBI to warn law enforcement officials of a response from terrorists.

Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik, was arrested in 1993 and later convicted on charges of conspiring to blowup several New York landmarks, including the United Nations.

Followers of Rahman were also linked to the first World Trade Center bombing.

Earlier this month he was rushed to a Missouri hospital where a tumor was discovered on the 68-year-old's liver. Officials say Rahman’s condition has stabilized and he has been moved back to prison.

While there is no specific threat of an attack at this time, al-Qaida leaders have stated in the past that Rahman has called on his followers to, "extract the most violent revenge" on the U.S. should he die in its custody. The information was part of a bulletin dated December 8. http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index...d=1&aid=65094#




“Religious” Rahman Reminds Us...
By Bill West

The FBI has issued an alert to US law enforcement concerning potential terrorist attacks stemming from the possible death of imprisoned Shiekh Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Islamic cleric affiliated with the conspirators in the first World Trade Center bombing, who was convicted in 1996 of conspiring to bomb other buildings and infrastructure in New York. Law enforcement and Intelligence officials fear his death while in US custody may spark revenge attacks by jihadists against the United States, though they claim no specific threats have been identified.

Recent reports of massive fraud within the US religious worker visa program, particularly as it relates to perpetrators from Muslim “special interest” countries that produce significant numbers of Islamic jihadist terrorists, and faltering US Government efforts to counter such fraud, are ironically timed with Abdel Rahman’s failing health and the FBI security warning.

The “Blind Sheik” entering the United States was arguably one of the greatest singular immigration failures in US history. He was issued a tourist visa and allowed to enter the US while on a terrorist lookout list. Even after this, he was later granted permanent resident alien status (issued a “green card”) as a “religious worker.” To its credit, what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was the first US Government agency to initiate overt action against Abdel Rahman by eventually revoking his permanent resident status and placing him under deportation proceedings before he was criminally indicted. But that was several years after his bogus entry into the US in the first place.

Those critical immigration mistakes took place in the early 1990s when the senior leadership and policy-makers within the INS and the Department of Justice viewed immigration authorities as mere token players (at most) in counter-terrorism and national security matters, and that in spite of specific decades-old statutes within Immigration and Nationality law relating to terrorism and national security. Things improved slightly, but only slightly, before the 9/11 attacks. After 9/11, the INS and later the replacement agency ICE under DHS devoted additional agent resources to counter-terrorism matters; however, as we have seen with report after report and study after study since 9/11, the implementation of truly substantial and meaningful operational and structural changes in the way border security and immigration policy and process is conducted by the United States has changed little. Mike Cutler’s posting today concerning the failure to implement immigration-related recommendations of the 9/11 Commission speaks volumes to this issue.

It is truly amazing that 60+ years ago this nation fought a world war against multiple well-armed nation-states, and in less time than we have now been in Iraq, America prevailed in that war and managed to build thousands of ships, planes, tanks and other war machines and secretly develop the atomic bomb in the process. We fielded hundreds of thousands of men under arms. We resolutely defeated our enemies. In the past fifteen years, we haven’t been able to figure out how to make the religious worker visa program keep out terrorists or drop below a one-third fraud rate or how to make the biometric border entry/exit system, US VISIT, fully work (the departure control half is still years from becoming operational). Perhaps it is time for excuses for the errors and failures to end.


By Bill West on December 14, 2006 3:05 PM
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006...reminds_us.php
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Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (Arabic: عمر عبد الرحمن) (born May 3, 1938) is a blind Egyptian Muslim cleric who is currently serving a life sentence at the Federal Administrative Maximum Penitentiary hospital in Florence, Colorado, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of "Seditious Conspiracy," which requires only that a crime be planned, not that it necessarily be attempted. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Abdel-Rahman is the leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (also known as The Islamic Group), a militant Islamist movement in Egypt that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Egyptian governments. The group is responsible for many acts of violence, including the November 1997 Luxor massacre, in which 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed

Youth
Abdel-Rahman was born in Egypt in 1938 and lost his eyesight at a young age due to childhood diabetes. He studied a Braille version of the Qur'an as a child and developed an interest in the works of the Islamic purists Ibn Taymiyah and Sayyid Qutb. After graduating in Qur'anic studies from a Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Rahman became one of the most prominent and outspoken Muslim clerics to denounce Egypt’s secularism.

Prison in Egypt
During the 1970s, Abdel-Rahman developed close ties with two of Egypt’s most militant organizations, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group). By the 1980s, he had emerged as the leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, although he was still revered by followers of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which at the time was being led by future Al Qaeda principal Ayman al-Zawahiri. Rahman spent three years in Egyptian jails where he was severely tortured as he awaited trial on charges of issuing a fatwa resulting in the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat by Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Afghan Mujaheddin
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. Rahman built a strong rapport with bin Laden during the Afghan war against the Soviets and following Azzam’s murder in 1989, Rahman assumed control of the international jihadists arm of MAK/Al Qaeda.
Rahman also was closely tied to Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and was heavily involved with and clandestine CIA and ISI efforts to defeat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Rahman travelled all over the world for five years recruiting new mujaheddin for the Afghan war.
In July 1990, Rahman was sent to New York City to gain control of MAK’s financial and organisational infrastructure in the United States.

Activities in the US
Abdel-Rahman was issued a tourist visa to visit the US despite his name being listed on a US State Department terrorist watch list. Rahman entered the United States, in July 1990, via Saudi Arabia, Peshawar, and Sudan.
Preaching at three mosques in the New York area, Abdel-Rahman was immediately surrounded by a core group of devoted followers that included persons responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of Rahman's followers was linked to the shooting death of Meir Kahane. An Egyptian, El Sayyid Nosair, assassinated Kahane in 1990 after Kahane delivered a speech at a New York City hotel. Nosair also was associated with the cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. From their Journal Square, Jersey City mosque the most prominent part of the New York sky line were the Twin towers of the World Trade Center. The cell is also suspected in the murder of MAK’s New York manager Mustafa Shalabi.
After the first World Trading Center bombing in 1993, the FBI began to investigate Rahman and his followers more closely. With the assistance of an Egyptian informant wearing a listening device, the FBI managed to record Rahman issuing a fatwa encouraging acts of violence against US civilian targets, particularly in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area. The most startling plan, the government charged, was to set off five bombs in 10 minutes, blowing up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI. Basically the routes into New York City from New Jersey, home to the terrorists. Government prosecutors showed videotapes of defendants mixing bomb ingredients in a garage before their arrest in 1993. Rahman was arrested in 1993 along with nine of his followers. In October 1995 he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was sentenced to life in prison.

A Continuing Influence
Abdel-Rahman’s imprisonment has become a rallying point for Islamic militants around the world, including Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In 1997, members of his group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya conducted two attacks against European visitors to Egypt, including the massacre of 58 tourists at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor. In addition to killing women and children, the attackers mutilated a number of bodies and distributed leaflets throughout the scene demanding Rahman’s release.
In 2005, members of Rahman’s legal team, including attorney Lynne Stewart, were convicted of facilitating communication between the imprisoned Sheikh and members of the terrorist organization Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Egypt.
According to the FBI, as of December 14, 2006 Abdel-Rahman has fallen ill and "his death may lead to terror attacks against the United States."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Abdel-Rahman#Youth
Breukelen advocaat Reviewed by Breukelen advocaat on . Blind Sheik Nearing Death, FBI On Terror Alert We should have given this criminal the death penalty years ago. He should not be receiving medical treatment at our expense. With "Blind Sheik" Nearing Death, FBI On Terror Alert December 14, 2006 United States officials tell the Associated Press that a terrorist leader convicted on charges of conspiring to blowup several New York landmarks is nearing death, prompting the FBI to warn law enforcement officials of a response from terrorists. Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Rating: 5