The World Trade Center became established as a prime target for jihadist attacks by the 1993 garage bombing,
in which a 1500-pound urea-nitrate bomb packed in a van
carved out a multi-story crater in the garage,
and killed six people while injuring over one thousand
subjected to toxic smoke.
The Muslim Brotherhood president is demanding that Obama release the Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the WTC bombing mastermind: (from DTN)
Born in Egypt in 1938, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman is a blind Muslim cleric (he lost his eyesight at a young age due to childhood diabetes) whose religious fervor was sparked initially by his contempt for secularist elements in the Egyptian government. Considered to be the spiritual leader and role model of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda associates. Rahman is known for issuing many fatwas, or religious rulings; one of these in particular sanctions the robbing and killing of Christians if they are believed to be in any way anti-Muslim.
- Muslim cleric with decades of involvement with terrorist groups
- “Spiritual leader” of Osama bin Laden
- Mastermind of numerous terrorist plots
- Deems the West in general, and the United States in particular, responsible for all of the world’s evils
Holding a degree in Qur'anic studies from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, in the 1970s Rahman developed close ties with two of Egypt’s most militant organizations, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group). By the 1980s Rahman had emerged as the leader of the Islamic Group, although he was still revered by members of EIJ, which at the time was led by future al Qaeda principal Ayman al-Zawahiri.
For three years Rahman was incarcerated and tortured in Egyptian jails as he awaited trial on charges that he had issued a fatwa resulting in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Rahman held Sadat in contempt for having signed a 1978 peace agreement (the Camp David accords) with Israel. “Sadat was not a Muslim,” said Rahman. “He made a mockery of Islam and its principles.”
This is not going away. This outrageous demand was made prior to the election and was the motive behind the the US embassy takeover in Cairo on September 11, 2012.
Obama blamed our freedoms that day. Obama blamed the first amendment for the attack on our embassy in Cairo but it was a protest demanding the blind sheik's release that turned violent and transformed the eleventh anniversary of September 11th into the bloodiest attack on America since September 11, 2001.
There have been whisperings elevated to chatter that Obama is considering this act of treachery, despite his denials prior to the election. But Obama is liar. Expect the worst.
Mursi to urge Obama to free blind sheikh in first U.S. state visit Al Arabiya, January 8, 2013
Tuesday, 08 January 2013
By AL ARABIYA WITH AFP
Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a preacher imprisoned in the United States in the 1990s for plotting attacks in New York, is the spiritual leader of Gama’a al-Islamiya. (Courtesy: AP)
The release of an Egyptian blind sheikh, jailed in the United States for the 1993 World Trade Center attack, will be urged by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi during his upcoming visit to the U.S., the leader said on Monday.
The announcement follows his pledge, during his presidential campaign earlier this year, to free Omar Abdul Rahman. The preacher is currently serving a life sentence and the planned request for his release appears to be gesture, by Mursi, to Gama’a al-Islamiya, a Salafi group.
Sheikh Rahman is the spiritual leader of Gama’a al-Islamiya, which was involved in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat but renounced violence in 1997. The group has entered mainstream politics since former President Hosni Mubarak was toppled.
In September, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stressed there was no plan to release him following his trial and conviction.
Mursi told CNN in an interview aired Monday that he was hoping to travel to the United States before the end of March 2013, and he planned to raise the case of Sheikh Rahman with U.S. President Barack Obama.
"There is no set date yet, but it will most likely be before the end of the first quarter of this year," Mursi said.
It will be the Islamist leader's first visit to the United States since he was elected last year after the overthrow of long-time Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
Relations between the United States and its key regional ally, Egypt, have been complicated since Mursi's election with Washington treading carefully amid a series of controversial and widely criticized moves by Mursi.
Mursi repeated his view of the blind sheikh saying: "I want him to be free." But he added: "I respect the law. And the rule of law in Egypt and the United States."
If the ailing and ageing Abdul Rahman cannot be freed, then Mursi suggested he should be allowed visitation rights with his family and children.
"Is there a chance for him to be freed? I wish this," Mursi said, but if not then "Egypt's relationship with America deserves that these issues be reviewed, if that is okay according to the law."
"If it isn't possible, and I hope that it is possible, if it wasn't possible, then these humane aspects need to be taken into account, for him to be in a humane prison, to be able to have visitors, to be able to have company."
Mursi said he also wanted to discuss other issues with Obama, such as cooperation in scientific research, manufacturing and production, and tourism.
