SEPTEMBER 2001 - MASSOUD’S ELIMINATION AND THE CIA

On September 9, 2001 suicide bombers, who posed as Arab journalists, assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud. “Karim Souzani” and “Kassim Bocouli” had stolen Belgian passports, spoke fluent French, but were of Algerian origin. They claimed they wanted a TV interview with Massoud. They carried a film camera with them -- not a big television camera but a small one such as a tourist might use. Massoud did not object to the interview. One of the Brothers placed the camera on a table in front of Massoud. A few seconds later, it exploded and instantly killed Massoud’s lackey, Asim Soheil, as well as one of our own soldiers. Massoud died within a few hours. To avoid panic, his

death was announced six days later. The other soldier of Allah tried to escape but was shot dead by one of Massoud’s aides.1 Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, a former Taliban Deputy Interior Minister who defected to the Northern Alliance after his Pakistani bank account was frozen and just before the Americans marched into Kabul on November 13, 2001, surrendered to America. After Khaksar was taken into custody he volunteered to speak with the CIA and told the agency that bin Laden had ordered two suicide bombers diverted from a trip to Indonesia to carry out

the Massoud mission. May all of God’s blessings fall upon Usama bin Laden, who, sooner or later, will dispose of the enemies of Islam!2 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed “I only began to consider recruiting Jemaah Islamiah operatives for inclusion in hijacking operations as part of his second wave hijacking attacks, to occur after the September 11th attacks.”

Yassir Sirri and Ahmed Abdel Sattar helped to compose the contents of an interview request to be sent to Massoud. The U.S. Government overheard this conversation but did nothing to stop our action.

This was not the first time that something like this happened. One of Black September’s key operatives in the United States was Mahmoud Atta a 33-year-old Jordanian native and naturalized United States citizen. Atta had worked with Zein Isa, another operative of the original PLO-backed Black September who lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Zein Isa, a grocer who helped Hamas raise money through coupon fraud, had met with Atta in Mexico City and discussed the feasibility of attacking Israelian installations within the United States. Zein Isa died on death row in 1997, a man loyal to our cause: On November 6, 1989, Zein Isa with the help of the FBI eliminated one traitor to Islam – his daughter Tina Isa who had adopted corrupt American ways. After nine volumes of FBI wiretap tapes were declassified, it was revealed that the FBI should have known Tina was doomed. In June 1989, Brother Amjad had volunteered to kill this security risk; by August after Tina ran away with a Christian Negro, the family discussed disposing of her; by October 1989, Tina's sisters were deciding how to rid themselves of her; and on October 13, 1989 Zein told Tina, “Will it satisfy you to go and accuse me, you and the black person ... that I am with the guerrillas [of Black September]?” Isa’s

1. Joseph Fitchett “How They Killed the Afghan Lion” Sunday Times, September 23, 2001 p.8 Matthew Campbell “Did Bin Laden Kill Afghan Rebel?” International Herald Tribune, September 17, 2001 p1. 2. Irish Examiner August 17, 2002 “Bin Laden Ordered Assassination of Opposition Leader Massood.”http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2002/08/17/story260145325.asp

trial judge, Charles Shaw, himself a former federal prosecutor, tried to excuse the FBI, “You can hear a lot about killing on a wiretap and it doesn’t mean a thing. The mob, for example, is always threatening to whack someone.” Former FBI high official Oliver Buck Revell said, “I've never known of circumstances where we wouldn't intervene. I'm not sure how much the interpreter reported of the tapes' nuances, but my position was if we thought a child would be harmed, we'd intervene. Our responsibility is to prevent acts of violence irrespective of blowing cover.” But what was more important to the St. Louis FBI Field Office – saving this child’s life or blowing an investigation of our most competent agents working in America at that time?3

On the Al-Sirri tape the two men “can be heard discussing in some detail how to write such a letter to Massoud and how it should read,” with Sattar commenting on certain passages.4 Al-Sirri was charged as an accomplice in Massoud’s murder, but a British judge found that Al-Sirri was an unwitting accomplice and that his original letters had been used as a template then forged by the Brothers. Sirri originally said that he wrote the letters but thought the men were legitimate journalists.5 Al-Sirri argued “If I had known that these men intended to kill Masood, would I have been stupid enough to give them a letter with my signature on it? I would have covered my tracks…I had nothing to do with this plot and I never met these men in person. I only dealt with them over the phone.” Touzani, he said, called him for the first time when the pair was already in Afghanistan in late July. Al-Sirri said Souzani told him that he and Bocouli were making a documentary about Afghanistan, and they could secure interviews with leading Taliban figures, including Mullah Muhammad Omar. Al-Sirri, who has been involved in producing several books and videos about various militant Islamic causes, said he jumped at the chance to gain access to Taliban leaders. He faxed a letter to Kabul, where al-Sirri believed the pair would show it to Taliban officials. All of this would sound plausible if Brother Al-Sirri was a member of Future Farmers of America rather than Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya.

After Brother Ahmed Sattar was arrested his defense attorneys argued: “[Surveillance of Sattar took place from 1995 to 2002 and included telephone, email, fax, cell phone and computer]. It is hard to believe the government would have permitted Sattar to continue his activities if he was involved in clandestine intelligence activities which may have involved a criminal law violation.”

THE TRIAL OF MASSOUD’S ASSASSINS

Frenchman and convert to Islam Jerome Courtailler6 had helped obtain the passports used in the Massoud Operation. Courtailler and his brother David Courtailler were former drug addicts who received training in an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.7

David Courtailler was detained for about half a year after French

3. Harris, Ellen Guarding The Secrets Scribner 1995. Associated Press New York Post December 20. 1991 ”Death for Two in Taped Murder of Daughter.”4. Steve Fainaru and Brooke A. Masters “Postal Worker’s Letter Tied to Slaying of Afghan Leader” The Washington Post May 13, 2002.5. Washington Post May 17, 2002 “Egyptian Held in London on US Warrant.”6. “Onderzoek naar Betrokkenheid Dood Massoud” NRC Handelsblad, October 19, 2001, p. 2 7. Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999, p.17 – US Department of State, (Washington, DC, April 2000)

authorities arrested him in 1999. Meanwhile Jerome Courtailler attended the Finsbury Park Mosque with Zacarias Moussaoui, and had shared an apartment with Moussaoui while they were both living in London.8 Jerome and David were accused of supplying the Brothers passports and arrested. Jerome had roomed with Adel Tobbichi, who escaped to Canada before the Dutch authorities could locate him, but was extradited back to Rotterdam, Holland in late June 2002. Tobbichi was a master thief who obtained much documentation for the movement. Judge S. Van Dooren said the Courtailler case was dismissed on procedural grounds because the evidence against the Brothers was improperly obtained since the search was based on a tip from an intelligence source.

In May 2003 twenty-three Brothers were put on trial in Brussels for the Massoud execution and planned attacks in Europe. The main defendant was former Tunisian

footballer, Nizar Trabelsi, who met Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Trabelsi was arrested in an apartment in Brussels on September 13, 2001, and was found in possession of a list of chemicals, which could be used to manufacture high explosives. The chemical formula for hydrazine, a highly toxic a rocket fuel (the Nazis used it to power the

V-2 rocket) that is deadly via inhalation or contact, was also found.9 It can also be used as a garden pesticide. In September 2003 Brother Trabelsi was sentenced to ten years in prison. Abu Khabab, an Egyptian chemicals expert who worked for Usama bin Laden in Pakistan, obtained a jar of hydrazine hydrate solution made by a company called Riedel-de Haen. In June 2003 the International Islamic Society sent hydrazine, was sent to the Saudi Arabian, British and the United States embassies.10 In France five Brothers were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years for providing logistical support to the Brothers who put an end to Massoud.11

WHY MASSOUD WAS KILLED

First off Massoud was part of the CIA’s TRODPINT team assigned to kill Usama bin Laden, however Clinton the Degenerate insisted that Usama bin Laden be taken alive. CIA officers described Massoud's reaction when he heard that the United States wanted him to capture and not kill bin Ladin. One characterized Massoud's body language as "a wince." Massoud's response was "You guys are crazy - you haven't changed a bit." The reason for this was that the Clinton administration considered Massoud a flawed ally because he financed his activities through opium sales and America was obsessed with drugs thanks to neo-cons like William Bennett and Newt Gingrich. This capture proviso inhibited Massoud and his forces from going after bin Ladin but did not completely stop them. In 1999 the CIA’s bin Laden unit informed Massoud that Usama bin Laden was in Derunta, Afghanistan. Massoud planned to assassinate him with Soviet-designed Katyusha rockets. He dispatched a commando team toward the hills above Derunta. The CIA got cold feet but Massoud went ahead with the operation anyway. Nothing came of it except for the fact Massoud had 8. Emerson Vermaat “Bin Laden’s Terror Networks in Europe” The Mackenzie Institute May 26, 2002.http://www.mackenzieinstitute.com/commentary.html 9. Brussels Television News - TF1 - September 27, 2001.10. “Nerve Gas Agent Found in Letters” Washington Post June 5, 2003. 11. New York Times May 18, 2005 World Briefing

alienated certain members of the Clinton Administration.12 The Elder’s obtained a document under the Freedom of Information Act from the United States Government part of which I shall read into the record of this meeting:

SUBJ: IRR (DELETED) – THE ASSASSINATION OF MASSOUD RELATED TO THE 11 SEPTEMBER 2001 ATTACK.

WARNING: THIS IS AN INFORMATION REPORT, NOT FINALLY EVALUATED INTELLIGENCE. REPORT CLASSIFIED SECRET NOFORN.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

SOURCE: (DELETED)

2. WARNING. Through Northern Alliance intelligence efforts, the late Commander Massoud gained limited knowledge regarding the intentions of the Saudi millionaire Usama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, to perform a terrorist act against the U.S., on a scale larger than the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (deleted). In April 2001, Massoud addressed the French and European Parliaments in Paris. In his televised speech he warned the U.S. Government about Usama bin Laden (deleted).13

STEWART, YOUSRY, SATTER OPERATION CLOSED DOWN

On April 11, 2002 in violation of the Sheik’s freedom of speech and lawyer-client confidentiality and all that nonsense that means nothing to those of us who believe in Shari'ah, the Christian fundamentalist fanatic former Attorney General Ashcroft arrested Stewart, Sattar and Yousry for helping the Sheik communicate his desire to his army of followers that the slaughter of tourists, Egyptian policemen, Egyptian soldiers, Copts, bystanders, recommence. Sattar’s home was searched and as AUSA Barkow reported, “The context of the Protocols of the old Zion which Sattar had in his home which was used to justify the genocide of Jewish people in Europe? What context does he want you to put this in? The context of Nazi Germany?”

STEWART’S PRETRIAL DEFENSELEAKED DOCUMENTS

Once again, Usama bin Laden was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a trial involving the Blind Sheik Rahman, all credit due to Allah and to Usama bin Laden’s threatening video. Michael Tiger, Stewart’s attorney objected, “It seems to me that the idea that we are here and that Usama bin Laden is a member of a conspiracy to free 12. Steve Coll “Flawed Ally Was Hunt's Best Hope” Washington Post February 23, 2004; Page A0113. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB97/tal32.pdf

Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, is lethally prejudicial.” The video was shown but bin Laden was not put forth as a co-conspirator.

LUXOR: THE SHEIK WAS A SCAPEGOAT FOR THE FBI

Sister Lynne explained her predicament: “[After I released the Sheik’s statement regarding the end to the cease-fire] I got a call from the chief of the terrorism section in the U.S. Attorney’s office, Patrick Fitzgerald, who called to say, ‘You made a press release! You can’t visit, you can’t talk on the phone anymore, and you’re cut off from him! You’ll have to sign on again.’ Then we went back and forth for six months as to the wording of the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) I was to sign on again.

Part of it sounded like I was admitting to be in the conspiracy – something like – ‘The SAMs are important because ‘the Sheik orchestrated the killing of tourists at Luxor.’ They said the Sheik was responsible for, I dunno, everything except flat feet. They made it sound like a worldwide conspiracy. So we rewrote that whole section. These are the words Sister Lynne signed off to: "I understand that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman has been convicted of terrorism offenses, including soliciting crimes of violence, and that terrorist actions have been carried out by persons using his name, including the killing of approximately 60 tourists in Luxor, Egypt in November 1997 and the kidnapping of tourists in the Philippines in the spring of 2000. I understand that the United States is concerned that a violation of the SAMs, including but not limited to dissemination of messages on behalf of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, can lead to violence to persons or property here in the United States or overseas.

And early the next year, under this new SAM, which was provisional, I went to visit him again. This was probably in February 2001, and he said he did want me to accept the Special Administrative Measures, because he did want me to continue the visits. And that, we understand was the first visit they listened in on…Now we understand that the latest Special Administrative Measures, which have been presented to Abdeen Jabarra and Ramsey Clark, who remain as the Sheik’s lawyers, include a paragraph in which they must agree to electronic surveillance in exchange for being able to speak with him. They have refused to sign that so no one has actually spoken to the Sheik since the time of the arrests.

Stewart was asked:

What if the Sheik’s advice was taken and the cease-fire was broken in Egypt? The terrorist attack at Luxor in 1997 left over 50 Egyptians and tourists dead, and the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility. You think it would be a good thing if these sort of attacks resume, correct?

Stewart responded:

Americans are very two-faced about violence, aren’t they? I mean we came out of the Boston Tea Party and throwing rocks at soldiers at Boston Commons and finally taking up arms and going against the British army. War has changed since 1776, but the basic desire of people to be free hasn’t changed. And I’m not sure that I want to second-guess what methods people use. I’m not saying that if I had been told to carry the message ‘There are a hundred rifles hidden at the battery and they should be taken to the Egyptian Embassy and everybody murdered up there’ that I would carry such a message. But a political message, a message which is aimed at a group that is deciding things politically, although they have a military wing -- I don’t think I would draw the line there.

THE INTRUSIVE EVIDENCE

Stewart asked the judge in her case to authorize money to help her in her defense. There are 7,000 pages of documents of Sattar’s telephone records and 10,000 pages relating to his AOL email account and 100 CDs containing audio intercepts.14 Sattar’s lawyer, Kenneth Paul, told Judge Koeltl that much of the information was in MP3 form, a configuration his daughter was familiar with but he was not. When Paul and his associate, Barry M. Fallick, visited Ahmed Sattar the Correction Officers kept them locked up for two hours. Many of these conversations were irrelevant to the criminal case and demonstrate the excessive and unnecessary intrusion of the FISA surveillance on Sattar and his family and require the suppression of all the intercepted calls:

Lisa Sattar (Ahmed Abdel Sattar’s wife) and Sattar fighting because Sattar is in a bad mood because Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman is mad at him. Lisa complaining about the American government threatening to deport Fatma’s husband Muhammed. Complaining about Sattar mistreating her and her children and it is because Rahman is mad at him and being unreasonable. Lisa joking with Amina, Ibrahim al-Gabrowny’s wife about Sattar being the next to be arrested and her children’s inquiries to that effect. Lisa says her husband never tells her any news. Fatma says she cannot afford a D&C operation because she can’t apply for Medicaid because she cannot report proof of income. Fatma tells Lisa that the reason Khadija was coming to New York is because she fought with Nosair’s (her husband’s) father. They discuss that it is improper for her to stay with Jean King, her husband and son without a protector or guardian. Lisa said Nasser said he is coming to fix the ribbon of his typewriter. Lisa asked if he can come over and Sattar said he knows better he should bring his wife in or he cannot come in the house. Muhammad Sa’d asked Sattar to have Lisa look for an apartment for him because he intends to part with his wife. He is not going to divorce her to make it difficult for her. On Lisa’s answering service there is a message from an Unidentified Male

14. John Lehmann “Terror Lawyer Begging for Tax Bucks” New York Post June 13, 2002

who just said, ‘Hi, what’s up, I love you.’ Sattar and his family will have Labor Day at Lynne Stewart’s upstate vacation house. Mohammad Abdel Sattar called to say he spoke to Sattar’s mother in Egypt and everyone is okay. Sattar and his mother: He asked if they knew anyone on the Egypt Air flight. So far the family does not know anybody on the flight. Sattar’s mother is afraid she is about to die and wants to see him. She proposed that they both go to Saudi Arabia to meet and he said he was warned not to go there. Sattar’s mother has a Green card, but she has been out of the country for a long time. Sattar said that she can get a new passport (the one she has shows the date she left). She did this the last time she came and there was no problem. He wants her to get all of her medical records together and they will try to get her medical insurance.

The motion was denied and the FISA material will be entered into evidence.

In July 2003 Judge Koeltl dismissed only two of the Government’s counts against Sister Stewart. The Judge determined that using a telephone and supplying a Designated Terrorist Organization with a telephone were two different things:

The defendants argue simply making a phone call or similarly communicating one’s thoughts does not fall within the ambit of §2339B. The defendants are correct and by criminalizing the mere use of phones and other means of communication the statute provides neither notice nor standards for its application such that it is unconstitutionally vague as applied…The Government accuses Stewart of providing personnel, including herself, to the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. In so doing, however, the Government fails to explain how a lawyer, acting as an agent of her client, an alleged leader of a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), could avoid being subject to criminal prosecution as a ‘quasi-employee’ allegedly covered by the statute. At the argument on the motions, the Government expressed some uncertainty as to whether a lawyer for an Foreign Terrorist Organization would be providing personnel to the Foreign Terrorist Organization before the Government suggested that the answer may depend on whether the lawyer was ‘house counsel’ or an independent counsel--distinctions not found in the statute. The Government concedes that the statute does not prohibit mere membership in an Foreign Terrorist Organization, and indeed mere membership could not constitutionally be prohibited without a requirement that the Government prove the defendants’ specific intent to further the Foreign Terrorist Organization’s unlawful ends…The Government has painted a picture in the Indictment, at oral argument, and in its briefs, which the Government has said can be taken as a bill of particulars, of a communications pipeline staffed by the defendants that enabled Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and other Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya leaders around the world to communicate with one another. Allegations about the provision of currency and transportation play only a minuscule role in that

plot. The number of overt acts relating to the provision of travel or currency is relatively small and none of them explicitly refer to Stewart or Yousry. Further, although Stewart and Yousry are charged in Count Two with substantive violations of §2339B, and aiding and abetting, that Count provides no details but refers to the allegations in Count One, and there are no allegations in Count One that Stewart or Yousry provided currency or transportation to an FTO or aided and abetted such provision.

The United States Attorney’s Office did not appeal the dismissal.

THE RESIDUAL BROOKLYN CELL SUPPORT GROUP

Others who are helping Sattar and Yousry in America include Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman’s personal physician Aziza Zaater, who graduated from the University of Cairo in 1969 and practices pediatric medicine in Toms River, New Jersey along with Maya Hess, whose name appeared on Yousry’s bail application and who managed him as a translator. Maya’s translation bureau was involved in the language aspects of the Rahman Bridge and Tunnel case, the World Trade Center bombing trial of Ramzi Yousef, the pre-trial preparation of a key defendant in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa and of course in the Stewart, Sattar and Yousry prosecution. Hess has written that,

It is baffling that Mr. Yousry was the only interpreter to be cleared and approved every 90 days by the very same Justice Department that subsequently hauled him into court. If the government was so concerned that this particular interpreter was conspiring, why didn’t they just withhold their approval and request someone else? Why did they approve him year after year over the course of several years? Why didn’t they rotate a roster of interpreters to avoid running the risk that any one of them would get too chummy with the inmate?

Hess accused the government of conducting constant car surveillance, going through Yousry’s garbage, entering his premises without a warrant so that they could go through his papers, and visiting him at York College, where he taught Modern Middle Eastern History as an adjunct professor. At York College the agents impersonated students and told him they wished to audit his lecture. Yousry refused to allow them to do this. Finally a Special Agent with the FBI offered him roughly $1.5 million to work with the FBI. The Brother rejected their offer. Hess told Abu Jihad, “I am working on the current case and there is an executive order out and nobody can talk about it.”

Washington public schools chief facilities officer Kifah Jayyousi and Gertrud Mathys, Chairwoman of the New York Chapter of the Swiss Benevolent Society names were also listed on the bail application.15

15. Sattar Bail Application USA v Sattar et. al

When Sattar, our number one agent operating within the borders of the Great Satan, was arrested, Kuby was ready to represent him at the bail hearing, until Kuby’s cowardly wife said, “You don’t know what he was doing!” Kuby said: “I sure as hell don’t think people who would take my family, put them in purdah and put me up against a wall and shoot me are entitled to my support in that struggle.”16 Our counter-intelligence division was able to unearth this in regard to Kuby’s father:

Cleveland: Don Kuby, an insurance man, headed the Cleveland chapter of the Jewish Defense League which was organized during fall 1969. He once studied for the priesthood but converted to Judaism 15 years ago.”17 When our CI division reviewed a lawsuit filed against Kuby by William Kunstler’s widow we discovered this autobiographical note authored by Kuby: “I did not have much capital. My father died penniless. I left home at the age of 14, emigrated to Israel…

Now Kuby is fighting, on a pro bono basis, for the right of women to parade naked in public.

THE TRIAL OF SISTER STEWART, BROTHER YOUSRY AND SATTAR THE ELDER

According to the prosecution’s case, “In essence, these defendants helped Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman break out of jail to inspire his terrorist group to return to terrorism. They allowed Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to tell his followers, "Fire." That is what this case is about.” What terrorism? Nothing happened after the ceasefire was annulled. There was no mention of EgyptAir 990 during the Communications Cell trial so where was the so-called terrorism? That was what the defendant’s lawyers wanted to know and prosecution answered:

Now, all of the defendants have said to you at one time or another no one died. Let me off because no one died. Mr. Paul said it as far back as his opening. Mr. Stern said in his summation, quote, no one died after Luxor. Ms. Stewart testified no one died. This argument is offensive. What are they saying? Let me off because the conspiracy to kill failed. Let me off because the solicitation to kill did not succeed. Let me off because Sattar and 'Alaa Abdul Raziq Atia and Rifa'i Taha did not succeed in killing Jewish people. Let me off because the withdrawal of support did not succeed in leading to death. Let me off because Atia died before he could act and go by the fatwa and capitalize on the withdrawal of support for the cease-fire. Thank God there is no evidence that no one died because if the conspiracy to kill had succeeded and the solicitation to kill had succeeded, the real world would have been a much worse place. There would have been more people like Ekkehart Hassels-Weiler who would have had to hide behind a column with their friends and their family to escape slaughter and death.18

16. George Packer New York Times September 22, 2002 “Left Behind.”17. JDL Document in Author’s Possession.18

. USA v Sattar 51A5SAT5 Rebuttal Summation - Mr. Barkow 12066

SISTER LYNNE v RAMSEY CLARK

Lynne’s attorney, Michael Tiger explained why Ramsey Clark refused to release the Sheik’s fatwa claiming the notes of the September 1999 visit indicated that Clark was confused: “

During Mr. Dember's summation for the government he spoke at some length about the September 1999 visit with Omar Abdel Rahman and a letter that stated that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman regarded the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya as absolved from the ceasefire. It is our contention that that letter -- and there is a letter in evidence that says absolved -- does not reflect anything that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman ever said to anybody and, therefore, one can make some arguments down the road, and I will, about the purely speculative nature of the repeated statements that Ramsey Clark thought that something was or was not criminal… I respectfully submit that the government, having asked the jury draw these inferences that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said absolved, that Ramsey Clark thought that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said that, that Ramsey Clark wouldn't issue it because it was criminal, a change of inferences that I believe is improper and not supported by the evidence, that I should be able to rebut that because I think that it goes beyond the evidence in the case. That's in the alternative. I think that my understanding of the Court's instruction permits me to make the argument in any case.”

SATTAR DID IT!

Tigar attempted to get a severance for his client but it was denied,

A defendant's right to a fair trial does not include the right to exclude relevant and competent evidence. Thus, the fact that testimony against a codefendant may be harmful is not a ground for severance if that testimony would also be admissible against the moving defendant tried separately. Evidence at the joint trial of alleged coconspirators that, because of the alleged conspiratorial nature of the illegal activity, would have been admissible at a separate trial of the moving defendant is neither spillover nor prejudicial.

Tigar again threw defendant solidarity to the wind when he reminded the jury that each defendant is being tried separately then made sure they recalled the fact that,

Sattar is against the ceasefire. He is with Rifa'i Taha and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, as you know. He is in favor of ending the ceasefire, resuming the violence, resuming the killing, resuming the kidnapping, resuming terrorism. Did you hear him say that? Sattar is with Rifa'i Taha

and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, as you know. Now, it is clear -- one or two more thoughts here.”

Would he have done this in the case of the drugged-out Communist Chicago Seven who plotted to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention? Mr. Tigar, barely out of law school at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote the pretrial motions. But to Tigar it is all but a game, as he has defended Terry Nichols, whose life he convinced a jury to spare in the Oklahoma City bombing trial, John Demjanjuk, a Nazi concentration camp guard.

THE BLIND SHEIK RAHMAN WAS FRAMED BY EMAD SALAM

Tigar tried a home-spun approach on a New York City jury,

Way back in the 1990s, before Lynne Stewart began to represent him, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said some pretty ghastly things, awful things about violence and so on and in the name of the religion. Well, you know, some of us -- people that were raised in conservative religious faiths in some parts of the country, we had a lot of bigotry in our church. We grew out of it, we hope we did. Ain't it awful? How religion gets people spun up to do and say these horrible things. There are these whole communities and places in the world that you go and little boys will -- somebody's grandfather killed somebody and hadn't been avenged yet, but we will get around to it next week. That's awful. That whole trial -- I'll talk about that trial – is about whether those were sermons or fiery sermons when Emad Salem, that guy who got paid a million dollars and had a tape recorder, had him participate in a present-day crime, not an analysis of history. That's what this trial was about. I will talk about that. You give me a million dollars and a tape recorder, I will get that for you, too. That was that trial. After the trial was over, he then issued apparently this other thing about anger and lashing out and so on. And all of the lawyers who talked about that have said, that's bad stuff, too. When we say it is bad stuff and we hear about airplanes and planes, please, let's don't look at that with 20/20 hindsight, because I'll tell you something. If you want to take that language and use it and pump it up and say back in 1997, or whenever it was, and you will remember that Nasser Ahmed was accused of smuggling it out, that was not sustained. So there is no evidence about who did it. We don't say that and say, that should have been a warning of terrible things that were going to happen later. A lot of blame needs to be laid at a lot of doors for that. But he did say and it was awful, too.

Tigar tried to deny the fact that Nasser Ahmed’s smuggling out a letter from the Sheikh had led to the Greek Tourist event. Tigar pointed to the testimony al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya and Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya were different entities. One of the biggest loads of camel manure ever invented! Tigar asked Stewart:

Q. And it says here that Nasser Ahmed testified concerning his alleged affiliation with al-Gama'a. And when it says al-Gama'at, that's al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, is that right?

A. Well, in that case there was a question about what that meant, because we had had testimony that there were a number of definitions. There was a group, but it was also a way of referring to the entire congregation, so it was not entirely clear. And I think the judge's decision did talk about that. But he was accused of being part of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya itself, I believe.

Q. In fact, in the decision the judge distinguished between al-Gama'at with a T at the end and al-Gama'a, did he not?

A. Yes, he did.

Q. And al-Gama'at was, in his opinion, referred to as sort of an accumulation of number of groups that are Islamic in nature that may be antigovernment in one sense or the other?

A. Right.

Q. Al-Gama'a refers specifically to the Islamic Group, is that right?

A. I think he said al-Gama'at was like the peace movement, a big generic term meaning a lot of different groups.

Q. But al-Gama'at, as it's referred to in this sentence we're looking at, is the Islamic Group?

A. Yes.

Q. Yes. Now the next sentence reads, the respondent spoke convincingly in opposition to al-Gama'at, and then it goes on to say he spoke of his -- opposition to the culture of violence and to the cycle of violence which the al-Gama'at promotes. And Mr. Ahmed testified to that effect?

A. Yes.

Q. And it goes on to say that respondent -- that's Mr. Ahmed -- testified that he believes the al-Gama'a's tactics are futile, is that right?

A. Futile, yes.

Q. So he had indicated that he believed it was essentially a group that engaged in violence and you knew that, is that right?

A. Yes.

Q. And you knew that at the time that you issued the press release, that that was certainly his view of al-Gama'a?

A. Yes.

There was an attack on tourists in Egypt during the trial and so Judge Koeltl told the jury,

Ladies and gentlemen, you may have read, heard or seen press reports relating to bombings in Egypt that took place on October 7, 2005. That was the reason that I spoke to you individually. The bombings are obviously not part of this case, and you will hear no evidence in this case about those bombings. None of the defendants is accused of having anything to do with those bombings.

The judge made sure that the jurors knew that al-Gama'a did not take credit nor was linked to these attacks. Sister Lynne got about as close to a fair trial as you are going to get under American secular law although allowing the video of Usama bin Laden and Taha to be shown was prejudicial. The jury had been subjected to favorable newspaper articles in the New York Times and the seeds of doubt had been planted that lawyer-client relationship was being to the test. Weeks past and still no verdict was handed down. This was a good sign for the defense.

THE JEWISH DEFENSE ORGANIZATION THREATENS SISTER LYNNE

We intend to eventually rid the world of Jews, finish the job that Hitler did not complete, but there are some Jews whose death must come immediately, if not sooner. Mordechai Levy, terrorist leader of the Jewish Defense Organization is one of them. Fearing the jury might acquit Levy decided he was going to illegally influence them. Our best friend at the New York Times, Julia Preston, reported, “Lynne F. Stewart, a lawyer standing trial on charges of conspiring with Islamic terrorists,

said she received a written threat at her home in Brooklyn yesterday from a militant Jewish organization, as the jury deciding her fate finished 10 1/2 days of deliberations with no verdict. Ms. Stewart said she found a five-line printed flier taped to her front door when she left for court yesterday morning just after 8.30. The flier said that Ms. Stewart and one of her clients, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, were “traitors to America” and referred readers to a telephone number and to the Web site of the Jewish Defense Organization.”

The Jewish Defense Organization website contained a story about the murder of a Coptic-American family, including father Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife Amal Garas, 37, and daughters Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, who were found bound and gagged with

throats slashed in their Jersey City home on January 14, 2005. The article pointed out that a relative of the Armanious family had been a translator at the first Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman trial and that the killing was a message to the Stewart, Sattar and Yousry jurors to acquit or face the same fate. It also contained an article that accused Stewart of having an unwitting hand in the demise of EgyptAir 990 by letting the militant jihadi Brothers in Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya know that their Sheik had given them his blessing to go forward. Preston continued,

A recorded voice mail message reached by dialing the number says the group -- which describes itself as a militant Jewish group -- is beginning Operation Crush Terror Against Lynne Stewart. The message gives Ms. Stewart's home address and says she “needs to be put out of business legally and effectively,” threatening to “drive her out of her home and out of the state.” Part of the campaign, the message says, is “to reach out so the jurors understand what she is.” It adds, “And that's been done.” Several more fliers were found by people attending the trial in the streets around the courthouse in downtown Manhattan, and others were taped to a building on Broadway where Stewart's law offices were located until recently. Stewart's chief defense lawyer, Michael E. Tigar, presented the flier and a transcript of the voice mail message to Judge John G. Koeltl in the courtroom in Federal District Court. Mr. Tigar decided not to ask the judge to inquire whether any jurors had seen the flier or heard about the threat, saying that the questions themselves could give the jurors information they had not previously known. The jurors in the seven-month trial are anonymous.

Let me read you a transcript of that hearing:

MR. TIGAR: Yes, your Honor. I'd like to pass up an item that was taped to Ms. Stewart's front door of her home this morning and ask that it be marked as a court exhibit. Here's a copy for the government. We ask that it be marked as a court exhibit. I don't know that there's any action -- Now, I'll mark this as 142. [The note was taped] to the front door of her home, your Honor. Someone had to come inside the fenced area and go up to her front door and tape it on there.

THE COURT: Do you want the government to investigate? I mean, I –

MR. TIGAR: No, your Honor. At this point I think that there would be a reason for the marshals to be aware, though, the interest of this group with respect to people, because there are people connected to the case here leaving the courthouse. We're going to go on the website and look into this organization. We think we know who it is and really don't think there's any further need at this time to take any additional steps. The note has been handled so many times that I doubt there are usable fingerprints on the original at this point in any case.

THE COURT: Well, I'll mark this as a court exhibit and I'll give a copy to the marshals. And I know you're not asking for any follow-up at this point, but –

MR. TIGAR: Your Honor, the website of this organization has long apparently been carrying items related to this case, including recently hyping the Jersey City allegations and putting them on the website. So we don't think there's any further need for action at this time. This is a known quantity so far as we're concerned.

THE COURT: All right. Well, this will be marked as a court exhibit.

MR. TIGAR: We're not making light, your Honor. The website does have a sense of humor. It refers to Ms. Stewart -- I'll just read it out because people have been laughing. Lynne Stewart, greatest argument for the Burka.

THE COURT: I know I hadn't appreciated that there was -- frankly, that there was any mirth. And I don't take something like that lightly.

MR. TIGAR: Neither do we, your Honor. We do take it very seriously. I was just attempting to explain what your Honor may have been observing, and we'll continue looking into it. As we say, the government, of course, can make its own independent decision what, if anything, it wants to do. We're not asking for action at this time.

THE COURT: All right. The marshals should assure that the spaces around the courthouse for demonstrations, both for and against anyone, should be sufficiently kept away. I mean, there should be sufficient distance. And it's good for the marshals to know about this in terms of whatever decisions they make about how the vans go.

(In robing room)

THE COURT: I have Mr. Tigar's letter dated February 8th and it's not filed under seal. Did you want it under seal? Should we do this in open court?

MR. TIGAR: I don't see any reason why not. It's already out there. And, your Honor, these leaflets are appearing all over Pearl Street opposite the courthouse here in addition to the ones I mentioned that were -- they're taped to poles and things between the two courthouses.

MR. TIGAR: Your Honor, I should also tell the Court, we have informed Mr. Donnelly of the facts that are in the letter and also the -- these other

leaflets are being brought in by media people as they come into court. That's another reason we didn't think sealing was practical.

THE COURT: Fine. Government?

MS. BAKER: I'm sorry, your Honor. Was your question about sealing? We don't believe there's any basis to seal.

THE COURT: All right. I have Mr. Tigar's February 8th letter, which indicates -- which discusses a recorded message and the distribution of leaflets around the courthouse.

THE COURT: All right. I wanted to follow up on Mr. Tigar's letter. The letter's been provided to the marshals so that the marshal's aware of the situation in connection with assuring that the jurors are shielded from any improper influence. The second issue then is, in my mind, the follow-up investigation, because of the law enforcement concerns raised by the situation.

MR. TIGAR: Yes, your Honor. Since writing the letter, folks have brought in to us more copies of this small leaflet that is marked as a court exhibit this morning. These copies that we have were taped using the same kind of plastic tape that was used to fasten the leaflet to Ms. Stewart's house door. And they were taped along the Pearl Street area between the Foley Square courthouse and the district court, Pearl Street courthouse, and around the side of where one would go to go over to St. Andrews Place. In addition, they were out on the street by 60 Centre Street and all the way up to 100 Centre Street. One concrete suggestion is that there are surveillance cameras that protect the precincts of the federal and state courts that are in operation and that record. It should be fairly simple to review those tapes and see who it is that was putting these things up. That's a step that I would respectfully request be taken immediately. Again, we're not saying there should be any particular kind of investigation. It's not our job to direct one. That immediate step relates to the Court's own control over the security of its processes, because obviously the behavior could be construed as falling within the relatively narrow confines of 18 United States Code, Section 401, because it is misbehavior so near thereto as to obstruct the due administration. And that is a provision of law that has historically permitted judicial branch initiation as well as executive branch initiation of formal proceedings. Beyond that, your Honor, we appreciate that the Court has asked the marshal service to continue to be vigilant as it has been vigilant. And we will report to the Court any additional information that we have. As the letter says, we think that it is on balance -- and this is a difficult decision for us -- unwise to seek inquiry of the jurors, because that simply suggests a situation or a concern that might be raised by the inquiry. So that's the

reason that our letter was not so definite. I understand that the government's position is that it and not the judicial branch is responsible for what investigations will take place. So be it. But at the very least I've seen the surveillance cameras, and we would think that those surveillance tapes ought to be preserved. And if the marshal has a cooperative arrangement with the state court personnel that are monitoring this court, those as well might provide some...

THE COURT: Well, the marshal should at least make sure that -- the marshal's aware of the situation, that the jurors and that the vans are safe from this sort of thing. Does the government want to be heard on this?

MS. BAKER: Your Honor, it seems to the government that what has occurred here, which is that some unidentified people put up some leaflets in public street areas somewhat near the courthouses, that's the conduct here. It seems to us that that is conduct protected by the First Amendment, and that it is essentially the same conduct that has occurred on repeated occasions earlier in the trial in favor of Ms. Stewart, in that on earlier occasions there have been people holding signs, expressing their support for Ms. Stewart outside the courthouses in that same general vicinity. And so to us, these -- this is just another situation of the same type of conduct that is able to occur in public spaces in connection with any trial where any members of the public have a view in favor of or against any party in a public proceeding. And so we don't believe that there is any criminal activity that has occurred that could form the basis for any sort of criminal investigation. And Mr. Tigar's reference to 18 U.S.C. Section 401, it's my understanding that that is the contempt statute. And I don't see how this conduct could constitute any form of contempt, given that there wasn't any type of order or directive of the Court that was violated by the conduct based on the knowledge that we have of what has occurred. So we agree that obviously the marshals should be vigilant so that the jury in this case can reach their verdict based solely on the evidence and the law and free from any outside influence. But we don't believe that at this point in time there is any basis for anything else to be done.

The JDO leaflet linked Lynne Stewart to the first World Trade Center attack, the same tactic used by the prosecution. Ahmed Sattar was asked if he knew Ramzi Yousef, he replied, "I never met Ramzi Yousef ... I never spoke to him." "Wasn't it true you had some letters from him?" AUSA Morvillo asked.

I had -- I had -- yes, a letter from him in my home. What happened, you know, we or -- me and some other people, you know, we were publishing a newspaper. You can, you know, it's a few pages newspaper, about two, three pages newspaper, an Islamic newspaper and we were distributing it in Brooklyn and in the metropolitan area also. Those

newspapers I was -- it was sent to prison to inmates in prison and it happened that Ramzi Yousef, his name was just on the list like other people and I send it, this newspaper to him. When the newspaper was stopped being published he sent a letter asking if -- if this newspaper can be sent back to him or why the -- you know why I stopped sending the newspaper to him. That was in that context, Mr. Morvillo. I did not have any contact with Ramzi Yousef except in this capacity or that context.19

It came as no surprise that when the New York Post interviewed a juror he proclaimed, “Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is a traitor to humanity who got what she deserved when she was found guilty of promoting terrorism…” almost the same words the JDO used. As impotent and infinitesimal as it is, nonetheless, the JDO must be exterminated. Even the dead Rabbi Kahane thought the Jewish Defense Organization was too extreme: “Not every answer lies in violence. Going out and busting every Nazi’s head isn’t really necessary.”20

LYNNE’S SUPPORTERS FIGHT FOR HER FREEDOM

Lynne’s supporters did not just paste up leaflets like the Jewish Defense Organization sissies did, nor did they just hold up placards but they attempted to intimidate the jury as they drove by in a van as they recognized them from the courtroom. A juror explained to the judge,

The four of the people that I saw are people that I have noticed -- and I will say the audience because I don't know what the correct word is used for people that are sitting in the courtroom -- but I have noticed these people sitting in the courtroom before; and one of them in particular is a little bit of an ominous looking person. It was a man and he was holding his sign and as soon as the van started to approach this big gathering of media people, he kind of started to get closer to the edge of the sidewalk and to the road and then, as we approached and when the driver rolled down the window, he got much closer to the van and kind of held up his sign. And then the other people held up their signs and they got closer to the van with their signs.

Another juror recalled this man,

And then I was aware of opposite of them was a bunch of people that were looking at us. And as we approached I recognized at least one of the people that's been commonly in the courtroom -- a tall gentleman -- and he was holding up two pieces of paper that said, Free Lynne Stewart. As we got closer the van slowed down and the guy just seemed to, like -- he didn't put them in front of the van but he got closer. It was -- it was disconcerting. And then I heard the van driver say, Who's Lynne Stewart?

19. http://www.lynnestewart.org/transcripts/121304.txt20. Cornell Daily Sun November 17, 1986 “Kahane Grants Interview: Discusses Issues and Plans.”

I did not know until afterwards that the window was down when he did that.

This was how Julia Preston reported the incident, “Late Tuesday afternoon, the driver was taking 6 of the 12 jurors home when he left his usual route. Spotting a sign in support of Ms. Stewart, the driver rolled down his window and loudly asked, “Who's Lynne Stewart?” His question prompted one demonstrator to move forcefully toward the van, the jurors told the judge, before the driver sped away.” She tried to protect Sister Lynne by making it seem as if it were only one demonstrator that approached the van and omitting the fact that the most militant supporter had given the hairy eyeball to the jury inside the courtroom.

THE JEWISH DEFENSE ORGANIZATION LEAFLET HEARING CONTINUES

MR. TIGAR: If your Honor please, may I respond. The government's position is -- perhaps misapprehends the factual showing. The factual showing is that this group, in addition to putting up a leaflet, which I'll get to, has put out a message saying that they're going to put Lynne Stewart out of business, drive her out of the state, and that they admit that they have reached out to the jurors, apparently, and say that what's been done. It's ambiguous whether they intend to do it or have done it, but that's what they say they're going to do. And, your Honor, they tell a lie, demonstrable lie about what the charges are in this case. Now, false speech can contribute as much to public discourse as true speech perhaps, but the fact is it's coupled with specific threats to Ms. Stewart, who has taken great care to maintain her privacy. That's what's going on here. I was not suggesting that posting a leaflet outside the court would be illegal, but only that the surveillance tapes might help us find out who posted this murderous threat and this threat to the administration of justice. Second, your Honor, the contempt statute doesn't just relate to disobedience or resistance. The part I was discussing was 401(1). It's existed ever since the recodification in the wake of the failed impeachment of Judge Peck.21 And it means what it means. And it has had this historic meaning since the middle of the 19th century. With respect to the First Amendment issue; Cox vs. Louisiana.22

21. In the United States, Federal Judge James H. Peck took contempt proceedings against Mr Luke E. Lawless, a lawyer, for writing

a critical piece on his judgment. Lawless moved the House of Representatives for impeachment of Judge Peck. The matter was referred to the Judiciary Committee and Judge Peck filed his reply and the matter ultimately went to the Senate for the trial of Judge Peck. The article of impeachment charged Judge Peck “with intention wrongfully and unjustly to oppress, imprison, and otherwise injure the said Luke Edward Lawless, under color of law … (and) order that (he) should be committed to prison for the period of twenty-four hours, and that he should be suspended from practising as an attorney or counsellor at law … to the great disparagement of public justice, the abuse of judicial authority, and to the subversion of the liberties of the people of the United States. The final vote in the Senate was of acquittal though by the narrow margin of one vote. However, the impeachment attempt resulted in the man who led the impeachment on behalf of the House, Mr Buchanan, to introduce a Bill in the House which led the Congress to enact a law declaring that the court had no power to punish constructive contempts i.e. words spoken or written other than those uttered in or very near the court.22

In Cox vs. Louisiana the Supreme Court of America ruled, "The rights of free speech and assembly, while fundamental in our democratic society, still do not mean that everyone with opinions or beliefs to express may address a group at any public place and at any time. The constitutional guarantee of liberty implies the existence of an organized society maintaining public order without

THE COURT: Ms. Baker, the situation is one of concern. I did not need defense counsel, actually, to point out that the distinctions between simply the leaflets and the content of the letter was the voicemail, which identifies an address; allegations about posting on the defendant's home, coupled with what appears to be an invitation to reach out to the jurors, which goes beyond simply posting.

MS. BAKER: Your Honor, I do want to address those points separately because I do think they are separate. The recorded voicemail message, which one would only hear if one called the number on the leaflets -- and I want to pause there to say, there is no basis to believe that any juror in this case has seen a leaflet. And certainly if…any juror were somehow to come in contact with a leaflet, of course in light of all of your Honor's repeated instructions to the jury, there is simply no reason to think that any juror would call the telephone number on the leaflet and thereby be exposed to the content of the voicemail message. So with respect to any potential effect on the jury in this case, that was the perspective from which I was speaking when I said earlier that what has happened is the posting of leaflets in public areas. There is just no reason to believe that the jurors have seen the leaflets, and certainly no reason to believe that any juror knows anything about the content of the voicemail message. And so it was from that perspective that I was framing the issue earlier. From the separate issue of, is there anything -- I'm sorry. Before I move on, let me just pause to say, we don't construe the content of the recorded message the way Mr. Tigar does with respect to that ambiguous sentence in the middle paragraph of the transcript. It says, part of the campaign, “is to hopefully make sure that she is convicted, to reach out so the jurors understand what she is and that's been done, as well as spread the message far and wide.” We interpret that to believe -- to mean, or at least we think it's at least equally susceptible to the interpretation, that the reaching out is the posting of these fliers. I mean, it is entirely possible that whoever is involved in doing this doesn't know that this jury doesn't go out to lunch in the areas outside the courthouse. And they may think that by posting these fliers in a public area, that someone could have seen them. There is no reason to believe that any action has been taken, other than the posting of the fliers, that would in any way constitute any type of reaching out to the jurors. And because of the protections that the jurors in the case are under, it's really not plausible that there could be any successful contact to the jurors or attempt to influence them in any way. So that is our view of the facts from the perspective of the jury. If your Honor is concerned from the separate perspective of Ms. Stewart, and the impact of what has gone on here with respect to Ms. Stewart, that her address is contained in the voicemail message or that this was posted on her door, if the Court feels that that information merits further inquiry, I am

which liberty itself would be lost in the excesses of anarchy."

not aware that there is a federal crime there to be investigated. And I don't know what, if any, supervisory authority the Court has in that regard, but I'm not aware of a federal crime that has occurred. And if there is a potential that this is some form of harassment or something along those lines, then it would seem to us that this is a matter appropriately referred to the police.

MR. TIGAR: Your Honor, we had requested a direction to the marshal service to preserve the surveillance tape. Your Honor, that's a well-established law enforcement technique where there's been conduct in or near a federal courthouse that is simply to be investigated. And the fact that they either are or are not saved has turned out to be important.

THE COURT: Well, the marshal and the government can take that into account. I'm not going to require that that be done. I have no idea what the processes are.

MR. TIGAR: Thanks, your Honor. And I would have a legal analysis contrary to that expressed by Ms. Baker, but I forebear in mentioning it. I don't think it's relevant to the disposition of the issues that are immediately before your Honor. But if the government would like to know how the Department of Justice has dealt with these issues in the past, I'd be happy to tell them.

(Adjourned to Wednesday, February 9, 2005, at 9:15 a.m.) MR. TIGAR: Your Honor, while the parties are looking for those, I'd like to hand up to the Court and ask it be marked as a court exhibit a piece of paper in which I stuck three stickers that were in a phone booth just across the street from the courthouse; more from the Jewish Defense Organization with a specific reference to the Trade Center. We'd ask that be marked next in order. I'm not asking for any action to be taken at this time. I have provided a copy to Mr. Donnelly, who has made a copy for his purposes.

MS. BAKER: Your Honor, we have reviewed it and they say the same thing as the fliers that Mr. Tigar presented to the court yesterday. So we have no objection to the Court having it, even though we don't have a photocopy of it.

THE COURT: It will be marked as Court Exhibit 154. (Pause)

In a pretext telephone interview Mordechai Levy told Abu Jihad that the group had not tried to contact any jurors directly – “We're hoping she's convicted, but our campaign is to ruin her by getting her neighbors to evict her from her home, and to put pressure on the landlord to evict her from her office. When we're done making their life miserable, hopefully they will make her life miserable. And as for that great free speech advocate Tigar, his idea of free speech is the same as the Communists, he wanted to have me arrested for doing the same thing Lynne Stewart supporters were doing – reaching the jury outside the courtroom with a message, only he

did not like our message. I heard Tigar say, “I was not suggesting that posting a leaflet outside the court would be illegal, but only that the surveillance tapes might help us find out who posted this murderous threat and this threat to the administration of justice.” He wanted to do a forensic analysis of the plastic tape we used to post the leaflets, he wanted to take fingerprints off the leaflets and was disappointed when he could not. He suggested to the prosecution, “But if the government would like to know how the Department of Justice has dealt with these issues in the past, I'd be happy to tell them.”

This reminds me of how the KGB would spend thousands of dollars to track down one dissident Trotskyist poster. And the great free speech advocate quoted two cases that limited free speech. The jury deliberated for 13 days that stretched over a month. Although they were instructed not to do so, the jurors read Preston’s article in the New York Times and became interested in who and what the Jewish Defense Organization was. When they visited the Jew Defense Organization website they read the headlines the killing of the Coptic family in Jersey City was a message to the jurors. The next day Sister Lynne was found guilty on all counts - conspiracy to defraud the United States, of making false statements twice of material support to a conspiracy to murder and of providing material support to a conspiracy to murder, as were Brothers Sattar and Yousry. Sister Lynne commented, "I would do it again -- it's the way a lawyer is supposed to behave. When you put Usama bin Laden in a courtroom and ask the jury to ignore it, you're asking a lot."

For remaining a non-believer, God struck Sister Lynne with breast cancer. But she cleverly used this to postpone her sentencing and garner sympathy and she said she hoped the judge would agree that she should recover from the cancer before going to prison. Her message, she said, is, "You may send me to jail for the rest of my life, but at least I'll go in strong and resistant to whatever happens." We're not asking for anything out of the ordinary, beyond what is reasonable for the therapy she is undergoing," said Jill R. Shellow-Lavine, one of Ms. Stewart's Jewish lawyers. If you could postpone sentencing because you were ill the Sheik would still be free!

SATTAR

Ahmed Sattar’s lawyer argued in an identical fashion: “The evidence will show that in fact there are no victims who the government will refer to and say, ladies and gentlemen, these people are the victims caused by what Mr. Sattar said or did. That's not going to happen. The government does not claim that Ahmed Abdel Sattar or anyone else on his behalf ever caused harm to anyone, or that any of his conversations or actions resulted in injury to anyone.” The prosecution attempted to link Sattar to the first World Trade Center bombing:

Q. The World Trade Center was bombed in February 1993, right and Mohammed Salameh had already been arrested, right?

A. Mohammed Salameh has been arrested.

Q. And you knew that your telephone number appeared in Mohammed Salameh's address books, right?

A. No, I did not know that.

Q. You knew Mohammed Salameh, didn't you? Did you know Mahmoud Abouhalima?

A. I knew Mohammed Salameh, yes. I seen him in Jersey City. I cannot say that I know him, you know, I -- I was -- had a friendship with him or anything. I know him as a fellow Muslim who was attending the mosque in Jersey City. Yes, [I knew] Mahmoud Abouhalima was, he lived in Brooklyn and he attended Abu Bakr Mosque sometimes.

Q. And you knew him before he was arrested in connection with the first bombing of the World Trade Center too, right?

A. I know him, yes.

Q. Ibrahim El-Gabrowny?

A. Ibrahim El-Gabrowny, yes. He was a member of Abu Bakr Mosque and he was the Sheikh's co-defendant.

Q. And he was convicted of solicitous conspiracy, yes?

A. He was convicted of solicitous conspiracy, yes. Q. Siddig Ali?

A. I know him as a translator, you know, back then in 1993 during the Sheikh's immigration hearing, and I told him Siddig Ali was well own…

Q. Mr. Sattar, you knew a man named Emad Salem, right? You knew him prior to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman's arrest, right?

A. Yes, I did.

Q. Did you ever tell Emad Salem that there had been no firearms since Nosair's arrest for the Kahane murder?

A. Yes. I have told him that. I told him that in context when they were -- in context of the Jihad in Afghanistan. I told him there was -- you know, when Nosair was arrested that program, which was in my understanding was

run by the CIA, it stopped. Because Nosair was part of that program, you know, from what I know.

Q. Isn't it a fact you once told Salem that after you learned of Mohammed Salamah’s arrest you had to run home right away and clean up everything?

A. This is a lie as many, many, many lies Emad Salem did. Emad Salem was just a liar and to me, you know, he was just making up stories play football with FBI mind and, you know, that's what he was doing. He was just, you know, manipulating everybody. And I never told Emad Salem anything like that.

Q. Did you ever ask him, Emad Salem, how to clean up chemicals? Did you ever ask him, Emad Salem, to sweep your apartment for bugs?

A. I never asked him to do [either]. He was going in the community during that time after the World Trade Center bombing and spreading rumors of the FBI bugging people's apartments, that the FBI bugging people's cars, that the FBI doing all those things. He was just going and doing those things. And, you know, he was actually asking people to go and do, I mean sweep their apartments or their cars. Emad Salem has never been to my home once. I mean, he only been to my home once in a few years that I know him. I mean, he never come to swipe or, you know, sweep my apartment or anything like that.

Q. And so, did you ever have anyone sweep your apartment for bugs?

A. I did not. Emad Salem wanted to come to my apartment, he was just doing those things and he says, you know -- as a matter of fact he was pressing me and pushing me and, you know, to come to my apartment. And finally he came to my apartment, but he never did. I don't believe he did anything, you know, in there. We just sat there. We talked. He had his briefcase with him, which was equipped with a tape recorder. He recorded every word that I said with him and then, you know, we went downstairs, I sat in his car which was equipped with a tape recorder and he recorded every word that I said in my, during my presence with him. So if anything like this happened, it will be on the tape recorder that Emad Salem had. It was going through all this the time that we were sitting there.

Q. And so what you are saying then is that that never happened?

A. I don't -- I don't recall it did, it happened.

Q. Your counter-surveillance instinct didn't develop until recent years?

MR. FALLICK: Objection, your Honor.THE COURT: Sustained.

Q. After their arrests for the first bombing of the World Trade Center, you began collecting money for their defense, right, after Mohammed Salameh's arrest, you began collecting money for their defense, right?

A. No. No. There was no money for their defense. I did not collect money for their defense.

Q. After Salameh was arrested you spoke to him on the phone quite a bit, didn't you?

A. Once -- once I spoke to him on the phone, yes. He did call me once, not quite a bit. And he was actually crying on the phone saying that he does not even have a penny in his account so he can send a letter to his family. And I did ask people, you know, to send him money.

Q. Didn't he tell you that he was concerned that Mahmoud Abouhalima was cooperating with the government?

A. I'm not quite sure if he told me -- if he told me that I am not sure if he told me this. I cannot just sit here and tell you -- Mr. Morvillo, we are talking about things that happened in 1992 and you are asking me 12 years later. I really don't remember, you know, what he said or what he did. I'm not sure if he told me -- in one conversation that he -- that I had with him that Abouhalima was cooperating. He did, he might not. I don't.

Q. So you don't recall ever telling Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman that Mohammed Salameh was concerned that Mahmoud Abouhalima was cooperating?

A. Yes, he might. He might have told me but I'm not – I really I'm not sure.

Q. And you were present at the time he was arrested, right? And where did that arrest take place?

A. I was. It took place at Abu Bakr Mosque in front of the mosque. Actually, the Sheikh surrendered inside the fire house that was across the street from the mosque. The Sheikh was giving, as what I said, he was staying at the mosque for that day and he was giving the Friday sermon, and after the Friday sermon he surrendered to immigration authority across the street from the mosque.

Q. But before he did that you actually sent out a fake Sheikh, right?

A. I sent out a fake Sheikh?

Q. The -- a fake Sheikh went out, right?

A. Yes, it were -- yes.

Q. Someone dressed up as Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman left the facility to fool the law enforcement authorities, right?

A. No, it was not to fool law enforcement. It was at the time there was no presence of law enforcement in the area. It was the presence were media trucks, reporters from everywhere. It was a huge scene, you know, people from the media everywhere and was -- it was a huge media attraction and was putting the mosque in a bad light. So, at the time said, you know, if the Sheikh can just leave, you know, the mosque, you know, it will be good for him to leave. So, and other people were having some concern if the Sheikh might, you know, with all this media attraction and, you know, if the Sheikh gets out of the mosque right now somebody could attack him, somebody could do something to him. So, the people who were, you know, who were doing that decided to just, you know, put some glasses on and a turban on and somebody and let him out of the mosque. It was not to fool the law enforcement, it was just, you know, to get the media attention away from the mosque.

Q. You said that the people who were doing that, you were not one of those people?

A. I was. I was out in -- I was out there with them, yes.

Q. In fact, there are photographs of you coming out of the mosque with Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, right?

A. That was -- yes. That was when I was -- I -- I accompanied the Sheikh to the firehouse and I was part of the negotiation between law enforcement and the Sheikh to negotiate his surrender.

Q. And, in fact, you rode with him all the way up to Otisville, right a prison where they originally took Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman following his arrest?

A. Yes, I did.

Q. And then following his arrest he was indicted?

A. He was indicted a month and a half later, yes.

Q. And that's when you started working as a paralegal? And at that time it was just volunteer work, right? You weren't getting paid?

A. No, I was not -- at the beginning I was not getting paid. I was just, you know, I was mainly doing interpretation between him and some of the lawyers. This is at the beginning.

Q. And in connection with his arrest, you reviewed a lot of the evidence, right?

A. Yes, I did.

Q. Isn't it true, Mr. Sattar, that you were cut off from Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman by Springfield in January 1997?

A. January 1997?

Q. Yes.

Q. Now, before that visit occurred, there was an event in Egypt in early September 1999 that convinced you that the cease-fire wasn't working, right?

A. It's not only that event. It was a series of things happening, it just -- it's not to convince me that the, as you call it, the cease-fire was not working. It was just, you know, series of events, yes.

Q. And the event that we are talking about of course is the shooting of Farid Kidwani, right?

A. Yes. The event was the shooting of Farid, Farid Kidwani, and I believe other, three people with him in their sleep; yes.

Q. There were four people who were killed in early September 1999, right? And in fact you discussed that shooting with Mustafa Hamza on the telephone in a call that was read to the jury here, right?

A. Yes. I discussed with many people, yes.

Q. You stated that he was killed in his sleep just now, right? How do you know that?

A. I -- I read that. People were saying that. Yes.

Q. Isn't it a fact that he was killed after a gun battle with the Egyptian police?

A. This is what the Egyptian government claimed, as usual, when the killing happened they claimed that there was shooting and they answered back but this has been a policy of the Egyptian government of extra judicial killing –

MR. MORVILLO: Objection, your Honor. Move to strike.THE COURT: Overruled.

Q. And you knew that Farid Kidwani was the military leader of the Islamic Group in Egypt, right?

A. I did not know that myself and –

Q. That is what the report said –

THE COURT: Stop.

A. I did not know that first-hand, Mr. Morvillo.

Q. No, but you knew it the same way you knew about the shooting, right? You knew about it because you read about it?

A. Yes.

Q. And you also read reports that weapons and explosives were found in the house where Farid Kidwani was staying, right?

A. I -- I don't recall that.

Q. But, in your opinion, this was really the straw that broke the camel's back, right?

A. This was -- I did not understand the last word.

Q. This was a turning point for you in the cease-fire debate, right? Rifa'i Taha says to you at the top of this page, line 1: Quite frankly, I am very sad at the existing situation. And you say: Yes. And he says: I do not know if I should send you words to this effect or not. And he says -- you say: I -- I do not mind. And he says: Yeah, and if you feel you cannot take many written things. And you said: Yes. And he said: You understand, don't you? And you said: Yes. And he says: Tell him to send something to this effect. Tell him that I am very upset to the point that you would not believe. You and he are talking about the Kidwani shooting here, right?

A. Yes, we were talking about the Kidwani shooting. And also we are talking about that he is upset because there was not even a condemnation by the Islamic Group issued, you know, to condemn the killing of those people and, you know, he was -- that's why he was saying that he was very upset.

Q. And what you're talking about is that he wants you to send to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman the fact that he is so upset that you wouldn't believe it, right?

A. That he is so upset because nobody issued anything and if he is going to speak out, you know, they're going to just jump on him again; yes. Q. But when he says, at line 9: Tell him to send something to this effect, tell him that... Rifa'i Taha is referring to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, right? …And then he says: Sheikh, eh, eh... those things that you listen to, make a summary of it in the newspapers. You say: Yes, of course, God willing. He says: Also, see if our Brother Salah agrees we should have a powerful word, hah. Salah is Salah Hashim?

A. He is the only Salah I know, besides Mohamed Salah, the reporter, he is the only Salah I know.

Q. And a powerful word, you understood to be a threat to the government of Egypt, right?

A. I understood to be a criticism of what the government of Egypt did by killing those people.

Q. And you stated: That's the least we can do, the least...that something be issued, oh, God the almighty it must.

A. Yes. I'm telling him the least that anybody can say is to stand up to and to say stop the extra judicial killing. He cannot just kill people because you are accusing them of doing something.

Q. But, Mr. Sattar, my question was, when you said "the least they can do," what would be more would be to actually carry out a terrorist operation against the Egyptian government, right?

A. No, Mr. Morvillo. No…

Q. It is a fact, is it not, Mr. Sattar, that you drafted this statement with the leader of a terrorist network? A. Yes, it is a fact.

 Q. A person you knew was in Afghanistan with Usama bin Laden?" A person that you knew was considered by the United States to be a threat to national security? And a person who you knew had signed Usama bin Laden's fatwa calling for the murder of Americans, right?

A. Yes. Q. You saw Rifa'i Taha participating in a conference with two other terrorist leaders, right? And you knew at the time that Ayman al-Zawahiri was a leader of another Egyptian terrorist group called Egyptian Islamic Jihad or EIJ, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And you were aware of the fact that al-Zawahiri had joined forces with bin Laden and bin Laden's terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, right?

A. I know they were together, yes, according to the thing that I read; yes.

Q. And in fact you knew that from what you had read Ayman al-Zawahiri was considered to be a close associate of Usama bin Laden's, right?

A. I am not sure, you know, of that, but I know they were – I mean, together. How close they were, I'm not quite sure.

Q. Well, you also knew that Ayman al-Zawahiri was on the same list with the United States Department of Treasury that Rifa’i Taha was on, right?

A. Yes. There were so many names on that list, yes.

Q. And al-Zawahiri’s name was one of them, right?

A. One of them, yes.

Q. And the list we are referring to is a list of specifically designated terrorists, right?

A. Yes, it was about 90 -- 99.9 percent of it Muslim organizations and Muslim people, yes.

Q. And at this time, in September 2000, you knew that Usama bin Laden had been indicted for the embassy bombings, right?

A. Yes, I read -- I read the indictment, yes.

Q. And you also knew that bin Laden had issued fatwas calling for the deaths of Americans, right?

A. Yes, it was covered by the news. Yes.

Q. And you also knew that Rifa'i Taha and al-Zawahiri had both signed bin Laden's February 1998 fatwa calling for the murder of Americans, right?

A. Yes.

Q. And while you were watching on September 21, Rifa'i Taha called you on the telephone, didn't he?

A. Yes, with our -- yes.

Q. And you told him that you were watching him on television in what you called the victory conference, right?

A. This is what the name of, I did not call it the victory conference, this is what they call it on TV and this is how they refer to it. It was called the victory conference. I did not give it that name.

Q. And the transcript of that telephone conversation between yourself and Rifa'i Taha was introduced into evidence in this case, right?

A. Yes, I believe so. Yes.

Q. Rifa'i Taha considered the United States of America to be an enemy, correct?

A. I don't understand that he considered the United States to be an enemy. I know he has, he has showed hostility toward the United States. I know he -- or toward the United States policies, but I really don't know if he considered the United States to be an enemy. Maybe he said something, you know, in that effect. Could be, yes.

Q. Didn't he sign Usama bin Laden's fatwa in 1998 calling for the murder of Americans everywhere?

A. Yes, he did. And this is, you know, he signed the fatwa calling for the murder of Americans everywhere including me and my kids and my wife too. Of the fatwa we have, I read it, I heard about it, and I did not agree with it.

Q. I was asking you about your understanding of Rifa'i Taha's views.

A. Yes, he did. He did that.

Q. And so, it's fair to say that he considered the United States of America to be his enemy?

A. I could say that, yes.

Q. And it's also your understanding that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman considered the United States of America to be his enemy?

A. I really don't know that.

Q. You read his speeches?

A. I did read -- I did read, yes, some of his speeches during the trial. I heard some of his speeches -- some of his speeches in the mosques, yes.

Q. And didn't he repeatedly state in his speeches that the United States is the enemy of Islam?

A. I don't know that. I know he criticized the United States but, you know, I really don't recall that he stated that the United States is an enemy of Islam.

Q. Are you familiar with the speech by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in which he stated, there are two main enemies, the enemy who is at the foremost of the work against Islam, are America and the allies?

On April 10, 2006 Sattar wrote this to Warden Morrison at MCC, “On February 2, 2006 I was moved from the Special Housing Unit also known as Nine South to the maximum high security ward also known as Ten South. I was also placed under more harsh and severe conditions called Special Administrative Measures you have imposed on me the same day. On or about February 10, 2006 I filled an informal resolution form BP-8 requesting that my 19 year old son be allowed to visit me with my wife and other children, since I was told that he will not be able to visit with other adults because of the SAM limitations.” Sattar filed numerous BP-8 and BP-9 forms but got no answer and since he had not exhausted all his administrative measures he could not take the Bureau of Prisons to court. He ended the letter, “I challenge the justification of the SAM and ask you to lift these inhumane conditions that you have imposed on me.”

YOUSRY

Yousry was asked about his familiarity with Rifa'i Taha in order to show the jury that he knew the implications of his acts: “I became familiar with Taha, I believe, in 1998, 1999 when he was fired from that group. He was, I think, a leader of the al-Shura assembly for about six months and he was fired because he signed some declaration of

anger or Jihad in order to help the Iraqi people and the movement, or the leadership of the movement did not feel that they had an international dimension. They always focused on local politics in Egypt and I believe the, according to the articles that I read about, that he was rebuked and fired. So, that's what I know about him.”

Q. Mr. Yousry, you wrote this in 1997 or 1998, correct?

A. Probably, yes.

Q. Now, the portion of the sentence in quotation marks prior to the footnote, which is the portion that says, Rifa'i Taha "who was entrusted by the Shura Council and approved by the Sheikh to become the actual ground leader of the organization," that footnote that appears right there after that quotation marks cites Ahmed Sattar as the source, correct? Now, Mr. Yousry, you know, do you not, that Rifa'i Taha signed the declaration of Jihad in February 1998?

A. That is when I became aware, more aware about him in 1998. And that is when the newspapers started to write more and more about this particular person. So, my knowledge of Rifa'i Taha increased tremendously between the period of 1998 and 1999. Prior to that, there were not too much writings about him except from the literature that was provided to me through the case. But, yes, I am aware of that and I've seen that declaration; yes.

Q. And that was a declaration that called for Jihad against Americans and their allies, correct?

A. That is correct. It was a period during when the United Nations was trying to negotiate an end to the embargo imposed by the United States on Iraq. It was issued during a period where President Clinton was trying to end this; yes.

Q. And that declaration of Jihad alleged that there was crusader Zionist alliance, correct?

A. I don't recall the whole language but, yes, that sounds similar. Yes.

Q. And you were aware, were you not, that Rifa'i Taha signed that call for Jihad with, among other people, Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri?

A. That is true, and that is why the leadership of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya decided to fire him, because he aligned himself in a battle that is outside of the group which is locally based in Egypt. And that's why, throughout 1998 and 1999, the Arabic papers were full of articles about that particular

dispute and the end result of it, which was Rifa'i Taha was expelled from the leadership because he decided to do something that the group does not endorse.

THE ATTEMPT TO GET A NEW TRIALJUROR 39

In America they say, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” Lynne did the crime but she was determined not to do the time. Through connections in the Democratic Party Lynne’s Leftist breathern contacted one neurotic Jewish23 juror, Juror 39, a slight, gaunt-looking woman who said she suffered from a rare respiratory disease in remission. Juror 39 had already written to Judge Koeltl on March 25, 2005 saying she had voted to convict only because "the fear and intimidation I was made to feel for my life. Never in my life did I imagine that I could be intimidated or coerced into rendering a verdict against my will, but that is exactly what occurred. It was a relentless verbal assault on my person and my position until I had no other choice but to relent because of the fear I felt. I was traumatized by the experience, and the jury room had become a platform for a few jurors who it seemed to me had a hidden agenda.”

Juror 39 made similar claims in a meeting with Stewart's appellate lawyers on April 26, 2005. Stewart attorney Shellow-Lavine wrote that Juror 39 acknowledged that she was one of two holdouts for acquittal. Juror 39 said that during the deliberations another juror had told her that "it would be her fault if anyone died in a terrorist attack" if she did not vote with the others to convict the cell members. In the words of Stewart supporter Julia Preston “Frightened and intimidated”24 Juror 39 believed "maybe she wasn't thinking clearly" when she finally voted to convict. Juror 39 told The Washington Post "People are so fearful that if you disagree with the government on one thing it makes you a terrorist. I have to plead guilty to being a coward. It doesn't feel good, but I punked out."

Judge John G. Koeltl denied Sister Lynne’s demands for a new trial based on her claim based on the sickness of the Jew. Judge Koeltl found that two of Stewart's lawyers, Joshua Dratel and Jill Shellow-Lavine, had engaged in legal misconduct by meeting with one of the jurors after the trial without notifying him or the prosecutors. Judge Koeltl revealed in his ruling that he met with Juror 39, at her request, on February 9, 2005, the day before the verdict was issued. He said she had asked him, in a note, to clarify one of the charges. But "at no point," he said, did she "suggest that anything 23. THE COURT: Juror 39 reported to Mr. Fletcher, seat No. 9, that she received a Mother's Day gift of a trip on September the 27th. She told Mr. Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher asked if it could be rearranged, and she said not. That would be one week. And I think that there are some holidays that week, but I have not checked the calendar. MR. FALLICK: Rosh Hashanah is Thursday and Friday and Yom Kippur is on a Saturday.MS. SHELLOW-LAVINE: I have got them written down at my desk.THE COURT: This is something I probably should talk to the juror myself about at the end of the lunch hour to ask if there is anything that can be done about rearranging it, unless everyone thinks that it is just great to take that week off.MR. BARKOW: Your Honor, my calendar says Rosh Hashanah is Thursday, September 16 and Yom Kippur is Saturday, September 25.MS. SHELLOW-LAVINE: Your Honor, it would appear that Rosh Hashanah is September 16 and Yom Kippur would be the 30th.THE COURT: The 30th falls in the middle of that week.MS. SHELLOW-LAVINE: It is a Saturday.MR. BARKOW: September 27 is a Monday. My calendar says September 25 for Yom Kippur.24. Julia Preston New York Times August 13, 2005

untoward was happening" in the deliberations. Who planted this idea in her head? Who tampered with the jury after the fact? Dratel was the only one with courage enough to do this!

Juror 39 was telling the truth about having been browbeaten by other jurors, probably the non-Jewish ones, into voting to convict these jihadi. But when she said she was further frightened on the last day of deliberations when, as she was climbing out of the van that ferried the jurors to court, someone who was not directly involved in the trial pointed her out as "the holdout," the Elder’s believe either she fabricated it or someone planted this in her head. Who was this person? Why didn’t the defense check the surveillance tapes of the area? What other juror heard it? What bystander, court officer heard it? Why didn’t she say something right then and there? This seemed to be a story designed to dovetail with the Jewish Defense Organization’s leaflet that claimed, “we have reached the jurors.”

JUROR EIGHT

Juror 8 stated: ''We found what jurors called the smoking gun. Lynne Stewart knew full well that violence was going to be committed,'' he said, after she publicized the sheik's words. He said the jurors also concluded that she had lied in her testimony. Juror 8 said the light sentence obscured facts the jurors had painstakingly linked together that tied Stewart to what he viewed as terrorism. He believes only the jurors understood their meaning in the complex case. He is a research scientist in his early 60's who holds an advanced academic degree from a prominent East Coast university and lives in Manhattan. The jurors' mining of the evidence, he said, convinced them that Stewart was aware that Taha planned to foment terror attacks using a message from the sheik that Stewart released. According to Juror 8, the jury found clear evidence among prosecution documents and wiretap transcripts that she did know of Brother Taha's extremist violence as early as 1998. ''There's the belief that she didn't know who Taha was, that she didn't think anything bad would happen,'' Juror 8 said. ''I want to state very emphatically: that is a complete lie.'' Even more persuasive to the jury was the evidence about the chain of events after Stewart called a reporter in Egypt with the Sheik's response to Taha, in which he said he no longer supported the cease-fire. Juror 8 realized the Sheik's new position provoked a furor in Egypt and several Islamic Group members warned in public comments and letters sent to Stewart that his words could prompt jihad. But he said that a week later Stewart issued a second press release in which the Sheik once again criticized the cease-fire. Juror 8 said the jurors found that Taha had used the sheik's words to recruit at least one Egyptian militant to start plotting an attack. ''She smuggled Taha's message in,'' Juror 8 said. ''She smuggled Rahman's reply out. She was told that violence would occur, and she had a second press conference to reinforce the first. No person who was opposed to violence would conduct themselves in that manner.''25 At Lynne’s sentencing Judge Koeltl stated, “The government also contends that Ms. Stewart testified falsely when she denied knowing who Taha was until learning about him in the course of the trial except for an article that she came across in her representation of Yasir Ahmed. Transcript, 7650, 7738, 7791.

25. http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70C16FB3D5B0C728EDDA90994DE404482

There is evidence to indicate that these statements were false statements but it is unnecessary to reach whether the defendant knowingly gave false testimony with the intent to obstruct the proceedings.”

JULIA PRESTON: ISLAMIST GROUPIE

We received favorable coverage from Julia Preston, a New York Times reporter who appears to dislike the American Government because of its imperialistic activities in Central America, published all our self-serving statements as fact verified by the Times staff:

Mr. Sattar began to pursue goals that tended toward the grandiose. He embarked on an extended round of telephone diplomacy [phone calls to further a conspiracy] that put him in touch with Islamic militants [so-called terrorists] in Europe, Egypt and Afghanistan, From the improbable base of the Staten Island apartment he shared with his wife and four children, Mr. Sattar said, he undertook a one-man global campaign to negotiate a permanent peace in more than two decades of fighting between the Egyptian government and the fundamentalist Gama’a al-Islamiyya or Islamic Group [he did just the opposite by ending the unilateral peace treaty]26

In a moment of rage over political clashes in Israel, [Sattar had been in rage about the Zionist occupiers ever since he could remember] Mr. Sattar helped an Islamic Group leader who was in Afghanistan compose a religious edict and release it under the sheik's name without asking the sheik. It summoned young Muslims to fight Jews "by all possible means of Jihad, either by killing them as individuals or by targeting their interests and their advocates, as much as they can." [she left out the part where His Eminence says that he approved it 100%]. Although Mr. Sattar was not a member of the group, [not a member of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya? He was one of our key players] he favored - at least in statements in the government's transcripts - those who wanted to abandon the truce.

In the conversations before 2000, Mr. Sattar seemed to stay aloof from the group's internal feuds, simply connecting phone calls among its members [he was simply an international telephone operator]. Mr. Sattar's nights became sleepless as he started receiving calls at all hours [being coerced into making long distant calls for a bunch of ruffians]. He was contacted by an Islamic Group militant, Alaa Abdul Raziq Atia.27

Preston has a soft spot in her heart for Mohammed Yousry, “Mr. Yousry's wife of 24 years, Sarah, is a churchgoing evangelical Christian, also a naturalized citizen, originally from the Dominican Republic. In the years before his arrest, friends said,

26. Julia Preston New York Times December 19, 2004

27. Julia Preston New York Times October 2, 2004

Yousry's primary concern was to cobble together enough translating and teaching jobs to pay for his daughter's tuition at Tennessee Temple University, a Baptist college in Chattanooga. Friends said that Mr. Yousry's social circle was as ecumenical as his household. Naomi Robbins, a translator who is Jewish and who came to know Mr. Yousry through her work, said he gave her tips for organizing her son's bar mitzvah in May and then cheerfully attended it.”

Do you think that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman would have a Jew-lover that close to him? Cleaning the excrement off his socks? For the love of Allah, this was part of her cover and the Brother used the Jew Naomi Robbins to further his end – which was Jihad. Preston viewed Stewart as a Leftist dissident from the anti-Vietnam War protest era and had her own agenda – acquittal.

But it must be said that Julia did her best to get Lynne off the hook with articles such as “Video In Court Shows Breach of Prison Rule in Terror Case”28 that implied that only a technical breach of a minor BOP rule had occurred and perhaps Lynne should have been the equivalent of “a shot” - a reprimand given to prisoners by the BOP. A piece that seemed to belong more on the OP ED page than in the National News was titled, “Tapes Fall Short of Revealing A Terror Sheik’s Call to Jihad” in which she wrote that the tapes, “reveal notably milder communications than prosecutors suggested they would.”29

RAMSEY CLARK

Former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark was not only our attorney, but headed the FREE SHEIK RAHMAN movement,

The Sheik is a victim of a western bias against Islam. Abdel Rahman was convicted to show the American people that even a sick, blind Muslim preacher can be a terrorist. I think that if we are going to have peace on earth, we have to try to understand Islam. It is a powerful force on earth. It is the major fact in the lives of hundreds of millions of people and if we try to demonize the whole culture of Islam, it will mean tragic conflict for many, many years.

Clark said there could be dangerous consequences should the Sheik die in a U.S. prison and he attempted to arrange a prisoner exchange with Iran in order to free the Sheik and allow him to get back to his work overthrowing Mubarak.

Yousry: We meet with Ramsey, I mean the Defense Committee…

ABDEL RAHMAN: Yeah.

Yousry: The last time. I was just telling the Sheikh about the last time we met with Ramsey about the, the committee, and Nabil came up with this

28. Julia Preston New York Times August 25, 200429. Julia Preston New York Times August 27, 2004

idea that those thirteen Jewish people are on trial in Iran... why can’t we tell them, the Iranian, to, to switch? Take the Sheikh and free the others. That’s a very crazy idea... Sir, the last time we had a meeting with Ramsey, Nabil suggested that the Iranians arrested thirteen-

Stewart: Especially since they can...they....

ABDEL RAHMAN: Hum.

Stewart: ...confessed to their guilt.

Yousry: There are thirteen Jews, and he wants to go to Iran and tell the Iranians to free them and to have America free Sheikh Omar. I frankly don’t think this idea can ever be implemented.

ABDEL RAHMAN: Hum.

Assistant U.S. Attorney and co-chief of the terrorism section Patrick J. Fitzgerald recalled,

He at least called me because I have a distinct memory getting a telephone call -- I don't remember the time. I know it was in my office -- where Mr. Clark with me raised the possibility there might be a swap with Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, send him over to Egypt and somebody else would be set free, and I had a very distinct recollection of telling him in my view no way, no how, and I remember calling other people in the government to let them know that this had been floated, and I had made clear that I wasn't in support of that. And I may or may not have gotten a letter in that regard, but I do remember a telephone conversation because it had a distinct impression on me.

When Clark was the Attorney General of the United States he supervised the prosecution of the Jewish traitor Dr. Benjamin Spock for conspiracy to encourage draft dodging. When he left government and practiced law Clark defended many enemies of Zionism. Clark represented Palestinian Liberation Organization leaders in a suit brought by the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the elderly Zionist Jew who was shot and thrown overboard from the hijacked Achille Lauro cruise-ship by Palestinian Brothers in 1986.

Karl Linnas was another of Clark’s anti-Zionist clients. Linnas was an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard in Estonia (where he had overseen the murder of some 12,000 Jews), who was being deported from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R. to face war crimes charges. Clark lost the case. Clark also represented John Demjanjuk, a former Nazi concentration camp guard, as did Michael Tigar.30 At the end of 1998 Clark attended a human rights conference in Baghdad where in his speech he pointed out how “the governments of the rich nations, primarily the United States, England and France,”

30. http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/28456.pdf

dominated the wording of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which showed “little concern for economic, social and cultural rights.”

As you have heard, Clark was only willing to go so far on our behalf and he refused to help disseminate the thoughts Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman had formulated behind prison walls. This was used against Sister Lynne during her trial when AUSA Barkow reminded the jury,

Now, Mr. Tigar spent a long time trying to tell you that Mohammed Yousry's notebooks somehow proved something about Ramsey Clark's refusal to relay Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman's withdrawal of support in September 1999. Remember the whole argument he made about absolved versus disappointed? But the fact is and the evidence shows that Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman's statement that Ramsey Clark refused to relay, unlike Lynne Stewart said, that Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya was absolved and released from the cease-fire. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya did not have to follow the cease-fire anymore. He said it in September 1999 and Ramsey Clark refused to relay that statement.31

Clark has more courage than Jabara, nor did we ever suspect him of working with the FBI. But he was not as courageous as Sister Lynne. For his devoted service to Islam we have renamed Clark R-A-M-Z-I Clark, as in Ramzi Yousef.

LYNDON LaROUCHE

In 1989 Ramzi Clark represented Lyndon LaRouche and six of his associates on conspiracy and mail fraud charges. LaRouche speaks in a sort of thinly veiled code that is confusing even to the Learned Elders of Islam. He uses the word Nazi in a pejorative sense yet he espouses a historical revisionist doctrine similar to the way the traditional Nazis do:

America must be cleansed for its righteous war by the immediate elimination of the Nazi Jewish Lobby and other British [British=Jewish] agents from the councils of government, industry, and labor…Zionist cultism is among…the most worthless, most contemptible of causes. We shall now examine the cult character of Zionism at successive levels, beginning with the commonplace delusions of the American Zionist or Zionist fellow traveler. The contemptible but impassioned sophistry that the Zionist demagogue offers to all foolish enough to be impressed with such hoaxes is the ‘holocaust’ thesis. It is argued that the culmination of the persecution of the Jews in the Nazi holocaust proves that Zionism is so essential to ‘Jewish survival’ that any anti-Zionist is therefore not only an anti-Semite, but that any sort of criminal action is excusable against

31. USA v Sattar 51B5SAT2 Rebuttal Summation - Mr. Barkow p12193

anti-Zionists in memory of the mythical ‘six million Jewish victims’ of the Nazi ‘holocaust.’ This is worse than sophistry. It is a lie.

True about a million and a half Jews did die as a result of the Nazi policy of labor-intensive ‘appropriate technology’ for the employment of ‘inferior races,’ [no gas chambers – Jews were worked to death] a small fraction of the tens of millions of others - especially Slavs - who were murdered in the same way Jewish refugee Felix Rohatyn proposes today. Even on a relative scale, what the Nazis did to Jewish victims was mild compared with the virtual extermination of gypsies and the butchery [note the word “butchery” rather than “butchering”] of Communists. The point is that Adolf Hitler was put into power largely on the initiative of the Rothschilds, Warburgs and Oppenheimers, [all Jews] among others. The ‘holocaust’ simply proves that the failure of the Nuremberg tribunal to hang Hjalmar Schacht [a man who helped finance our Islamist movement after the war] made the whole preceding a travesty of justice. The murderers of the million and a half or more Jews who died in the ‘holocaust’ are any group, Jewish or non-Jewish, which supported then or now the policies advocated by Felix Rohatyn or Milton Friedman. Either you, as a Jew, join with the U.S. Labor Party to stop Rohatyn and Friedman or you are implicitly just as guilty of the death of millions [why plural?] of Jews as Adolf Hitler.32

THE FATE OF MUSTAFA HAMZA

In December 2004 Mustafa "the Prince” Hamza, No. 1 on Egypt's most-wanted list, was handed over to Egypt by Iran, Gama’a al-Islamiyya leaders in London revealed. Brother Mustafa Hamza has been the most sought after men by Egypt since the attempt to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in June 1995, which was planned by the exiled leader. Dr. Hani al-Siba'i, the director of Al-Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies in London, told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat that Iran decided to hand over Mustafa Hamza as part of a deal struck with Cairo. The Iranian authorities had arrested Hamza, married with children, and placed him under house arrest, even though he was not member of the Al-Qaeda organization and was not wanted by the US authorities. Prior to his deportation the Al-Maqrizi Centre asserted: "Hamza is in Iran under house arrest imposed on him by the Iranian Revolution Guards. The Revolutionary Guards know very well that Hamza is leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group. They also host Muhammad Shawqi al-Islambouli, alias Abu-Khalid, brother of the assassin of the late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, as well as other leaders of the Gama’a al-Islamiyya." Dr. al-Siba'i expressed concern that Muhammad Shawqi al-Islambouli might be among the Egyptian al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya leaders who are held in Iran. Muhammad Shawqi al-Islambouli received a death sentence in absentia in connection with the case of the "Returnees from Afghanistan" in December 1993. Dr. al-Siba'i noted that the Iranians knew that Al-Islambouli and Mustafa Hamza resided in Iran, amid reports that Hamza lived in Afghanistan until the fall of the Taliban and said

32. New Solidarity December 8, 1978. LaRouche Publication.

that the Iranian government, which deceived the Islamic world with slogans that it supports and protects the oppressed, revealed its true face by handing Hamza over to Cairo.

In exchange for Mustafa Hamza's extradition, Tehran will be allowed to set up cultural centers in Egypt and receive intelligence on the Iranian opposition group known as People's Fighters (Mujahidi Khalq), the members of which live in Egypt under protection by Egyptian security authorities. Egypt also vowed to use its diplomatic channels with the United States to improve Iran's image with Washington, which eyes the Islamic theocracy with great wariness and rightly so. Iranian state-owned media reported that Mustafa Hamza was handed over at his own will, denying reports that Iranian security officials had arrested him. Gama’a al-Islamiyya officials in London rebuked Iran's claims as "sheer lies," arguing that Mustafa Hamza could not have possibly agreed to return to Egypt where he faces several irrevocable life sentences issued by military courts.33 Another statement said, "The Iranian authorities spread a rumor that it was Hamza who agreed to be extradited to Egypt following security negotiations with him. This is sheer lie. How would Hamza agree to voluntarily return to Egypt where military tribunals passed against him death sentences, which cannot be appealed and must be carried out regardless of whether these sentences were passed in his presence or in absentia?" Hamza received three death sentences in absentia. Two sentences were passed by the Egyptian military tribunal and the state security's emergency court in connection with the case of the "Returnees from Afghanistan"34 that was heard in 1992 and the case of the "Returnees from Sudan", which was heard in 1995. The third death sentence was passed against him in 1999 by the state security's emergency court, which sat under counselor Salah-al-Din Baddur.

Describing Hamza, Dr. al-Siba'i said: "He is a student loyal to the Islamic Group's historical leaders. When al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya leaders announced an initiative to halt acts of violence on July 5, 1997 this initiative was rejected by Rifa'i Taha, the group's military official, who was extradited by Syria to Egypt two years ago. But Mustafa Hamza sided with al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's elderly at the time.”

Montassar AI-Zayyat said his last telephone contact with Mustafa Hamza took place on September 8, 2002. He added that Mustafa Hamza told him then that the country in which he resided told him to leave and, therefore, he apologized because he would not be able to contact him again. AI-Zayyat said:

Afterward, Hamza sent e-mail messages to all those who used to contact him, asking us all not to send e-mail messages to his address anymore and saying that he would disappear from public view. Contrary to rumors about Mustafa Hamza's cruel and bloody nature, he is emotional. He likes to read literature and acquire all kinds of knowledge. Hamza said in

33. http:// www.iranfocus.com/.../ article.php?storyid=931 Iran said to have extradited leader of banned Egyptian Islamic Group Al-

Sharq al-Awsat web site, London, in Arabic December 5, 2004 BBC Monitoring Middle East Iran said to have extradited leader of banned Egyptian Islamic Group34

. In 1992, the Egyptian authorities charged him along with other Islamic Group leaders based outside Egypt, such as Rifai Taha, Muhammad al-Islambuli and Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim, also known as Abu- Talal al-Qasimi, with a plan to launch armed operations and bring into Egypt men trained in Afghanistan to carry out these operations.

several statements in the past that al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya was not responsible for the Luxor incident in which 58 foreign tourists were killed.

Montassar Al-Zayyat recounted:

When we were in prison for trial in connection with the Al-Jihad case in 1981, Mustafa Hamza showed interest in politics, engaged in strategic studies and was a prominent member of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's political committee, before we separated. He stayed outside of Egypt, living under extremely difficult circumstances. What distinguished Mustafa Hamza most was his discipline inside the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. Perhaps this explains why he was at the centre of events during the group's conflict with the Egyptian government. He had a great deal of confidence in al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's senior leaders and loved them too. This confidence and love prompted Mustafa Hamza to support an initiative under a resolution passed by al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's Shura Council abroad in March 1999 to halt all armed operations in Egypt.

In December 2004 Iran fiercely denied a report that the Islamic republic has

secretly handed over Hamza to Cairo, saying the man in question had never even been in the country, "The news about him being delivered to Egyptian officials from Iran is wrong. This person has never been in the Islamic republic of Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA. Diplomatic ties between Cairo and Tehran were severed in 1979, the year that Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and gave asylum to shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi when he was deposed by the Islamic revolution in Iran. Relations were particularly bad while Egypt supported Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran, and Iran in turn was accused of playing host to Egyptian militants fighting the government. Iran took a step to lifting a key obstacle to a renewal of relations with Egypt when Tehran city council agreed to rename a city centre street bearing the name of Sadat assassin Khaled Islambouli. However nearly a year on, the street signs have yet to be taken down, and a huge mural of the assassin still looks over the busy city centre road. Al-Siba'i said that Mustafa Hamza disappeared in Iran in vague circumstances before the announcement of his arrival in Cairo from Sudan recently and expressed his belief that Hamza's children returned to Egypt.

THE FATE OF SHAYKH RIFA'I AHMAD TAHA

Hamza's relationship with his companion abroad, Rifa'i Taha, alias Abu-Yasir, became strained. In 1998 he led a coup and removed Rifa'i Taha from the Shura Council's chairmanship. Dr. Al-Siba'i said "Rifa'i Taha's wife and children lived with Mustafa Hamza's wife and children in Hamza's home in the Iranian city of Mashhad after Rifa’i Taha was kidnapped from Syria and handed over to Egypt in the year 2001.”

In December 2004 the London-based Islamic Al-Maqrizi Centre in London issued a press release stating that al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya’s former Emir is in one of Cairo's

prisons and quoted authoritative sources as having said that 50-year-old Shaykh Rifa'i Ahmad Taha had not been executed. A Higher Military Court had sentenced him to death in December 1992 in the "Returnees from Afghanistan" case. The sources said he is currently in one of Cairo's prisons and that the Egyptian authorities have allowed his wife and children to return from abroad. The Centre said in a statement sent to Al-Quds al-Arabi:

Shaykh Rifa'i Taha used to move between several countries - "Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Sudan" - and he was at one time traveling from Khartoum via Syria but the Syrian security forces kidnapped him in 2001 and several mediators tried to intervene to release him. Due to the slow measures, he remained in one of the prisons in Damascus until the September 11th 2001 events took place, when the Syrian authorities rushed to hand him over to Egypt and therefore denied the meditating parties the chance of releasing him. Thus the Syrian authorities used Shaykh Rifa'i Taha's handover to Egyptian security as an offering to clear itself with the Americans, who were in a state of terrible agitation and frenzy at the time. Our sources learned that the Egyptian authorities have allowed his wife and his children to see him and that there is great pressure on Shaykh Rifa'i to approve the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's retractions. This even reached the point of bartering, as follows:

First: Shaykh Rifa'i Taha to disavow his book "Unveiling Some of the Top Rulings of Islam” in which he disagreed with some of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's principles and replied to some doubts they had raised, such as the pledge of safety, the issue of citizenship, the ruling on killing policemen and army soldiers and so on.

Second: To approve the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya's seven books that disavowed its former actions against the regime and whose leadership considered former President Anwar al-Sadat a martyr.

Third: To write a message condemning the operations carried out by the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya since Al-Sadat's killing in 1981 and the Asyut events, including the killing of state security officers and Major-General Ra'uf Khayrat, [on April 9, 1994] who was in charge of religious activities at the State Security Intelligence Service, and whose death was planned by leader Tal'at Yasin Hammam, who was assassinated by the state security forces after Hammam's assassination.

Fourth: To condemn the Luxor operation of 1997 and all the al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya operations against tourists.

Fifth: To condemn the raids on banks and the Agricultural Credit Bank and condemn the killing of policemen, guards and others working in the army, the police and other state organs.

Sixth: To call on youths to cease the armed action against the state and to consider it illegal, and that no Muslim is allowed to do this.

In return for this, the state pledges:

First: To stop implementation of the death sentence passed against Rifa'i Taha after the submission of a petition to the head of state or the issuance of a special pardon for him after responding to all the security forces' demands.

Second: To improve his prison conditions, such as visits by his wife, children and relatives, and other privileges enjoyed by some al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya leaders who had approved the retractions and disavowed their previous actions.

Shaykh Rifa'i Taha rejected this barter and turned down all the demands and was persisting with his previous opinions by the time this statement was being written. The press release appealed to all human rights organizations to do their duty of saving Shaykh Rifa'i Taha, who was sentenced to death unfairly by a military council called "military court", whose rulings are not internationally recognized. It added: We appeal to all organizations interested in human rights to pressure the Egyptian government not to implement the death sentence issued against Shaykh Rifa'i Taha and not to pressure him to change his belief and opinions in return for improving his conditions in his heavily-guarded solitary cell.35

THE FATE OF LYNNE STEWART, SATTAR AND YOUSRY

On September 29, 2006 Julia Preston floated a false news story on our Sister Lynne’s behalf that stated Lynne had apologized for helping His Eminence. Her argument was different from her trial testimony when she admitted no wrongdoing and confidently defended her “legal strategies” in her defense of Sheik Rahman. Now Stewart stated that she ''tested the limits'' of the law only as a zealous lawyer, and never intended to help the sheik's “terrorist” followers, whose goals she did not share. Preston called her, “subdued and regretful.” Stewart wrote, “What might have been legitimately tolerated in 2000 - 2001, was after 9/11 interpreted differently and considered criminal. At the time I didn't see this. I see and understand it now. Those who know me best, as a mother, a family member and a lawyer, know that I am not a terrorist.'' What Preston deliberately failed to point out was that the Sheikh’s attorney visits first began to be monitored in 1999.36

On October 16, 2006 Judge Koeltl sentenced Lynne Stewart to 28 months in prison rather than the 30-year sentence sought by the American Government. The worst part of the sentence for her was that she was barred from having any contact with

35. Egypt: Islamic Group leader reportedly in Cairo prison Al-Quds al-Arabi, London, in Arabic 1 Dec 04 BBC Monitoring Middle East

Egypt: Islamic Group leader reportedly in Cairo prison Byline: Al-Quds al-Arabi, London, in Arabic I Dec 0436. http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20D13F73D540C7A8EDDA00894DE404482

Sheikh Abdel Rahman, who she had come to love and respect. Koeltl justified this sentence by saying, “Moreover, as pointed out with respect to Mr. Sattar, there is no evidence that any victim was in fact harmed as a result of the offense as charged, a factor that the guidelines would otherwise take into account...” The reason nothing happened was because Rafa’i Taha was murdered in his sleep in Aswan. He was there to kill tourists, not to marvel at how advanced Soviet technology was for its time. We gave it the old madrasa try, but we failed. It is pleasing to God to know Judge Koeltl will not punish us for trying. For him there is only jihad, not attempted jihad. Judge Koeltl also justified this sentence by citing Stewart’s work with poor and unpopular clients:

The personal characteristics of the defendant are intertwined with several of the factors under Section 3553 and the Court of Appeals counseled in Rattabolli that a sentencing Court should focus on characteristics unique or personal to an individual defendant (Rattabolli, 452 F.3d at 153). The Court therefore turns to some of the personal characteristics of the defendant. The defendant is 67 years old. She was a teacher at inner city schools before becoming a lawyer. For over 30 years she has practiced law concentrating on criminal law. In the course of that practice, while she has become well known and celebrated as an excellent lawyer, she did not use the practice of law to earn personal wealth. She has represented the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular, is often as a Court-appointed attorney. Indeed, she was appointed by the Court to represent Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and thus it was through initially responding to a call for representation of a very unpopular client that she became involved in the crimes of conviction. Having spent her professional career often representing the poor, she is now, at the end of her career, financially destitute. By providing a criminal defense to the poor, the disadvantaged and unpopular over three decades, it is no exaggeration to say that Ms. Stewart performed a public service...But, having assessed the personal characteristics and the strong arguments for substantial downward variance, there is an irreducible core of extraordinarily severe criminal conduct. Ms. Stewart abused her position as a lawyer to gain access to Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman while he was in prison and used that access to smuggle messages to and from Sheikh Abdel Rahman while he was in prison, and to make potentially lethal public statements on his behalf in violation of the SAMs. She lied to the government when she made her affirmation under the SAMs to get access to Sheikh Rahman while in prison, and, after being warned of the possible consequences of her actions, she made another false affirmation to gain access yet again and violated the affirmation yet again. She understood the potential seriousness of her conduct at the time and acknowledged that she was putting her whole career at risk. Even in her statement to the Court, Ms. Stewart candidly acknowledges that, "The acts in violation of my SAMs affirmation speaking to a reporter and allowing prohibited communications were committed intentionally. My only motive, however, was to serve my client as a lawyer." Stewart September 26, 2006 letter.

If the Jews did not care if Stewart smuggled out a fatwa ordering their deaths, than why should Christian Judge Koeltl care? Julia Preston reported,37

Judge Koeltl appears to have been impressed by about 1,100 letters of support she received from law professors, former prosecutors, retired judges and former clients the majority of whom were Jews. Judge Koeltl stated, “Ms. Stewart is not only an extraordinary person but also an extraordinary lawyer with extraordinary achievements and the result is what the Court has received, which is an is unprecedented outpouring of support. And the outpouring of support is unprecedented not only in just a number of letters, at least in my experience of 25 years, but also the scope of letters and the persons who wrote them. And what they describe is unprecedented as well. You have former prosecutors, lawyers -- lawyers from different parts of the bar -- former judges from other jurisdictions, ordinary people, academics, an extraordinary array of persons writing in support of Ms. Stewart.

Even Jo Ann Harris, a former AUSA who Julia Preston said authorized the 1994 indictment of Sheikh Rahman, wrote that the terrorism charges were “unwarranted overkill.” Harris served as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, and earlier, as chief of the Fraud Section, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as Assistant United States Attorney. According to Andrew McCarthy the indictment was actually authorized by the Attorney General Janet El Reno and the Manhattan US Attorney General Mary Jo White. Judge Koeltl:

Probably most prominently, Joanne Harris, former head of the criminal division talks about it. And I think that it is an extraordinarily important factor because when I said the message was sent loud and clear, the sentencing will send a message as well and it can't be the wrong message which is that to discourage people from taking these types of cases. Lawyers are already discouraged. Lawyers were fearful of writing letters on their firm stationery because it would be bad for business in this case. We already have a marginalization and ostracization in criminal defense lawyers in these types of cases. A prison term of any length will exacerbate the chill that is already out there. And, to a certain extent in the context of a Sixth Amendment question, the government made this issue significant appearing on 60 Minutes, press conferences, making the case as extraordinary as it was and in the nature of the charges themselves and Ms. Harris' letter addresses that, I think, most effectively. When lawyers ask the questions how broadly can they defend, to what extent can they challenge and disagree with the government, can they do that without repercussions? These are questions that lawyers are going to self-censor on the wrong side of the line. And when I mean wrong side of the

37. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/nyregion/17stewart.html?ei=5088&en=5c8a9e73586af844&ex=1318737600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

line I mean giving up zealous advocacy because of that inherent conflict that this situation creates. There are other examples in the context of our current politic and our current legal state of affairs in terms of an attempt to marginalize criminal defense attorneys and the job they do, whether it be the refusal to let detainees at Guantanamo see their lawyers for an extraordinary period of time before the Supreme Court had to step in, whether it is about fee relationships in the KPMG case, whether it is the extraordinary statement by a Department of Justice Assistant Attorney -- Assistant U.S. Attorney -- Special Assistant U.S. Attorney who appeared in this court house and said, in response to a question from Judge Lynch, that the government could take a lawyer off the street who had information about a terrorist client without any impediment and could effectively deal with that lawyer as they would. The importance of checks and balances, the importance of judiciary is increasingly significant in these times, and this is a part of this sentence that goes beyond Ms. Stewart and goes beyond those of us who are here but it is really about those of us who aren't here, and enforcing these rights..."

Koeltl was also swayed by Preston and her editors favorable coverage at the Jewish-owned New York Times: When Judge Koeltl was an attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton, he often represented the New York Times in free speech actions such as when the Times wanted ABSCAM tapes and certain names in the Hinkley case. When he was appointed to the bench Judge Koeltl, 48, was a senior litigation partner and First Amendment expert at Debevoise & Plimpton and a former member of the Watergate prosecution force.

The Jew Elizabeth Fink represented Stewart at her sentencing. The daughter of communist parents who were anti-nuclear activists in the 1950s, Elizabeth Fink, a close associate of William Kunstler, considers herself a "red diaper baby" and has proven to be a tireless defender of Communist political cases. As if one Jew was not enough, Stewart dredged up the Jew Susan B. Jordan whose notorious cases include, People v. Inez Garcia, Monterey County Superior Court, 1977. On a self-defense theory, Inez Garcia was acquitted of killing the man who raped her.38 This goes against all that Sheikh Rahman believes in but she came to his messenger’s defense, none-the-less. Jordan also takes medical marijuana cases, and is probably herself an addict. But what is worse was that she attended the Zionist Al-Azhar, Yeshiva University.

Ahmed Sattar was sentenced to 24 years behind bars. This was his speech before sentencing:

Your Honor, when I testified at trial about my beliefs and intent, I testified truthfully. I told the truth. I never wanted physical harm to be inflicted upon anyone by my words or my actions. I do have strong beliefs. I do have strong beliefs about the government of Egypt, the government of Israel, and the United States government's foreign policies in the Middle East but

38. http://www.susanbjordan.com/cases.html

I am not a terrorist, your Honor. In hindsight it is easy to say I should have tuned down my statements or not even let it out, but however as strong as my statements were, they were not meant to hurt or cause harm, physical harm, to anybody. The fatwah which I helped to write come out from frustration as what I said in my testimony. I was frustrated. I was literally crying when I saw Israeli airplanes and Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children. It was just a statement expressing my anger, my frustration not unlike so many others that were said at the time and in some Arab newspapers also. I am not justifying the fatwah, your Honor. I have known that I should have been very careful. I have known so many Jewish people, so many Jewish friends, you know, and I should have just not let this fatwah out. And, you know, if there is anything that I should apologize, I apologize for that. And I apologize to my Jewish lawyers, to the Jewish lawyer that they worked so hard on this case and to my Jewish friends. My relationship with Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was and is a very complex relation. The bottom line is, however, as I wanted to see some change taking place in Egypt -- I lived in Egypt for 22 years of my life and I still have family living there and believe me, your Honor, the conditions there are bad -- all I wanted to do is to help the helpless. All I wanted to do is to help people get an opportunity to live in a dignified way and to live free, the same way that we live here. I didn't want to see any change taking place by violent means in Egypt. I know violence occurred in Egypt on the part of the government and on the part of the Islamic groups, not just the Islamic groups but many other groups. Your Honor, I was never involved in any of this violence and I never advocated this violence is what I said during the trial and I was cut short not to continue this statement when I said it. In eight years, your Honor, the government has been watching me and listening to me and there is nothing in eight years in more than 88,000 conversations that shows that there is anything that I said during these years that means to advocate violence even though, you know, that I did issue or I helped issue the fatwah. Your Honor, I am not a violent person. I am a human. I am a human being. I am an American citizen of Egyptian decent. I am a Muslim who practices and believes strongly in his religion. Above all, I am a father of four children which I love dearly and I wish to see them one day.

Yousry received a 20-month prison term thanks to Judge Koeltl who felt that Yousry's bogus cooperation was worthy of a downward departure,

While the government points to several statements that are incomplete or inaccurate, the court could not conclude that the statements were knowingly and willfully falsely made. For example, while the defendant initially stated that there was no discussion of the call with Sheikh Abdel Rahman he did recall reading a newspaper article on that matter to the Sheikh and eventually described to the agents in another interview his conversation with Mr. Sattar on that subject. Moreover, he did eventually

tell the agents that he was generally familiar with what the Islamic Group figures, including Taha, and that he was aware that Mr. Sattar was in contact with Taha. Therefore, an enhancement for obstruction is not warranted under the facts of this case…The defendant prior to the indictment in this case has completed his course work for a Ph.D. degree and also worked as an interpreter. As a result of the indictment and conviction in this case it is doubtful that the defendant could pursue either career. Thus, the conviction in this case already visits substantial punishment on the defendant and the need for further deterrence and protection of the public is lessened. In addition, while the government points to the FBI interviews following 9/11 as supporting a enhancement for obstruction, given the extensive nature of the cooperation those interviews actually support a downward variance. The fact that Mr. Yousry was prepared to cooperate as much as he did is entitled to some consideration because it demonstrates a willingness to help law enforcement and reduces the need for rehabilitation and deterrence. Finally, it should be noted that it is clear that the defendant will not be in a situation to commit the offenses of conviction again. He was placed in this position by his work as a translator between attorneys and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. He will never be given that opportunity again and it is unlikely that he will ever be able to serve as an interpreter in an official capacity.

AL-GAMA’A AL-ISLAMIYYA, AL-QAEDA AND THE AUGUST 7, 1998 EAST AFRICAN AMERICAN EMBASSY BOMBINGS

Wadih el-Hage was one of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya’s most active members. He was a leader of the Brooklyn / Jersey City al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya Cell although he lived in Arizona and Texas. He also served as Usama bin Laden’s personal assistant. In this capacity he arranged the transport of Stinger Missiles from Pakistan to Sudan in 1993, the same year that al-Qaeda targeted the Americans in Somalia, and he arranged for the transport of five al-Qaeda people from the Sudan down to Nairobi, also during the time that al-Qaeda targeted the American presence in Somalia. El-Hage should have had a starring role in the movie Blackhawk Down. In 1994 Wadih el-Hage moved from Khartoum, Sudan to Nairobi, Kenya to become the leader of the East African cell of al-Qaeda. He arranged for the facilitation and delivery of false travel documents to other al-Qaeda members; he communicated in code and passed on messages to others in al-Qaeda.

By the late spring of 1996 the CIA was aware that one of our cells was operating in Nairobi “and that persons associated with al-Qaeda were utilizing five particular telephone numbers, including the number for the telephone located on a desk in an office building at 1523 Fedha Estates in Nairobi in the same office building where el-Hage lived with his family, as well as a cell phone. The Fedha Premises were used by el-Hage as a place for persons linked to al-Qaeda to stay when transiting Nairobi. El-Hage himself referred to the location of the telephone as the office. Brother Harun

(Fazul Abdullah Mohammed) described the cell phone in July 1997 as being reserved especially for phone calls between Usama bin Laden and el-Hage. The Intelligence Community eventually monitored (or caused to be monitored) the Landline, the Cell phone and three other telephone numbers beginning in or about August 1996 and continuing through August to September 1997 when el-Hage left Kenya.”39 These intelligence collection efforts revealed el-Hage was involved in providing passports and other false documentation to the Brothers, passing messages to Brothers in the United States and elsewhere that included coded telephone numbers and passing warnings when any members of al-Qaeda compromised by the authorities.

In 1997 el-Hage went twice to visit Usama bin Laden and his commander, Abu Hafs, in Afghanistan. And when he returned from that first trip in February 1997, he brought back with him a new policy to militarize the cell that in 16 or 18 months thereafter would carry out the bombings of the American Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam East Africa. El-Hage went back to see bin Laden in August 1997, a year after bin Laden had publicly declared war against the United States. In August 1997, a year before the big event, the Nairobi police and the FBI

raided el-Hage’s home on the pretext of looking for stolen merchandise and found an incriminating letter on el-Hage’s computer composed by Brother Fazul Abudullah Mohammed, a/k/a Haroun Fazil, a/k/a "Harun," a/k/a "Harun Fahdl” that indicated we had an active cell in Kenya. Brother el-Hage was questioned about one of the sponsors of the East African Embassy Events during Grand Jury testimony in September 1997 that concerned the death of Rashad Khalifa:

Q. Do you know the organization known as Al-Haramain? And how are you familiar with al-Haramain?

A. I don't know much about them - I just heard they're a relief agency in Nairobi, also. I visited the office of Al-Haramain in Nairobi probably once.

Q. Do you know who runs Al-Haramain?

A. I think it's a Saudi agency.

Q. Did you have any affiliation with Al-Haramain?

A. No.

El-Hage was subsequently indicted for perjury for his testimony but was never questioned about this letter that was written in mid-August 1997. Here is the letter:

Brother Sharif, (Saudi born Sa'd al-Sharif - bin Laden's brother-in-law, head of his financial network whose assets frozen on October 12, 2001).

39. S-7-98CR 1023 LBS doc #362

Do not worry when I'm late in communicating with you since as you know the equipment is limited and now one is afraid to talk with you given the circumstances. Perhaps the worker could serve as the line of communications between me and you and whom you could send after he arrives at your location in the middle in circa one week; he can take the latest news which I will receive from el-Hage. Tell him (the worker) not to call me on any of the telephones here at our end and advise all of the same. He (the worker) can call at the al-Banda (Usama had a base in Banda the capital of the Aceh Province of Indonesia) (nfi) and leave a message that he has arrived at the middle so that I can proceed towards him God willing. Wadih el-Hage called before he came and while I was writing that report on August 13, 1997 and informed us he is coming in one week. El-Hage told Mamdouh Mahmud Salim to prepare himself for travel to the manager (Usama bin Laden) and to also submit the request to vacate the house immediately. I understood that el-Hage will travel quickly and I met Ahmad the Egyptian (Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed) and told him about the matter. I also asked Ahmad about the feasibility of him assuming responsibility of the agency (al-Qaeda) and he told me he would not touch anything. He (Ahmad) further told me that it is better to sell all the items and to rent a regular house and put one of us there along with the communications equipment. What I see recommended is that you come down to Nairobi immediately in order to see the situation for yourself and see how to arrange things in the future…

We can now state that the security position on the cell is at 100 percent danger. In this report, I will try to explain the reasons that make us feel that danger (way). I will also try to offer my recommendation to the honored and wise high command which I know understands everything and we hope it is seeking the best. There are many reasons that lead me to believe that the cell members in East Africa are in great danger, which leaves us no choice but to think and work hard to foil the enemy's plans who is working day and night to catch one of us or gather more information about any of us. (This report stems from the basic principle that) anyone who studies security matters seriously, will never handle anything carelessly, regardless of how small or great it is, but will take all matters seriously. As we have heard, seen and read that the “Hajj” (Usama bin Laden) has declared the war on America and that was confirmed when we saw the interview that took place in Jalalabad in which the Sheik stated the following points: Declaring war upon America because it had appointed itself the policeman of the world; He had nothing to do with the two explosions in Saudi Arabia but he was glad they took place; My future plans will be heard in the radio stations.

(Above was made) in addition to other points which pleased us all, thank God. In fact America's goal in that interview was to slander bin-Laden in the American people's mind and open a new door (of attack). This is being

done in order to pave the way to catch him without any domestic opposition from within the states. The interview showed bin-Laden's picture when he was in Afghanistan and on the war fronts and they were showing his picture when they were showing the dead bodies of the Jews in Palestine and the Americans in Somalia and Yemen. They have also shown the two explosions in Riyadh and connected them with his opposition to the Saudi regime. After they described him as a rich businessman who owns millions of dollars, they accused him of being the major financier of the mujahedeen ‘terrorists’ in the world and that he has a huge multi-national army and had become America's primary target. They have also shown another film of bin Laden on August 10, 1997 on the same network CNN. From all this talk, we understood that America is willing to move against bin Laden or those who are associated with him. After that a lot of news were broadcasted about bin Laden and his followers in the radio and magazines. We then heard the news of his move with his family from Jalalabad to Qandahar; they even named the village where he lives with his family. We were surprised to read in one of the English newspapers that noted that America had sent a force of one thousand multi-national mercenaries to Pakistan to try and kidnap bin Laden. From all these developments we understood that there is a war on and the situation is dangerous and that anybody who is associated with bin Laden regardless of their position and their nationality are at risk.

The Americans knew bin Laden to be a “terrorist financier” who had some connection with the Rahman Bridge and Tunnel activity. Didn’t they get the message? His name appears countless times in this letter and the writer admits he is associated with bin Laden.

Also, the American forces carry kidnapping operations against anyone who threatens its national security and its citizens, and we have seen that when they kidnapped the Pakistani national from one of the border villages whereby while he was sleeping in one location he found himself the next morning in Washington.

This was a reference to Brother Mir Aimal Kasi, and let anyone who believes that the Brother worked alone, come to his senses!

My recommendation to my Brothers in East Africa was to not be complacent regarding security matters and that they should know that now they have become America's primary target and that they should know that there is an American-Kenyan-Egyptian intelligence activity in Nairobi aiming to identify the names and residences of the members who are associated with bin Laden since America knows well that the youth who lived in Somalia and were members of bin Laden's cell are the ones who killed the Americans in Somalia. They know that since Kenya was the main gateway for those members, there must be a center in Kenya.

Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed told me that he will talk to Taysir (Abu Hafs) about the changes since we are really in danger. Our biggest problem is that our security situation here is very weak. I told him that the network will appreciate the changes (in security) since we are convinced one hundred percent that the Kenyan intelligence are aware about al-Qaeda and that indeed our security situation is extremely bad.

We read in the Kenyan newspaper the Standard News of the arrest of five terrorists in Kenya. When DC Gharissa [the al-Haramain Society had an office in Garissa, Kenya]40 declared that news, I warned Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed that there is an intelligence operation in Kenya to identify the leaders and the foreigners who deal with them. We think there is American pressure on Kenya to search for the Arabs living in the area (country). Therefore, Brother Sharif, please watch out and also let the Brother engineers be careful and be advised that anyone of us could fall in the trap. If the engineers come down, it would be better if they did not contact me and God willing, I will try and visit them at their homes.

What did the Americans think when they read the word “engineer”? It is our way of saying bomb maker. Surely the Americans were aware of Yahya Ayyash nicknamed “The Engineer” – Palestine’s most prolific bomb maker.

The last bit of news which almost made me explode (go crazy) and which I consider the primary cause of danger for the East Africa network (concerned) the following. (This was in conjunction with what) we read in one of the British newspapers The Daily Telegraph and which I have asked Brother Tawfiq to buy from Nairobi after hearing on BBC on August 2,1997. The gist of the news is this: “There is an individual from the bin Laden finance department currently in the hands of the CIA and also in the hands on the British intelligence service MI6 and is in Saudi Arabia. He was delivered to them through the Saudi intelligence service during the middle of May. Along with him is another individual called “Jallud” who is an assistant to Usama bin Laden and who may have co-operated with the Saudi government after he was arrested since May.

Here is the article the Brother referred to: “August 2, 1997 Daily Telegraph: U.S. intelligence sources yesterday named the informant as Abu Fadl, the terrorist alias for Sidi Tayyib. He handled the distribution of Usama bin Laden's vast wealth as the godfather of anti-American terror groups. Just how he ended up in Riyadh is uncertain. U.S. officials, who have found the Saudis difficult to deal with in the matter of terrorism, will not say if he was captured or was working as a double agent for the desert kingdom. All they will disclose is that he has been in Saudi hands since the middle of May 1997. There is also a report that a second aide to bin Laden, said to go by the name of Jallud, is helping the Saudis after being arrested.”41 Sidi Tayyib, who also used the name Abu Fadl, (not to be confused with Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl) was married to one of bin Laden’s 40. http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2004/05/fr052704.html41. http://www.compassionateweb.net/~missiletwa800/4inrow.htm

nieces, and was chief financial officer for some of bin Laden’s companies in Sudan. Tayyib defected to the Saudi regime and he knew quite a bit about his remaining small companies here and there. He told the Saudis about them. Usama bin Laden knew that his man would defect so he prepared himself by selling those companies with significant loss before his defection. The Saudis refused to permit CIA agents to interrogate Sidi Tayyib and bluntly told their CIA counterparts that there was no basis for treating Tayyib like a criminal.42

The Daily Telegraph also mentioned that Abu al-Fadl had advised the American intelligence service about the scope of distribution of money to various Arab communities who co-operate with al-Sheik in the United States especially in Brooklyn, New Jersey and Jersey City. This individual was also said to have given details about Usama bin Laden's financial information in Afghanistan and Pakistan and how much was sent to London and to Detroit in America.43

The newspaper also linked this news with the Jerusalem bombing and the arrest of Lafi Khalil in New York and his colleague Abu Mezer. The newspaper further discussed the current residence of Usama bin Laden in [Hadda] Qandahar and the number of his wives [3] and his description and age [44] and mentioned that he is wanted in Britain because of the bombings [7] in [France] during 1995 which it noted he had financed and which was conducted by the Algerians who were based there at the time.

On September 8, 1995 our Algerian Brothers bombed a Jewish school near Lyon, France, wounding three Jewish children and eleven Jewish adults. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out five other bomb attacks including one at the St. Michel Metro station killing four and wounding 35 others, and another near the Arc de Triumph that injured at least sixteen people.

“It also noted44 that Usama bin Laden has a hand within the Saudi opposition movement in London known as the “Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights.”

COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENSE OF LEGITIMATE RIGHTSABU HAMZA AL-MASRI

During his September 1997 grand jury testimony el-Hage was asked:

Q. Do you know Abu Hamza Al-Masri?

42. http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0199/9901061.html

Frontline: Hunting Bin Laden: interviews: Dr. Saad al-Fagih http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/al-fagih.html43

. The Daily Telegraph article contained this bit of additional information: “His information is thought to have been the reason a federal grand jury has been secretly convened in New York to examine the financing of terrorism in America. The CIA believes that Bin Laden had advance knowledge of two Saudi bombings that killed 24 US servicemen. He is thought to have provided the money, with Iran supplying the muscle through Hizballah.”44. The article noted that “America believes that Bin Laden was the patron of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef”

A. Yes. I have never met him. He lives in England.

Q. Do you know if he works with bin Laden?

A. I don't.

Abu Hamza al-Masri the Egyptian-born Finsbury Mosque Imam, is a former nightclub bouncer who has one eye and wears a hook where a hand was blown off in Afghanistan where he fought alongside Usama bin Ladin. Abu Hamza al-Masri co-founded the “Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights” after he was expelled from Saudi Arabia45 and as a result, a contract was put out on his life by Saudi Interior Minister Na’if

that resulted in two assassination attempts. He was also the leader of Supporters of Shari'ah that was formed in 1994, bringing together Muslims who had been working under many other names in various parts of the world. Supporters of Shari'ah fought alongside the mujahideen and supported and refugees in Afghanistan. Abu Hamza called a meeting and training session in London in September 1998. A man called Amin, who had come from Yemen, gave a talk and produced some recruiting leaflets for the Islamic Army of Aden-Abyan. Abu Hamza sent ten men to Yemen who were quickly apprehended. The Yemeni authorities claimed that they were there to help with a “terrorist campaign” in Yemen. The men were charged with "membership of an armed group and possession of weapons, explosives and unauthorized international communications devices, as well as starting to commit acts of sabotage against Yemeni and foreign interests in Aden" and put on trial. With one exception, all the accused denied all the charges. On December 28, 1998 16 western tourists in Abyan, Yemen were kidnapped by the Supporters of Shari'ah in the hope that the Yemenites would exchange the Brothers for the Westerners. Barely an hour after kidnapping the tourists, jihadi Abu al-Hassan used his satellite phone to call Abu Hamza in London and tell him they had captured some "infidels". Abu Hamza later issued Yemen Hostage Communiqué Number One announcing the event. In an interview with al-Jazeera television on January 14, 1999, he said: "Abu al-Hassan called me to let me know after the kidnapping took place that he did not expect the Yemeni government to deal with this matter the same way it deals with other kidnappings. He wanted to convey a message and to clear his conscience if some of the hostages were killed because of the government's reckless behavior."46

Abu Hamza Al-Masri was arrested during a series of raids in the London by Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorism branch, then released, after he called the September 11th Events, “self defense.” On September 11, 2002 a conference called “September 11th A Towering Day in History,” advertised by posters depicting hijacked planes smashing into the World Trade Center, was organized by Brother Al-Masri.47 Abu Hamza Al-Masri, who by this time was barred from preaching at the Finsbury Mosque

45. Middle East Report July – September 1997 http://www.merip.org/mer/mer204/mer204.html46. http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/hamza/hamza1.htm47. http://www.dailyherald.com/special/9.11.02/story.asp?intID=37511136

and was wanted in Yemen on “terrorist” charges warned the West and its collaborators that they would face more jihadi campaigns.”48

About two weeks, later, on October 6, 2002 an explosives-packed fishing boat rammed the French supertanker Limburg as it prepared to enter Al-Shir port off Yemen’s southeastern coast. One Bulgarian crewmember was killed and 12 other crewmen were wounded. Shehab al-Yemeni 23, died after he rammed against the tanker. Shehab Al-Yemeni had fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan and lost family in the American bombing of that

country. The Brothers who directed these Shaheeds Fawaz Al-Rabyee (also spelled Fawaz Al-Rabaeei,) and Hizam Saleh Megalli were apprehended and sentenced to death after being found guilty of plotting terrorist acts and killing a policeman. Al-Rabyee was also convicted of masterminding bombings near buildings of the Political Security Organization and the homes of three top intelligence officials in 2003. No one was hurt in the attacks. Hizam Saleh Megalli was convicted of plotting to kill the former US ambassador to Sanaa Edmund J. Hull (who was acting co-ordinator for Counter-Terrorism in 2000) and planning suicide bomb attacks on five foreign embassies, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Cuba.

Throughout their three-month trial, the Brothers kept talking to each other and praying as the court heard prosecution and defense arguments or reviewed evidence. But as the sentences were read out, the Brothers expressed defiance, raising their fists and shouting, “Allah-o-Akbar!” “Death to America” and “Long Live (Osama) bin Laden!” The verdict was read out amid an intense security clampdown with armored vehicles blocking surrounding streets and anti-terror troops deployed in adjacent buildings.

Fawaz Al-Rabyee told the Court of Appeals49 that he had maintained contact with Al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and had agreed to concentrate on US targets. Al-Rabyee, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on August 28, 2003, said he had agreed with bin Laden to target the United States, not any other country. Al-Rabyee also told the court that one of the Brothers standing trial with him, Fawzi Al-Hababi, was a bodyguard of bin Laden in Afghanistan and that, “I would never nullify a pledge I gave to the Imam of Mujahedin Sheikh Usama bin Laden. Sheikh Usama asked me if we wanted to cut down a tree, should we hit it in different points? I replied: No, we should concentrate our hits on one point till the tree falls down,” he said, in a clear reference to the United States. Yemen’s supreme court must confirm the sentences while President Ali Abdullah Saleh must also approve the death sentences. 50

48. Alan Cowell “At Mosque in London Bin Laden Is Hailed As Hero” New York Times September 13, 2002. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E16F63B550C708DDDA00894DA40448249

. The three-judge panel led by chief judge Naji Said Al-Qattaa increased the prison sentences of two defendants — Omar Hassan Jarallah and Fawzi Yahya Al-Hababi — from 10 to 15 years and confirmed sentences ranging from three to 10 years for the other 11 members of the group. Jail sentences of 10 years were upheld against Abu Bakr Al-Rabyee, Mohammed Al-Ammari, Fawzi Al-Wajih and Yasser Salem, the only member of the group tried in absentia. The court also upheld five-year jail terms against Ibrahim Howeidi, Aref Mejalli, Mohammad Abdullah Al-Delaimi, Abdul Ghani Al-Qithan and Kassem Al-Rimi. The remaining two — Khaled Al-Julub and Salim Al-Delaimi — had their three-year jail terms upheld.50. http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=50668&d=29&m=8&y=2004&hl=15%20Yemenis%20Convicted%20of%20Terror%20Charges

All this was moot as Al-Rabyee escaped through a more than 300-meter long underground tunnel. The tunnel was dug from under the women’s prayer yard at Al-Awkaf Mosque to Political Security Central Prison, crossing the prison yard to prisoners’ cells.51

The Brothers involved in the Limburg Event were financed by Abu Assam al-Makki who had been arrested by the Saudis in 1998 and who treatment in prison was the subject of numerous letter to azzam.com widely considered to be the premiere English-language mouthpiece of al-Qaeda regarding his treatment while in Saudi custody.52

Zacarias Moussaoui and would-be Shoe bomber Richard Reid attended Abu Hamza Al-Masri’s Finsbury Mosque. At the age of 14 Reid took L.S.D. and cocaine. He drank heavily and became involved in spray-painting graffiti. Reid was jailed for five years. In prison, he read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and became a Muslim. Many find Islam in this fashion. He learned Arabic to read the original texts and learned that al-Islam hua al-hall.53 Reid said he traveled to the al-Aqsa

Mosque and was angered to see Jews with guns inside. Reid was not the first Brother to place explosives in his shoes. Abdul Hakim Murad stated, “Well, the detonator, when you put it in your shoes, nobody can catch it because when you enter that, the x-ray little bit that I mean, the rays little bit up from your shoes, you can pass it.54 Yousef had also discussed the idea for a shoe bomb with Gregory Scarpa Jr. “Scarpa advised that the notes were written by Yousef. The first note was written on Tuesday, November 19, 1996. Yousef asked Scarpa to tell his wife to put coins in her shoes when she visited. Yousef wants to know if the metal detectors will detect the coins. Yousef wrote that he would tell Scarpa later why this is so important. The second note was written on Friday, November 22, 1996. Yousef asked Scarpa to find out if his visitors are ever asked to take their shoes off when they are searched.”55

Sheik Gilani made this public comment about Reid: “What they are trying to prove is that Richard Reid is al-Qaeda man. If they prove that he is my mureed then they would have an excuse to proceed against all the 10,000 to 15,000 people who are my followers in America. So, this is the main conspiracy. They wanted to move against Muslims in all the 22 states of America but they wanted an excuse, a legal one, so they sent Richard Reid to Afghanistan. He went there, met a few people and went back. Then they found 10 grams of explosives in his shoes, which can’t even blow up the seat of an airplane. Then he is keeping silent. What the foreign journalists are doing is taking his pictures from city to city and saying that this person is a mureed of Gilani. I don’t have mureeds. I do not favor Jihad against the U.S.”

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=56580&d=26&m=12&y=200451. http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=918&p=front&a=152. http://www.hvk.org/articles/1202/59.html53. Islam is the solution.54. Murad Interrogation – Philippine National Police document – January 7, 1995.55. FBI 302 265A-NY-258172 October 21, 1996

At his trial Gilani mureed Richard Reid said ‘I am a member of al-Qaeda and I pledged to Usama bin Laden, I am an enemy of your country and I admit I used a destructive device in an act of war. I further admit my allegiance to Usama bin Laden, to Islam and to the religion of Allah.’ When he was sentenced he said: ‘You’re not going to stand me down. Allah will judge you. I think I ought not apologize for my actions. Your government has killed two million children in Iraq and has sponsored the rape and torture of Muslims in the prisons of Egypt and Turkey…I don’t see what I done as to being equal to rape and to torture or to the death of two million children in Iraq.’ Reid resisted as officers handcuffed him and led him out of the courtroom. The media reported that Reid’s last words were, “Your flag will come down and so will your country.” Afraid of his truth, the official court transcript of Reid’s comments upon being sentenced read: “That flag will be brought down on the day of judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and then we will know.” We need more men like Reid and because of his loyalty we will address him as Richard Murreid.”56

AMERICA’S NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES

James Ujaama worked for Finsbury Mosque Imam Abu Hamza Al-Masri. Ujaama, who was held in America without bond as a material witness, was indicted for attempting to set up a training camp in Bly, Oregon. Ujaama pleaded guilty to sending money to Afghanistan when the Taliban governed it and claimed he provided computers and money to a girls’ school, when all the girls’ schools were closed pending changes in the syllabi. He agreed to co-operate in the investigation of Abu Hamza al-Masri. He will be out of prison in less than a year, as a reward for betraying Brothers such as Oussama Kassir who was arrested

in Sweden.57

James Ujaama attended a mosque in Seattle run by al-Qaeda operative Semi Osman, who was from Tacoma, Washington. Semi Osman pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. In exchange, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped charges that Osman tried to fraudulently obtain citizenship documents. When arrested, Semi Osman had plans to poison the Seattle water supply system in his possession.58

AHMED BILAL TRACES BACK TO SHEIK RAHMAN

56. Richard Norton-Taylor, Matthew Taylor and Owen Bowcott Guardian UK November 29, 2003. When authorities in Britain found a shoe with its heels cut away along with several founds of PETN explosives in the Gloucester home of Sajid Badat they put this together with the fact that Badat had trained in Khalden in Pakistan - close to the Afghan border - the same camp where Reid had trained. This, along with undisclosed evidence, caused them to charge Badat with having conspired with Reid between September 1, 2001 and November 28, 2003 to commit acts of so-called terrorism.57. Mike Carter “Swedish police arrest militant Muslim named in Ujaama case.” Seattle Times October 22, 2003.58. Phil Brennan “Terrorist Link Looked at Ohio Water Suppy, FBI Probing” NewsMax.com Oct. 9, 2001 citing BeaconJournal. When Detroit Sleeper Cell members Karim Koubriti and Ahmed Hannan lived in Canton, Ohio before moving to Detroit they worked at a chicken processing plant called Case Farms. An unidentified Egyptian came into the local library around this time seeking books on microbiology and animal borne diseases that could be transmitted to human beings, along with maps of waterlines running under Interstate 77 to Canton’s Mercy Medical Center. It was reported that this man was a roommate of Koubriti and Hannan.

One of the Brothers who intended to attend Ujaama’s camp was Ahmed Bilal. The name Ahmed Bilal appeared on the Rahman Unindicted Co-Conspirator List. Bilal pleaded guilty to jihadi related charges and was sent to a medium security federal prison.59 Ahmed Bilal was involved with Maher Hawash, a computer software designer who earned more than a third of a million dollars a year working for Intel. In 2000

Hawash discovered al-Islam hua al-hall, not American materialism. In August 2003 he agreed to co-operate and pleaded guilty to providing material aid to the Taliban.60 In February 2004 he was sentenced to seven years in prison. His fellow defendants Jeffrey Leon Battle – whose ex-wife agreed to testify against him - and Patrice Lumumba Ford - who was represented by Hamas house attorney Stanley L. Cohen - also pleaded guilty but did not co-operate and were given sentences of 18 years each.61

AHMED RESSAM

Ahmed Ressam of The Millennium Plot fame provided information linking the American-based Brothers with Abu Hamza al-Masri. Facing up to 130 years in prison, Ressam cut a deal with the U.S. Justice Department and began co-operating with authorities in exchange for a promised 27-year sentence. From May 2001 to April 2003, Ressam spent more than 200 hours speaking with authorities about terrorist networks and people with potential connections to them. He also spent 65 hours testifying during depositions or trials. While

Ressam told his interrogators that while he was training at Khalden camp in Afghanistan in 1998 two new Algerian recruits arrived: “The two Algerians were selected for leadership training based on the recommendations of Abu Hamza al-Masri and another person. Such recommendations by someone who is known and trusted are required for access to the training camps and for specialized training such as leadership training. One person with the power to accept or reject a candidate for training is Emir Abu Zubaydah.”62 Ahmed Ressam revealed Abu Hamza al-Masri was one of Abu Zubaydah’s “contacts in the United Kingdom. Ressam stated that Abu Hamza al-Masri was at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, England. He described al-Masri as having lost his hands and an eye, purportedly while conducting explosives experiments in Afghanistan.”

THE NAIROBI CELL LETTER CONTINUES

Additionally, [the article] also noted that the Egyptian government wants Usama bin Laden for his involvement in the attempted assassination against the Egyptian president in 1995 in Ethiopia as well as for his

59. USDC District of Oregon Cr 02-399-JO - Plea Agreementhttp://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usabilal91803plea.pdf60. USDC District of Oregon Cr 02-399-JO - Plea Agreementhttp://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usvhawash80603plea.pdf61. USDC District of Oregon Cr 02-399-JO - Plea Agreementshttp://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usbattle101603plea.pdfhttp://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usford101603plea.pdf62. Report of FBI agent Darrick Smalley during USA v Ressam

support of the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel al-Rahman who was targeting tourists in Egypt.

We have tried to take some measures here in Nairobi but first we wanted to verify that the man called Sidi Tayib is identifiable with Abu al-Fadl the amputee who is married to the Sheik's relatives. In this connection and to the best of my knowledge, there is only one Abu al-Fadhl from Saudi Arabia

who is known as Abu al-Fadhl al-Makki (the Meccan). We have taken the matter seriously, despite the limited resources we have here in the office. (As such) I have sent a fax to Hamed (Rashid Saleh Hemed) (left) to (try to) verify this information to no avail since I do not know if he had received my message or not. Until now, I have not received his answer. Also, I have contacted the engineer al-'Utaybi in Qatar but his telephone is always busy. Finally, I have sent a fax to Abu Ibrahim in the Sudan and till the writing of this message on August 4, 1997 I have not received his answer through the fax.

Juhayman al-‘Utaybi led the 1979 uprising against the Saudi government in Mecca and Ali al-‘Utaybi, served a three-year prison sentence imposed in 1996 following his conviction on charges which reportedly included having contact with the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights.

I have also contacted Abu Khadijah the Iraqi in Germany on August 13, 1997 and informed him about the news which shocked him. I told him to be careful. In the final analysis we do not care much to verify the man's name. What matters is the fact that an important man with close links to the Sheik seems to have fallen into the enemy's hands and we have to take all the appropriate security precautions against that. (Hence) I, along with Tawfiq, have collected all the files which we do not need here and which might pose a threat against us and have placed them in another location. We did not burn them since they belong to engineer 'Abd 'al-Sabbur who may have a different opinion about what we are seeing here, but anyway we are awaiting for his return next week. He had called from there to inform Tawfiq to prepare himself as they will join the director there after his approval. We tried to leave the house but we have a problem with cash flow. We also thought that if we were under surveillance, that (by moving) this may look very suspicious.

There is now a $25 million dollar reward for the capture of Abu Khadijah (Mahmdouh Mahmud Salim) and 'Abd 'al-Sabbur, as both were indicted in the Nairobi Embassy attack.

On the same day we heard the (above) news the partisans from Mombasa called. I told them I will get in touch with them and asked them never to

call me at that number again. They told me that Khalid [al-Fawwaz] wanted to talk to me about an important subject but I told them I will get in touch with them but never to call me at that number again. After two days they called me at the same number so I forced them to burn that number immediately informed Khalid that I had prohibited them from calling me here as I am one hundred percent sure that the telephone is tapped.

KHALID AL-FAWWAZ: LONDON TRIPLE AGENT

Khalid al-Fawwaz is currently in prison in Great Britain63 and has been fighting extradition to the United States for the East African cell’s activities for almost a decade. Sergeant Ali A. Mohamed testified that Khalid al Fawwaz paid for his surveillance expenses and photo enlarging equipment when scouting possible bomb targets in Nairobi. "I personally helped El Hage by making labels in his home in Nairobi. I personally met Abu Ubaidah and Abu Hafs at Wadih's house in Nairobi."64 L'Houssaine Kherchtou testified that al-Fawwaz was arrested in Kenya prior to our major action there for helping a Brother use a false Danish passport, but was able to bribe his way out of jail for $3,000.65

After that Khalid al-Fawwaz left Kenya (Brother el-Hage replaced him) for the Sudan then settled in London. Al-Fawwaz recruited a student at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri to buy Usama bin Ladin a $7,500 satellite phone. Al-Fawwaz set up an account for bin Laden with the International Maritime Satellite Cell Phone Company. The NSA monitored Usama bin Laden’s communications and found that he and his Brothers made hundreds of calls to people in London, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sudan. Bin Laden's phone number, 873682505331, turned up in the records of jihadi in Egypt and Kenya and was used disseminate his February 1998 fatwa which called for American so-called civilians to be killed. Usama bin Laden used the phone to co-ordinate the East Africa attacks in 1998. The NSA however, either could not break the coded language being used or was negligent and did not warn the Embassies.66

In October 2001 al-Fawwaz claimed he was a double agent and had worked with British intelligence and reported to Paul Banner. Al-Fawwaz’s attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, demanded to see MI-5 reports regarding meetings that took place with Banner at the Old War Office building in Whitehall.67 Edward Fitzgerald said MI5 warned al-Fawwaz about a plot against the Saudi man's life by “agents of a foreign government, possibly the United States.” Edward Fitzgerald denied that al-Fawwaz had been a double agent. On December 17, 2001 the British courts ruled that al-Fawwaz could be deported but the final decision rests with David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, who has

63. Khalid Al-Fawwaz CB8265 HMP Woodhill Tattenhoe Street Milton Keynes Bucks MK4 4DA64. http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive_Index/Ali_Mohamed.html65. USA v Usama TT 120966

. James Bamford “The Biggest Intelligence Agency Ought to Know Better” Washington Post June 2, 2002; Page B01. Mark Morris “Jihad Phone Linked to Former Missouri Student”Kansas City Star September 19, 2001. http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/home.pat,local/3accfd88.919,.html67. Richard Norton-Taylor and Nick Hopkins “Suspect claims MI5 can clear his name” The Guardian London October 22, 2001.

yet to decide.68 The frustrated Americans have introduced a new treaty that would weaken long-standing protections against politically motivated extradition requests, that has yet to be ratified by the Senate.

THE NAIROBI CELL LETTER CONTINUES

The fact of these matters and others leave us no choice but to ask ourselves are we ready for that big clandestine battle? Did we take the necessary measures to avoid having one of us fall in the trap? Knowing we were counting on God's blessing with our limited resources. The second matter is that I would recommend to the good and wise supreme command which I implore to God to keep safe to work hard to return the Caliphate to earth and fight the forces of atheism and dictators who wreaked havoc on earth. We, the East Africa cell members, do not want to know about the operations plans since we are just implementers. We trust our command and appreciate their work and know that they have a lot of problems. But my advise here is for the practical part only since we started the project for “re-establishing the Muslim state” is a collective effort and not an individual one; we are all part of it. So we are asking you, for the sake of organizing the work, to tell us that there is a possible danger that may take place in a while due to a certain decision so we can prepare ourselves accordingly or (so that) we may go underground for a while since our presence might foil or complicate your plans that we know nothing of.

As you know, the decision to declare war on America was taken and we only know about it from the news media and we should have known about that decision (and the decision only) and not the plans so that we could take the necessary precautions and to prevent causing any complications or failure in your plans due to our ignorance of them. I did not write this report until I was officially asked by Brother Khalid to be responsible for the media information office for the cell in Nairobi. He (Khalid al-Fawwaz) had asked me also to write periodically about the security situation on the cell and the whole group in here in general in East Africa. Finally, my greetings to all the engineers and I have not yet visited anyone and perhaps I may not visit them until the situation improves. Say a lot of prayers for us so God may grant us success, may God give you his reward. Your Brother, Harun.

HARUN

Harun was one of the implementers who would directly participate in the bombing of the embassy in Nairobi, about a year after he wrote this report, yet he was not

68. Arabia in the Media – MIRA - Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia June 9, 1999 – December 9, 1999 also November 30, 2002. http://www.yaislah.org/pressrev/eprev112.htm http://www.yaislah.org/pressrev/EN30nov02.htm

arrested or even detained after the authorities discovered this letter on the hard drive of his computer. Harun was allowed to remain in Kenya and American CIA agents missed catching him in 1998 in Nairobi, where he remained for a week after the East African American Embassy Events.

In early 2002 remnants of a spent anti-aircraft missile were found close to an airstrip in Saudi Arabia, once used by U.S. military aircraft patrolling what was once known as Southern Iraq’s no fly zone. Saudi officials said they detained 11 Saudis, a Sudanese and an Iraqi. The Sudanese man was an al-Qaeda cell leader who launched a shoulder-fired SA-7 surface-to-air missile at a U.S. warplane taking off from a Saudi air base. A Soviet-made missile launcher, smuggled from Somalia and used in a failed attack on an Israeli passenger plane in Kenya had a serial number close to the SA-7 missile used in the Saudi operation. Harun was involved in this failed attack. The Kenyan foreign minister, Stephen Musyoka said a CIA agent showed Kenyan officials intelligence reports suggesting that Harun and his crew had been photographing the flight paths at Nairobi's international airport. The CIA also said they had detected conspiratorial language in telephone intercepts, mentioning a “wedding,” a code for an imminent attack.69 Harun also was involved in the attack on the Israeli owned Paradise Hotel, killing 13 people. In July 2003 the Kenyan Parliament rejected the Suppression of Terrorism Bill 2003 because of opposition by Kenyan Muslims. As a result authorities in Kenya dropped murder charges against five suspects in connection with the Paradise Hotel Event and reduced them to four counts of conspiracy including their alleged involvement in a foiled plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in June 2003.70 In May 2003 Harun was sighted in Mombasa.

Instead of arresting el-Hage the CIA and FBI merely asked the Kenyan authorities to force el-Hage to leave the country. He returned to the United States! The American authorities were familiar with Wadih el-Hage from our Brooklyn / Jersey City al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya Cell. Not only that but Brother Wadih El-Hage had already been the subject of a grand jury investigation that centered around his Emir, Usama bin Ladin’s connections to the jihadi living in America. The FBI should have been all over him, like Jews over money! His presence in Nairobi should have been enough to alert them to our intentions since el-Hage is not a Brother who sits around discussing politics over tea and crumpets. Then there was the Harun letter corroborated the information that had already been supplied to them by an informer within the al-Haramain Foundation and by Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed the Egyptian, one of the Brothers who implemented the action!

AL-HARAMAIN FOUNDATION FUNDS THE CELL

Al-Haramain Foundation (The Call) closely controlled and funded by members of the Saudi government, religious hierarchy, and royal family, has been funding al-Qaeda cells since their inception.71 Al-Haramain has an estimated annual budget of between 69. Desmond Butler “Five Year Hunt Fails to Net Qaeda Suspect in Africa” New York Times June 14, 2003. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F3071EFF3C5C0C778DDDAF0894DB40448270. VOA News November 28, 2003.71. USDOS International Information Programs March 11, 2002 “U.S., Saudi Arabia Act Jointly to Block Terror Funds Al Haramain's branches in Bosnia and Somalia targeted.” http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/02031104.htm The branch offices of Al-Haramain

$30 million and $80 million, has built and staffed more than 1,299 mosques, produced 20 million religious pamphlets, and operated 20 orphanages, all to propagate the cause of Wahhabism. The Al-Haramain Foundation is also operational: In 1998, six Brothers were arrested in Albania, two of which were tried and executed in Egypt as perpetrators of jihadi attacks. In their testimony, the individuals said it was Dr. Abdul Latif Saleh, the head of the Al-Haramain Foundation in Albania, who had helped them come to Albania. Dr. Saleh was identified as "the one who had helped them in every respect, beginning with picking them up at the airport." At that time, they admitted maintaining close ties with Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. Designated “Terrorist” Dr. Abdul Latif Saleh has multiple ties to al-Qaeda, ranging from the Al Haramain Foundation to Yassin al-Kadi (left) to Usama bin Laden. Dr. Saleh was expelled from Albania on suspicion of membership in a "radical Islamic Jihad group." Bin Laden had provided Dr. Saleh with $600,000 to encourage the establishment of jihadi groups in Albania. Dr. Abdul Lateef Saleh was engaging in various activities in support of Usama bin Laden and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad while simultaneously serving as the Charge D’Affairs of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tirana, Albania.72 

El-Hage’s book of business cards contained a card for “Mansour A. Al-Kadi” as Deputy General Director and Head of Africa-Committee of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. Usama bin Laden associate Mansour Al-Kadi was a wealthy Al-Haramain Foundation official working outside East Africa who was the former director of the Tanzanian branch of Al-Haramain. Mansour Al-Kadi was the assistant of Aqeel Abdulaziz Al-Aqil, (left) the founder and long-time leader of the Al Haramain Foundation. Al-Aqil controlled the Foundation and was responsible for all Al Haramain Foundation activities, including its support for Jihad…. Under Al Aqil’s

leadership numerous Foundation field offices and representatives operating throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and North America provided financial and material support to the al-Qaeda network including Jemmah Islamiya, Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Lashkar E-Taibah received funding from Al Haramain Islamic Foundation and used the Foundation as a front for fundraising and operational activities.73

AL-HARAMAIN AND THE NAIROBI BOMBING

Circa July 1997, a still unknown informant told the CIA’s Nairobi branch that the Al-Haramain Foundation was plotting attacks against Americans. But what happened was that later in 1997, Al-Haramain Foundation senior leaders in Nairobi decided to alter their (then) previous plans to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi and instead sought to attempt the assassination of U.S. citizens. During this time period, an Al-Haramain Foundation official indicated he had obtained five hand grenades and seven "bazookas’ from a source in Somalia. These weapons were to be used in a possible

in Somalia and Bosnia helped finance our movement. The Somalia office is linked to our al-Qaeda network and Al-Itihaad al-Islamiyya, a Somali Islamist group. Al-Haramain Somalia employed Al-Itihaad al-Islamiyya members and provided them with salaries through Al-Barakaat Bank, which was designated on November 7, 2001 as a principal source of funding, intelligence and money transfers for Usama Bin Laden by the United States. The Bosnia office of Al-Haramain is linked to Gama’a al Islamiyya.72. http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/09/newly_designate.html73. http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/test02272004.htm

assassination attempt against a U.S. official. Sometime later the informant stated the group connected with Al-Haramain planned to blow up the American Embassy in Nairobi. The Kenyans arrested five Brothers connected to Al-Haramain, and seized the group’s files. They were later deported. The Harun latter made reference to them, “We read in the Kenyan newspaper the Standard News of the arrest of five terrorists in Kenya. When DC Gharissa [the al-Haramain Society had an office in Garissa, Kenya]...” The CIA sent a team to Nairobi, which examined the files, but could not find evidence of a so-called terrorist plot. The CIA wanted to question Al-Haramain members in jail, but the Agency's station chief blocked this request, insisting that he had pushed his Kenyan counterparts far enough.74 The Al Haramain employee had indicated how the Nairobi embassy would be attacked a full year before the bombing actually took place. This source disclosed in August 1997 that a suicide bomber would crash a vehicle into the embassy’s gate. And that is indeed how the bombing was carried out 12 months later.75

Al-Haramain’s Mansour Al-Kadi agreed to provide part of the necessary funds for the Nairobi event. Al-Qaeda used the money to buy a small fiberglass fishing boat for Mohammed Sadiq Odeh, now serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for the embassy attack. Odeh set up a wholesale fish business and turned the profits over to the cell. Following his arrest in the days after the bombings, Odeh told U.S. and Kenyan investigators that "the business was for al-Qaeda." He said he was permitted to take from the profits what he needed to live on and "give the rest to al-Qaeda and employees who were in al-Qaeda."76 Al-Haramain was banned from Kenya after the Embassy attack.77

AL-HARAMAIN AND THE DAR EL-SALAAM EMBASSY BOMBING

Mansour A. Al-Kadi also assisted the advance team that plotted the Dar El-Salaam Embassy bombing, which killed a total of 5 African security guards since the bomb vehicle, which was blocked by an embassy water truck at the closed embassy

gates, did not succeed in penetrating the embassy's outer perimeter. In 1997, Brother Muhammad Abdullah Salah al-Assad, (left) a Yemeni national who had lived in Tanzania for 25 years and ran a small business importing diesel engine parts, leased office space that he owned to Mansour Al-Kadi. After September 11th al-Assad was arrested and turned over to the United States. On May 5, 2005, over

16 months after he was taken from his home in Tanzania, Muhammad al-Assad was transferred from a secret detention facility to Yemen.78 In early 2003, individuals affiliated with al-Haramain in Tanzania discussed the status of plans for an attack against several hotels in Zanzibar. The scheduled attacks did not take place due to increased security by local authorities, but planning for the attacks remained active.

Despite the fact that Sheikh Aqeel Abdulaziz Al-Aqil was Specially Designated Terrorist the Saudis never recognized this label and he was never arrested. No one

74. http://storm.prohosting.com/~farsight/EmbassyBombings.htm75. http://www.webstar.co.uk/~musnews/news/print_version.php?article=682176. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/07/terror/main621621.shtml77. BBC March 12, 2002, “US freezes Saudi charity assets.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1868306.stm78. http://www.phaseloop.com/foreignprisoners/guantanamo/article07.html

would squeal on Al-Aqil. It was not until January 2004 that he was replaced.79 The fate of Mansour A. Al-Kadi remains unclear.

Faced with closure the al-Haramain Foundation became litigious. The National Security Agency intercepted several conversations in March and April 2004 between al-Haramain's director, who was in Saudi Arabia, and two U.S. citizens in Washington, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor who were working as lawyers for the organization. The government intercepted the conversations without court permission and in violation of the law. The eavesdropping on the conversations bypassed the FISA Act and was based on Bush the Younger’s Emergency War Powers and is being challenged in court.80 Even the Justice Department's inspector general says that the bureau lacks sufficient controls to make sure the subpoenas, which do not require a judge's prior approval, are properly issued and that it does not follow even some of the rules it does have. Under the USA Patriot Act, the bureau each year has issued more than 20,000 of the national security letters that require only the approval of the agent in charge of a local F.B.I. office. The government inadvertently provided al-Haramain a document in an unrelated lawsuit. The document includes a log of communications between its officials and its law firm. The lawsuit stated, “Defendant Office of Foreign Assets Control relied upon the logs obtained without a warrant in designating al-Haramain Oregon as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.81 In January 2007 agreed to end its warrantless wiretapping NSA program and go back to the FISA Court for approval to wiretap our Brothers within the United States.

When the American television program Frontline linked the Al-Haramain Foundation with the Kenyan activity lawyer Mark MacDougall from Washington law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, threatened a lawsuit if any reference to the foundation was not removed from the program.82

AKIN, GUMP, STRAUSS, HAUER & FELD

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, is a law firm that has Jewish influence in Democratic Party circles, with partners like the Jew Robert Strauss, who was the former Democratic Party chairman and former special envoy to the Middle East under the Carter Administration, and the Black, Vernon Jordan, a close friend of President Clinton. Strauss has been a Court Jew for so long that he is convinced he is not one of them, but a WASP in Jews clothing, and is happy to do our bidding. On the influencing-Republicans side our “main man” at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld was George Salem who was given his start by President Reagan. Salem was appointed to a

prestigious post at the Department of Labor from 1985 to 1989. This was a token reward to those fighting the Evil Empire of the

79. “Saudis Fire Charity Head Over Terrorism” Associated Press in Newsday.com January 8, 2004.80. Saudi Group Alleges Wiretapping by U.S. Defunct Charity's Suit Details Eavesdropping By Carol D. Leonnig and Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, March 2, 2006; A0181. https://ecf.ord.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/HistDocQry.pl?647664478326457-L_226_0-1 2006 Civ274 Oregon82. “Saudi charity gets settlement over TV program Al Haramain Foundation said it had reached an out-of-court settlement with a Boston television station over a program” Reuters March 22, 2000.http://www.arabia.com/life/article/english/0,11827,16244,00.html

Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Salem served on the board of directors of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee from 2000 to 2003. He co-founded the Arab American Institute in 1985 and currently serves as its chairman. The Arab American Institute is comprised of many diverse wealthy, successful, Arab-Americans, some like Samir Abu-Ghazaleh are lobbyists for Palestinian Christians while others like Michael Farah have offered to become foreign agents for Syria.83 On its surface the Arab American Institute seems to be United States Government approved Arab Uncle Toms, people who have made so much money that their allegiance must be to the Republican Party and to the United States. But we know that this is not true, that like many others their loyalty is to Allah or if they are Christians, they know that someday the Christian Arabs who remain in the Middle East will be at the mercy of the Islamists and if they have helped us in the past, perhaps they will be spared. That is why we never attack these “respectable” institutions. George Salem also has served as treasurer of United Palestinian Appeal, Inc. since 1982. If the United Jewish Appeal could send humanitarian aid to Israel, why could not the United Palestinian Appeal do the same? In 1985, UPA became the first Palestinian-American charity to be registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Private and Voluntary Organization (PVO). In 1987, with the outbreak of the first intifada, UPA shifted its funding priorities to emergency medical relief for intifada-related injuries. In 2002, UPA was awarded a $2.7 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This meant that the UPA was CIA approved. In 2002 the second biggest donator to the UPA was “Mohammad Aghil United Arab Emirates, Dubai.”

George Salem is also a past president of the National Association of Arab Americans.84 On behalf of the Bush Administration Salem served as an official observer to the Palestinian elections held in February 2005 during which Islamists took power, and also as President Bush’s representative to the funeral of Yassir Arafat. Salem has donated money to U.S. Congressman Jim Moran (Democrat - Virginia), who in 2003 stated that American Jews had dragged the United States into war.

MUSTAFA MAHMOUD SAID AHMEDTHE AL-GAMA’A AL-ISLAMIYYA CONNECTION TO THE AFRICAN EMBASSY BOMBINGS

In November 1997, an Egyptian named Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed walked into the United States Embassy in Nairobi and told a CIA agent that he was part of a plan to detonate a truck bomb in the parking garage of the American Embassy which was to involve stun grenades.85 Raised in Zaire, Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed attended Al-Azar University in Cairo, Egypt, and received a degree in agricultural engineering. He worked for the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry until the Iraqi invasion in 1990 then returned to Zaire and worked with Mobutu Sese Seko. Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed was a dissident from al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya years earlier and joined the Al-Qaeda regulation established by Usama bin Laden.86 In 1994, Mustafa Mahmoud Said

83. http://www.syrialive.net/financial/2002/103002US%20business%20delegation%20for%20trade,%20economic%20relations%20with%20Syria.htm84. http://www.georgesalem.com/85. USA Today citing New York Times story: “Report: U.S. warned of embassy plot.”http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/bomb152.htm86. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/980924/1998092437.html

Ahmed relocated to Tanzania, along with Brother el-Hage and set up a gem business. He also set up a branch of Taba Investment in Kenya in 1994 with Jamal Ahmed Mohammed al-Fadl, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi and Mamdouh Mahmud Salim.87 The CIA ignored his warning, as it believed Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed fabricated his threats, which it claimed were of a general nature. The Washington Post88 quoted an unnamed State Department official as saying that Mustafa Ahmed had a history of lying but to be on the safe side it had Mustafa Ahmed deported. After the State Department received two CIA reports about Mustafa Ahmed, security was heightened for several weeks at the embassy, but because there was no attack, the extra security precautions were removed. In an extraordinary rationalization, CIA officials claimed that Mustafa Ahmed's warning was a ploy to allow us to observe the defense measures the embassy would take in the event of what they would label a terrorist attack! Later the CIA blamed this failure on the Kenyans - the C.I.A. said that a foreign intelligence service that cooperates with the agency (Israel)89 believed that Mr. Ahmed was a fabricator of information. The fact that he was mentioned in the Harun letter was ignored.

In August 1998 shortly before the August dual-Embassy bombing attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, Mansour A. Al-Kadi met with Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed in Tanzania and cautioned the Brother against disclosing knowledge of preparations for the attacks. Interrogated by Tanzanian police after the bombings, Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed admitted that he had taken part in surveillance of the embassy, including snapping photographs. Tanzanian investigators suspected Mustafa Ahmed drove one of the vehicles used in the Dar es Salaam bombing and whether the 400 pounds of explosives used in both blasts came into Tanzania in a shipment of rice imported by one of his companies. Traces of the chemicals used to make the Tanzanian bomb were in Ahmed's car and in the house he used in Dar es Salaam. On September 21, 1999, after the 1998 Tanzanian event, Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed and Tanzanian Rashid Saleh Hemed were charged with 11 counts of murder. Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed told the court he was puzzled by the charge since he was not in Dar es Salaam on the day of the bombing but in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha. His lawyer Abdul Mwengela said that Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed had overheard details of the bomb plot in the lobby of a Nairobi hotel in 1997.

Without warning and without fully explaining their reasons, the Tanzanian prosecutors dropped all charges against Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed, released him from jail and bought him a one-way ticket to Cairo.90 He re-engaged with al-Qaeda operatives almost immediately and moved to the United Arab Emirates. He is now on the run again.91 The U.S. had not sought to extradite Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed, and officials would not say why. The United States allowed the Tanzanians to try Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed because they fear his trial in America might have brought to light his dealings with American authorities and other Western intelligence services and their failure to act on their information.

87. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/120598bomb-suspect.html88. Karl Vick “A Suspect Suspect” Washington Post October 31, 1998. 89. http://isd.georgetown.edu/embassy_bombings_WG_Report.pdf90. news.xinhuanet.com/.../ 23/content_2371059.htm91. From Jail To Freedom, With An Air Ticket Thrown In - Prison was but a brief interruption to the career of the terrorist Tanzania released, writes Mark Riley. The Sydney Morning Herald, September 28, 2001

RASHID SALEH HEMED

During the East African Embassy Bombing trial that took place in New York City this testimony was presented regarding Rashid Saleh Hemed: “On August 26, 29, and September 2, 1998, officers from the Tanzanian Criminal Investigation Division, CID, assisted by special agents from the FBI, conducted a search of the premises known as 15 Amani Street, Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This location is a residential dwelling leased by Rashid Saleh Hamed, and used by, among others, Rashid Saleh Hamed and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani…” (Ghailani was captured in Pakistan on July 25, 2004). The authorities found clothing stained with explosive residue, a blasting cap and the detonator, a razor with the DNA of Ahmed the German, the suicide bomber from Dar es Salaam, a grinder that tested positive for TNT at 15 Amani Street. Telephone records linked the dwelling to 43 Runda Estates, the bomb factory in Nairobi.

The investigative findings by a Tanzanian task force resulted in the trial of Rashid Saleh Hemed, charged with 15 counts or murder that in July 2000 were reduced to one count of conspiracy to murder. The hearing of the Rashid Saleh Hemed case concluded in 2003 after the prosecution called up 18 witnesses while the defense counsel called up three witnesses including Rashid Saleh Hemed himself. Three court assessors declared Rashid Saleh Hemed as innocent on February 12, 2004 saying the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt its charge that the accused had conspired with six others to plant the bomb that exploded at the US embassy on August 7, 1998. He was released on bail after having served six years of illegal confinement. On December 22, 2004 Rashid Saleh Hemed was discharged after Judge Emilian Mushi spent more than two hours going through the evidence brought before him by both the prosecution and the defense counsel, and the judge gave his verdict of not guilty. The judge explained the prosecution had failed to provide enough evidence to establish its case against the 34-year-old Tanzanian national.92

THE FBI AND CIA AGENTS WHO DISMISSED THESE WARNINGS

There were two Embassy walk-ins. The first walk-in could have been easily dismissed as what kind of a charity organizes and participates in bombings where hundreds could be killed? The other came from one of the bombers, for the sake of Allah. What motivated him to spill his guts, we do not know, but we warned him not to do it again. The Crowe Commission was supposed to look into these intelligence failures but glossed over them attributing them to doubt about the credibility of sources. None of the CIA and FBI agents who erred had to eat crow. Al-Qaeda did not have an agent inside the American Embassy in Nairobi and we can only guess which of the personnel detailed there spoke with these tipsters. We suspect that Lucien Vandenbroucke, Political Consular American Embassy, Nairobi, was a CIA agent. He had served previously in Hong Kong, Mauritania and Sudan and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Algiers. He was the author of Perilous Options: Special Operations as an Instrument of US Foreign Policy that dealt extensively with the CIA-sponsored Bay of

92. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/23/content_2371059.htm

Pigs Invasion and authored a paper in 1983 that concerned extremist groups in Egypt. David S. Stott, another political officer, was named as a CIA agent using diplomatic cover.93 There was no FBI Legal Attaché assigned to the American Embassy in Nairobi. Paul Peterson now the U.S. State Department’s Assistant Director for Domestic Operations, responsible for all Diplomatic Security investigative programs as well as domestic protection programs and operations and formally the Director of the Office of Investigations and Counterintelligence was the Regional Security Officer in 1998. The Crowe Commission questioned two Assistant Regional Security Officers, John Kane and Bob Simons. Nicholas Mariano was listed as Acting Regional Security Officer June through July 1998. But who was Regional Security Officer in 1997? Who erred at Foggy Bottom?

And who erred at the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building? In a sworn declaration submitted during the ex-FBI Agent’s Bassem Yousef’s discrimination lawsuit94 Mary Deborah Doran stated,

I entered on duty with the FBI as a Special Agent on March 17, 1996. Following new agent training in Quantico, Virginia, the FBI assigned me to New York, Squad 1-49, a counterterrorism squad, which amongst other subjects, was responsible for the intelligence and criminal investigations into Usama Bin Ladin (UBL). New York was the only field office of the FBI

with a squad investigating UBL at that time. In approximately January 1997 until approximately August 1998, I was assigned to be the case agent for the intelligence investigation into UBL. As case agent, it was my responsibility to review all incoming intelligence information, including for lead value. If information of lead value was identified, it was my job

to ensure that this information was passed to the criminal side of the case for investigation. The UBL intelligence case was just over a year old at the time I was assigned to it, and during my time as case agent, I read every document in the UBL intelligence file. Similarly, I was responsible for being aware of the information being developed on the criminal side, which at that time was coming in large part from the first person to defect from al Qaida. I read every report of the interviews conducted with that person, and was present for and conducted some of these interviews myself. Through all of this work, I developed expertise on al Qaeda. When I arrived on Squad 1-49, SA Daniel J. Coleman was already assigned to the squad and was the case agent for the UBL criminal investigation. Upon my arrival in New York, SA Coleman was on temporary assignment in Washington, working with other United States government entities in the investigation and pursuit of UBL. In approximately August 1998, I was assigned as the case agent for the bombing of the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, a case known in the FBI as KENBOM. As case agent, I was responsible for the overall investigation of this attack. To this end, I

93. Anti-CIA Club of Diplomats - Spooks in U.S. Foreign Service 198394. USDCDC 1:03CV1551(CKK)

made multiple and lengthy trips to Kenya and other parts of the world, interviewed hundreds of people, reviewed thousands of documents.

The bombing itself was a disaster. Just as our jihadi parked a truck bomb in the wrong area the Nairobi crew did the same. Brother Mohamed Odeh was angry and disappointed at the performance of Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-‘Owhali during the East African American Embassy Event in Nairobi. Odeh stated that if the Brothers couldn’t have gotten the pickup truck into the garage of the American Embassy, then the occupants of the truck should have died trying:

“As Brother Azzam [Jihad Mohammad Ali al-Makki] the Saudi got close to the drop bar, Al-‘Owhali jumped out of the vehicle and started to go towards the guard. And he realized that his pistol that he was supposed to use to confront the guard was in his jacket pocket that he had took off in the truck, so he told me that he hesitated for a second to go back to the truck to get the gun but realized that that was probably going to -- it was too much time, he didn’t want to do that. So instead of using the gun, he ended up pulling out one of those stun grenades in his right hand and approached the guard and demanded that the guard open the drop bar in English. And Al-‘Owhali explained to me that the guard didn’t move fast enough, so he pulled the pin with his left hand and he throws the stun grenade in the direction of the guard and that that caused a loud explosion and the guard ran. At that point, other people started to run also,

other people started to scatter from the area from the loud explosion, and Azzam started to move the truck. And as Al-‘Owhali described it, Azzam moved the truck somewhat parallel to the embassy. Al-‘Owhali says at this point Azzam started shooting directly at the U.S. Embassy with a pistol. And Al - ‘Owhali explained between Azzam firing the pistol at the embassy and the loud explosion that was created from when he threw the stun grenade, people started

to scatter. And Al-‘Owhali explained to me at this point he realized that his mission is complete, that he did exactly what he was instructed to do. His mission was to help Azzam get the truck as close as possible to the embassy and to scatter away the people, the Kenyan people in and around the area. Al-‘Owhali said to me that at that point it was no longer necessary for him to die in the attack. Al-‘Owhali explained to me that the reason he had not died was the mission didn’t go exactly point for point and time to time the way it was supposed to. Al-‘Owhali explained to me that he was fully prepared to die in carrying out the mission and that that would equate to being a Shaheed95, to reach martyrdom, dying in completion of your mission. But to die after your mission had already been complete, Al-‘Owhali explained to me, is not martyrdom, it’s suicide, -- it’s not acceptable in our religion and that that wasn’t what his mission was.

95. Martyr.

To die as a Shaheed carrying out the mission was fine, but there was no reason for him to commit suicide. Brother Azzam died in the attack.

The Brothers should not have left the truck there to explode and kill so many extraneous people. Nobody, even Usama bin Laden himself, could be happy with the results of the bombing and that the operation conducted against the U.S. military in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, was 100 times better

than Nairobi. The position of the pickup was a mistake, and the back of the truck where the explosives were held should have been facing the embassy and that because the cab of the pickup was between the explosives and the embassy, at least 60 percent of the shock wave was diverted. The errant shock

wave hit the wrong building. The truck had to back up to the embassy in order to prevent the cab from acting as a hindrance to the shock wave, therefore preventing the surrounding buildings from being demolished.

The Crowe Commission, a blue ribbon panel that examined the intelligence failures that resulted in al-Qaeda bombing two American Embassies on the same day, had a somewhat different version of events, “

The local-hire contract guards at the rear of the Embassy saw the truck pull into the uncontrolled exit lane of the rear parking lot just as they closed the fence gate and the drop bar after a mail van had exited the embassy's garage. When one of the two terrorist occupants of the truck demanded that the guards open the gates, they refused. One of the terrorists then began shooting at the chancery and the other tossed a flash grenade at one of the guards. The guards, who were unarmed, ran for cover and tried to raise the Marine Security Guard at the command post (Post #1) on a hand held radio and by a phone in the nearby guard booth. They were unsuccessful; the embassy's single radio frequency was occupied with other traffic; the telephone was busy.96

THE EMBASSY BOMBINGS: U.S.A. v. USAMA SHOW TRIAL

There is no need to dignify the proceedings of this mockery of justice at this point in time by detailing them travesty by travesty. The evidence was so flimsy in this case that five jurors initially voted to acquit the Brothers. It took a day and a half for them to switch their positions. Wadih el-Hage was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But this is noteworthy: At one of his hearings el-Hage dashed through Courtroom 15A of Manhattan Federal Court and sent Judge Leonard Sand scrambling behind a chair, a court reporter diving for cover and U.S. marshals sprinting after him amid screams of

96. http://www.state.gov/www/regions/africa/accountability_report.html

“Allah Akbar!” from other defendants. El-Hage was grabbed 8 feet from the 71-year-old Jewish judge.97

CORRECTION OFFICER’S STAB MAMDOUH MAHMUD SALIM

Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a founder of al-Qaeda who was a defendant in U.S.A. v. Usama, and was awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, also took drastic action against his captors. Mamdouh Salim was accused of stabbing Correction Officer Louis Pepe in the eye with a pen he had obtained from the prison commissary. His jailers then decided to follow the biblical injunction “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” The testimony of Salim’s attorney:

The next thing I remember seeing is two guards dragging a person who I believed to be Mr. Salim, and he may or may not have been unconscious, but he was certainly limp, and he was face-down and his arms were at his sides. He was being dragged. He was dragged around the corner and the guards who were dragging him stopped very close to where the window was in the cell where I was located, and there was sort of a trail of blood as well beneath what I believe was Mr. Salim. Then I observed one of the guards that had his back to me, but closest to the cell, remove a key, a small, sort of blunt key from his key ring and jab what I again think was Mr. Salim in the corner of the eye. And then there was a blood spurt that occurred. Shortly thereafter, I saw Officer Pepe walking, being escorted out by four people, two just slightly in front and two in the back. He was covered with blood and there was an object protruding from his eye.

On September 11, 2002 Mamdouh Salim said that he never wanted to stab Officer Pepe, but that he did so anyway because he felt it would be the only way to seize his keys. “I wanted to get the keys from the guard in the easiest and shortest way possible. This is the way I do things in my life. If this does not succeed, I go further.” Mamdouh Salim and his cellmate Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (left) had formulated an escape plan and had created an escape / hostage checklist that read:

The employees are better [hostages] than the lawyers and the prisoners; Getting rid of some prisoners; The guard; Luring the hunt and opening the door for it; Civilian hunt lured, not attacked; He should say that a gun is pointed at his head and they have all hostages; Demands to the media; negotiations; sabotage; Arming in the beginning of the action then in its progress; The knives; Causing the utmost injury to human lives; Exits and whether there are keys to them; Opening for the brothers; Opening 46 [the 46 door outside Unit 10-South]; answering the telephone; Informing the bottom/lower [Unit 9 South] that the path is clear before going down; Informing all of the plan and its steps; Time calculation for all stages; Division of labor and role sharing; Handling and identifying the keys;

97. Gregg Smith “Embassy Bomber Suspect Takes Wild Run at Judge” New York Post June 23, 1999

covering the windows; The video and stopping it; Cutting off electricity and Fortification after being exposed.

The Brothers were able to carry some of this out – luring the hunt and opening a door for it, getting an employee, the guard, the knives, causing utmost injury to human life, covering the video and attempting to cut off the electricity. What went wrong was Correction Officer Pepe’s body alarm was activated when he was in a horizontal position and a “double deuces” warning was sent to the other Correction Officers.

Had the plan succeeded this note, written in English, would have been circulated:

We are the Muslims who were falsely accused of bombing the embassy in Africa. We have captured the tenth flr. in MCC and we have several lawyers and officials. They are under our full control. We were forced to resort to this solution after we were deprived of our legal rights. We request the immediate release of ________and send them outside the U.S. If the government worrys about the safty of its citizines it has to comply with all our demands otherwise it will be responsible for any consequences.

Mamdouh Salim pleaded guilty to assaulting Officer Pepe and is going have to pay restitution from the 30 cents an hour he will receive for his prison job. Pepe lost an eye has little vision in the other, cannot communicate to the point where he cannot say his own name and is paralyzed on one side. Prior to his incarceration, Mamdouh Salim had issued fatwas and preached tolerance: In 1993, at a bin Laden guesthouse located in the Riyadh section of Khartoum, Sudan, which served as a regular meeting place for al-Qaeda members, Mamdouh Salim lectured members of al-Qaeda (who were Sunni Muslims) that it was Islamically proper to join forces with Shi’ite Muslim groups (such as Hizb’allah) to work against a common, clear enemy such as the United States and that the Sunni and Shi’a could resolve their differences once the common enemy was vanquished. Thanks to Brother Mamdouh Salim while al-Qaeda was headquartered in the Sudan, a tripartite working agreement was reached between al-Qaeda, the National Islamic Front of the Sudan and the government of Iran to work together against the United States, Israel and the West. Al-Qaeda sent emissaries to Iran and some of its members received explosives training in Lebanon from Hizb’allah. During the time when this tripartite arrangement was bring negotiated, Mamdouh Salim had several meetings with an Iranian religious official stationed in Khartoum and traveled with al-Qaeda members to Teheran to arrange for the training by Iran of al-Qaeda members in explosives.98

Mamdouh Salim reasoned that if an attack on an American building killed Americans that was beneficial. If Muslims working with the Americans were killed, these Muslims were being punished for helping the American kuffar. If innocent Muslim bystanders were killed, they would become martyrs and go to paradise and would thus be grateful to those who carried out the bombing.

98. USA v Salim USDC-SDNY 00CR0919

EL-HAGE AND SEPTEMBER 11th

In a court filing, federal prosecutors in New York alleged that

Imam Moataz Al-Hallak provided cover for the business activities of El-Hage.99 After the September 11th attack, the FBI raided the home of Al-Hallak in Laurel, Maryland, a Syrian who had emigrated in 1986. Al-Hallak was raised in Damascus and studied airplane mechanics there. He left Laurel, Maryland (the same city where September 11 th

Shaheed Mohammad Atta resided) on September 10th and flew to Texas. This was not extraordinary as Al-Hallak once lived in Arlington, Texas, and had

been the former head of the Islamic Society – also known as the Center Street Mosque - before a new board of directors removed this Hafiz for preaching true Islamic theology, Salafism. His lawyer, Stanley L. Cohen, said FBI agents wanted to question him about whether he told people about the attacks before they occurred.100 Cohen said that someone had claimed that al-Hallak “mentioned several days before the World Trade Center

attack that there's going to be a bombing, and I don't want to be there.”101 In 1999 federal prosecutors accused Al-Hallak of being an associate of Usama bin Laden but he was never charged with a crime. Prosecutors also said that in late 1992 the Imam put another congregant in touch with Essam al-Ridi a pilot who flew a jet plane to Sudan that was then sold to a bin-Laden company.

ENAAM M. ARNAOUT

Brother Enaam M. Arnaout a naturalized American citizen from Syria, helped Mamdouh Salim in his humanitarian work. Arnaout was a close associate of Usama bin Laden who ran an operation for al-Qaeda in the United States called the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF). In 1998, several months prior to his arrest in Germany in September 1998, Mamdouh Salim traveled to Bosnia where his visa and housing was sponsored by the Benevolence International Foundation and where a statement was signed on behalf of the Benevolence International Foundation and Arnaout attesting that

Mamdouh Salim was a director of the Benevolence International Foundation. This was two months before the American the East African Embassies bombing. Arnaout distributed resources, including weapons, at the direction of Usama bin Laden and others at that time in the al-Masada camp in Jaji, Afghanistan, in or about 1988. As a result he had personnel files of the mujahideen that contained their true names and aliases and military experience of the trainees along with a list of wealthy sponsors from Saudi Arabia (“the Golden Chain”) including references to Usama bin Laden.102 Arnaout 99. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/islam/cohen.html100. John Solomon, Associated Press September 14, 2001.101. Del Quentin Wilber, Andrew A. Green and Michael James “Terrorist search leads FBI agents to Md. suburbs” Baltimore Sun September 16, 2001. Gail Gibson and Michael James “Islamic cleric from Laurel says he has no links to bin Laden” Baltimore Sun September 21, 2001.102. United States District Court Northern District of Ill. 02CR892 Government's Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Coconspirator Statements" in the case of USA v. Arnaout (USDC, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division) filed on January 29, 2003.

was an associate of Bojinga jihadi Mohammad Jamal Khalifa and Wali Khan Shah as well as Mohamed Bayazid. Bayazid obtained a drivers license reflecting his residence as the address of Benevolence International Foundation's Illinois office.

The FBI reported that

A reliable cooperative witness (CW-1 – who has entered into a co-operation agreement with the United States Government and pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge arising out of his participation in al-Qaeda related terrorist activities - Jamal Ahmed Mohammed al-Fadl), who is a former member of al-Qaeda who had repeated contact with Usama bin Laden for a number of years in the late 1980's and early 1990’s and is in a position to testify, advised being familiar with Benevolence International Foundation…CW-1 stated that several al-Qaeda members held positions in Benevolence International Foundation and that this organization was one of the organizations utilized by al-Qaeda. Specifically, according to CW-1, Benevolence International Foundation was used in the early 1990’s by Usama bin Laden as a means to transfer money to bank accounts, generally held by purported relief organizations, in countries where al-Qaeda members or associates were conducting operations. CW-1 reported that as a general matter, once money was withdrawn from the bank accounts of relief organizations, its use by al-Qaeda would be virtually untraceable. CW-1 explained that the money would almost always be withdrawn in cash, and the relief organizations from whose account the money was taken would generate paperwork which indicated that all the money was being used for charitable purposes such as building mosques or schools, or providing food and clothing for the poor. According to CW-1, only a portion of the money withdrawn was actually used for those purposes stated by the relief organizations. The remaining funds were provided to al-Qaeda for whatever use al-Qaeda deemed necessary.

The FBI corroborated CW-1 by citing the testimony of Brother Hampton-El that he had been bringing money into the United States for military training from the Third World Relief Agency in Vienna and with the testimony of Wadih el-Hage who said he ran the “Help Africa People” charity in Kenya.

The next reliable cooperative witness (CW2) said he was familiar with Enaam Arnaout’s activities in Pakistan in 1989. CW2 reported that on one occasion in 1989, Arnaout traveled to the airport in Islamabad, Pakistan, picked up one of the wives of Usama bin Laden, and took her to Arnaout 's residence. Approximately a week later, bin Laden and his bodyguards arrived during the night and picked up bin Laden's wife.

CW2 also identified Arnaout as being a close associate of Hekmatyar and being involved with Hekmatyar's organization Hezb-e-Islami in 1989. In 1992, Arnaout assisted in delivering, assembling and operating a satellite telephone for use in

Afghanistan by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and he knows the Brother quite well. The FBI stated Hekmatyar has, “connections with several convicted terrorists, including Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.”

THE MOBILE X-RAY MACHINE

On June 10, 1995, Arnaout and other members of BIF caused the delivery of a mobile X-ray machine and currency from the Benevolence Enterprise to a representative of the Chechen Mujahideen in Baku, Azerbaijan who acknowledged in writing that “As arranged this unit will be transported to Chechnya for the use of the Chechen Mujahideen.” The BIF Baku representative to whom this unit was delivered was also the senior representative in Azerbaijan of Hezb-e-Islami of Afghanistan, Hekmatyar’s group. The radioactive material in the X-Ray machine could have been used in a dirty bomb.

On October 9, 2002 Arnaout was indicted on conspiracy and racketeering charges in Chicago for allegedly running a front for Usama bin Laden’s activities. Enaam Arnaout was jailed on charges of perjury and providing material support to a so-called terrorist group.103 In September 2002 Federal District Court Judge Joan Gottschall threw out some of the perjury charges against Enaam Arnaout, that were made when he filed a lawsuit to get the assets of this charitable organization returned on the basis of the assertion that BIF was not connected to so-called terrorism.

Arnaout admitted in court that he had illegally funneled donations to rebel fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya to pay for boots, tents and other military supplies in the 1990’s. Prosecutors dropped six other charges in which he was accused of financing our activities because they had a weak case. Arnaout faced up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of racketeering conspiracy. Former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft said: “We are prepared to prove that he did support al-Qaeda” but he could not do so due to some unfavorable rulings regarding hearsay evidence. In July 2003 a federal judge ruled: “Arnaout does not stand convicted of a terrorism offense. Nor does the record reflect that he attempted, participated in or conspired to commit any act of terrorism” and refused the Government’s request for an upward departure in Arnaout’s sentencing. He was sentenced to 120 months.

PROTOCOL 3: THE FAILURES OF AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE WILL BRING US TO POWER

The recognition of the superiority of Islamism will come before the destruction of the Constitution; the moment for this recognition will arrive when the peoples, utterly wearied by the irregularities and incompetence of the intelligence community - a matter which we shall arrange for - will clamor: “Away with them and give us one Divine King over all the earth who will unite us and annihilate the causes of disorders - Israel, the Jews, the non-believers - who will give us peace and quiet which we cannot find under our rulers and representatives.”103. Douglas Franz “U.S. Based Charity is Under Scrutiny” New York Times June 14, 2002. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB091EF63E580C778DDDAF0894DA404482

Many spy agencies of the American government were pre-occupied with other concerns before the September 11th Raids. The National Security Agency intercepted conversations on September 10, 2001 that said “the big match” was scheduled for tomorrow. A second message called the next day “zero hour.” But they were too busy eavesdropping on the conversations of drug traffickers to take notice.104

1996: THE BOJINGA CLUES AS TO OUR INTENTIONS TO USE PLANES AS WEAPONS

In his 1996 coerced confession, Abdul Hakim Murad said that he planned to use the training he received at flight schools to fly a plane into CIA headquarters. Murad suggested to Ramzi Yousef that “The suicide yes, I am telling you that I never told Yousef that there is a planning [to bomb the American Embassy in Manila] what about we dive to CIA building” and Yousef, said, “OK, we will think about it. I am willing to die for Allah, for Islam.” The plane was supposed to be loaded with chemical weapons. The Philippine authorities gave the FBI a document that contained this sentence: “He will board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. Then he will hijack said aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the CIA headquarters. There will be no bomb or any explosive that he will use in its execution. It is simply a suicidal mission that he is very much willing to execute.” Another document read:

A future bombing target to be executed by Murad is principally directed on the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.” The document specifically cited “the charter service of a commercial type aircraft loaded with powerful bombs to be dived-crashed by Murad. This is apparently intended to demonstrate to the whole world that a Muslim martyr is ready and determined to die for the glorification of Islam. There are no other details on this specific suicide bombing plan.

The Philippine National Police asked Murad if he was a member of Gama’a al-Islamiyya during the time he was taking flight training in Pakistan:

Murad: No, I did not think that someday will come and all these things will happen, you know.

This information was no state secret: The New York Daily News, in the mid-1990’s carried an article entitled: “Philippines Warns U.S. Of Use Of Aircraft As Weapons.” Murad was not charged with a crime in connection with the CIA crash plot, apparently because it was merely at the “discussion” stage when he was apprehended. Because the CIA crash plot did not appear in the indictment, however, the FBI effectively forgot all about it. Murad’s confession did form a basis for an analysis that warned that bin Laden Islamists could hijack a jet and fly it into the Pentagon. No action was ever taken on the basis of this still classified analysis.

104. James Risen “Qaeda Attack Was In Works for Three Years” New York Times June 19, 2002 pA20 http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/06/20/911.warning/

THE 9/11 OPERATION IS BORN

In 1998, bin Laden publicly declared war against the United States. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told the CIA,

It was at this time that bin Laden raised my idea with other members of the Shura Council about reviving and modifying Bojinga. Bin Laden requested a meeting with me in Qandahar, Afghanistan, during which he specifically requested my assistance in developing an operation designed to drive aircraft into targets. I agreed to head up the operation, and at bin Laden's request, I moved my family to Qandahar and became a member of al-Qaeda. (But what group was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in prior to joining al-Qaeda? He was in Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, a part of al-Qaeda). During my first targeting meeting, bin Laden discussed operational concepts in general terms. Bin Laden expressed his desire to simultaneously hit the Pentagon, White House, and U.S. Capitol building, and had Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar in mind for the operation. He was hopeful that I would be able to identify additional pilots from the Persian Gulf region based on his connections there. When Atta was identified as an operative, bin Laden held another meeting in Qandahar to discuss which targets would be hit. Bin Laden, Atta, Abu Hafs, and myself were all present. The group worked under the assumption that only three targets would be hit, and bin Laden indicated that he wanted 'to hit a military, political, and economic target.’ I had many targets in mind from my work in the early 1990s with my nephew Ramzi Yousef, and during the meeting, dozens of possible targets were discussed including the World Trade Center, a nuclear reactor, the Empire State Building, a foreign embassy in Washington, DC, the headquarters of the CIA and the FBI. We also believed a location in the U.S. with a large Jewish population would be of interest, no specific targets there were discussed. Generally speaking I said that large buildings in the United States were considered to be especially vulnerable to attack and easy to hit. Before I left Afghanistan bin Laden presented me with a list of targets, which I conveyed to Atta. Atta then compiled a list of preliminary targets. Bin Laden told Atta that Atta must hit both towers of the WTC, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Capitol but additional targets from which Atta could choose included the White House, the Sears Tower, and a foreign embassy in Washington. Following this conversation, Atta used a computer program to locate a nuclear power generating plant in Pennsylvania, which Usama agreed to add to the list. The plane that crashed into the field in Pennsylvania was targeted at the Capitol building (Congress and Senate). CIA headquarters’ was not a target since it was Ramzi Yousef’s operation and this target was compromised when Yousef was arrested. New York was definitely the economic capital of the U.S. and thus was always the first target on his mind. After the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center I decided that explosives and bombs could be problematic so I focused on using

airplanes as weapons. The most attractive targets were high buildings, both for their relative ease of targeting, as well as for the symbolic impact. The targets that were not included in the 9/11 attacks were to be carried forward to the next operation. The original plan called for Moussaoui to lead the next attack operation in the U.S. Moussaoui was not included in the list of potential pilots for Atta's attacks, and that the original list of potential targets was restricted to four or five even though Atta had a list of eight potential targets. Several targets were listed that were not attacked included the White House, the U.S. Capitol, a foreign embassy, the Sears Tower, and a Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania, and an unidentified bridge in San Francisco or San Mateo, California.” Former FBI head Robert Mueller testified, “Another area we consider vulnerable and target rich is the energy sector, particularly nuclear power plants. Al-Qaeda planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had nuclear power plants as part of his target set and we have no reason to believe that al-Qaeda has reconsidered.105

Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar were selected by bin Laden to participate in the operation. They had acquired U.S, visas on their own accord in 1999 following the martyr death of their friend Azzam in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. They decided to obtain U.S. visas prior to traveling to Afghanistan to make themselves more attractive for any possible operation in the United States. I discussed the preparations to deploy 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar to the U.S. Before their deployment the two were told that they were being sent to the U.S. for flight training and that the flight training was in preparation for their participation in a martyrdom operation in which aircraft would be flown into unspecified targets. The two were not provided with the specific targets. The exact targets had not yet been decided upon and at the time of the duo's travel to the U.S., even I did not know what the final targets of the operation would be. I spent a significant amount of time reviewing with al-Hamzi the timetables of the U.S. airlines that were eventually used in the operation. I purchased San Diego yellow and white pages at a market in Karachi and noted from those directories that San Diego had many local flight schools and English language schools. Those directories were also useful for locating commercial institutions, mosques, apartment complexes, and fellow Muslims to whom the Brothers might contact for help (for example, about where to rent an apartment or find Halal restaurants or grocery stores). Aptitude was not taken into account in selecting the potential 9/11 pilots. We never considered whether any special skills or talents were needed to learn how to pilot an aircraft. We believed that learning to fly an airplane was much like learning, to drive a car, it was easily accomplished with little correct instruction. I asked a great deal of al-Hamzi and al-Midhar, whom I had only middling confidence, because of their lack of English and exposure to the West.

105. http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress05/mueller021605.htm

The only reason they were involved in the 9/11 plot was because they had visas and because bin Laden told me he wanted the two to go on the operation. Because of their deficiencies, I permitted al-Hazmi and al-Midhar, unlike the other 9/11 Shaheeds to go to the local mosque to request assistance and advice on functioning in American society, and I allowed the two, unlike the others, to contact me on urgent matters.

For the September 11th operation the initial plan called for crashing planes in New York and Washington, D.C. Saudis were primarily chosen for the attacks in the United States because they could easily travel there. I also wanted Yemenites to be involved. I had to make my first major adjustment to this plan during the spring and summer of 1999 when I realized that two of my Yemeni operatives were unable to obtain U.S. visas. I wanted these two operatives to be involved in the Planes Operation, as well as other Yemenis from bin Laden's security detail. As a result I decided to split the Planes Operation into two parts: The other part of the operation was a smaller version of the Bojinga plot, and would involve the Yemenis: operatives would hijack U.S.- flagged commercial airlines flying Pacific routes, and would explode them in mid-air instead of flying them into targets. The plan at this point was to have all planes in the United States and East Asia either explode or crash at roughly the same time, to maximize the psychological impact of the attack. I wanted to use Yemeni operatives for the Southeast Asia portion of the attacks because a person with a Yemeni passport could more easily travel to places like Hong Kong and Malaysia, allowing the Yemenis an opportunity for a martyrdom operation. In April or May of 2000 bin Laden cancelled the East Asia portion of the planes operation, claiming that it would be too difficult to synchronize the U.S. and East Asia portions. I remained in contact with al-Hamzi and al-Midhar via Internet chat. I did not like using codes in routine messages or e-mails. I asked the operatives to be normal to the maximum extent possible in their dealings, to keep the tone of their letters educational, social, or commercial, and to keep the calls short. I gave Atta enough authority that he would not need to consult with us frequently, and would be the decision maker. I forbade the operatives from contacting Pakistan for any reason. I had the operatives remove all Pakistani stamps or visas from their passports. Atta had taken a training session in this and had mastered it.

Brothers Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi were honored to have been chosen for this martyrdom mission. Brother Khalid al-Midhar’s first trip to the Afghanistan training camps was in early 1996. In 1998 he returned to Afghanistan and swore allegiance to Usama bin Laden. Nawaf Al-Hazmi had first traveled to Afghanistan in 1993 as a teenager and came into contact with a al-Qaeda recruiter in Saudi Arabia in 1994. In 1995, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar traveled to Bosnia to fight against the Serbs. In 1996 al-Hazmi met Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian born Egyptian in Saudi Arabia who ran our training camps. At the time Zubaydah was visiting Saudi

Arabia to convince young Saudis to train for Jihad in Afghanistan. Sometime before 1998, al-Hazmi returned to Afghanistan and swore bayat to bin Laden. There, he fought against the Northern Alliance, with his brother Salem, another of the September 11 th

martyrs, then returned to Saudi Arabia in early 1999.

BOJINGA GAVE BIRTH TO 9/11

The FBI could have discovered this inseminal plan and nipped it in the bud, but they concluded that Scarpa and Ramzi Yousef had cooked up a plan to get Scarpa a downward departure and disregarded Scarpa’s information that hinted at 9/11:

On Friday, October 4, 1996 Scarpa asked Yousef why he is in such a hurry [for false passports procured by the mob] since the hijacking is not going to happen for over a year. Yousef responded that the hijacking could be anytime within the next two years. Yousef stated that he does not know the exact timing but is in a hurry because he does not want to be the cause for any delay in the plan. Yousef stated that he wants to send a letter out in a week or two with the information and the address Scarpa gave him. Yousef stated that he heard Ramos and the Greek inmate complaining to the staff that MCC has been opening everyone's mail on the tier. Yousef advised that he is going to send his letter through a person but would not reveal the identity. In addition, Yousef stated that the passports are for the hijacking. Scarpa advised the interviewing Agent that Yousef's plan still includes hijacking the airplane and kidnapping the U.S. Ambassador together. Yousef advised Scarpa that the hijacking plan has worked once before resulting in the release of seven people. Yousef also stated that the hijackers were never arrested.106

Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed corroborated the validity of the Scarpa information:

I was happy that bin Laden assigned me to the 9/11 Operation because I had proposed a similar operation to bin Laden 4 years earlier in 1996, immediately after bin Laden's arrival from Sudan to Tora Bora. I thought the operation was easy. I suggested at the time that they send mujahideen to study in the flight institutes and use large planes, such as a Boeing 747-400 or larger, not small planes. I did not like to depend on the military training that was given in Afghanistan because I considered it impractical. Simplicity was the key to success. 9/11 was a continuation of the aborted Bojinga Operation. I traveled to Afghanistan in 1996 after rolling up the operation in Manila to convince bin Laden to give me money and operatives so that we could hijack 10 planes in the US, to fly them into targets, with five targets on each coast of the United States. Bin Laden was not convinced of the practicality of the operation, but in either March or April 1999 bin Laden changed his mind, and summoned me to meet him in Qandahar, Afghanistan where told me that he now thought the idea

106. FBI 302 265A-NY-258172 10/17/1996

could work, and informed him that the operation now had al-Qaeda's full support. I called it The Planes Operation, and estimated that it would take about two years to plan and execute.

1998: IHAB MOHAMED ALI

Ihab Mohamed Ali is an Egyptian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. In 1987 Ihab Mohamed Ali went to work for the Muslim World League in Afghanistan and became a Brother in the struggle against the Soviets.107 Having sworn bayat to Usama the Elder Ihab Mohamed Ali obtained a pilot's license from the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma in 1993 at his request. Ihab Mohamed Ali then moved to Nairobi, Kenya, to become a pilot for al-Qaeda. Since the 1996 Gorelick Memo quashed any investigation of Al-Qaeda, the FBI showed no interest in Ali despite the fact he had attempted to transport Stinger Missiles for Usama, however, this plan failed when his plane crashed on a clandestine runway. Ihab returned to the United States and maintained correspondence with Wadih el Hage. El Hage received a faxed letter from Ihab Mohamed Ali on February 26, 1997, in which Ihab Mohamed Ali told el Hage to inform "The Director" a code name for bin Laden, "I am always ready to help." Phone records show many calls exchanged between Ali's Orlando number and el-Hage's Nairobi number. Ali was relaying messages to Usama bin Laden and Wadi El-Hage in connection with the coordination of the Kenyan American Embassy bombing. El Hage's denial of their relationship led to several of the perjury counts against him. Ihab Mohamed Ali was listed under his alias “Abu Suliman”108 on the Rahman Unindicted Co-Conspirator List.

After the East African Embassy Events the FBI Evidence Recovery Team discovered, ““Government Exhibit 602, one of the documents found in el-Hage’s files at the Mercy International Relief Association office has a reference -- this is in one of the notebooks -- to Joseph Kenana, one of the aliases L'Houssaine Kherchtou gave you for Ihab Ali, and he’s got Joseph Kenana listed in Norman, Oklahoma. And you know from Government Exhibit 152, which is a stipulation, that there are flight school records which show that Ihab Ali was in Norman, Oklahoma.” As a result Ihab Mohamed Ali was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 302-count indictment that forms the basis for the East African Embassy Bombings trial. 109 Many Brothers congratulated him, as he was one of the few to make both lists!

After the Embassy bombing we could no longer be totally ignored and a Grand Jury was empanelled to investigate al-Qaeda. Ali was subpoenaed and asked about Usama’s Declaration of War against the United States, code names, identities and whereabouts of members and leaders such as bin Laden. He was also asked about Khalid al-Fawwaz and Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, a Al-Qaeda leader who drowned in a Tanzanian Ferry accident along with almost a thousand others in 1996. He was asked if he knew Usama bin Laden and he said he did but never met him in person, spoke to 107. http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usbiheiri81403knaff.pdf108. http://cryptome.sabotage.org/usa-v-ubl-39.htm109. Phil Hirschkorn and Deborah Feyerick “Feds allege ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ played key role in Bin Laden network” CNN New York Bureau May 4, 2001.http://www4.cnn.com/LAW/trials.and.cases/case.files/0012/embassy.bombing/trial.report/trial.report.05.04

him over the telephone, sent letters to him, passed messages to him, received messages from him and sent messages to other people about Usama.

Beginning in May 1999 Ihab Mohamed Ali was held in jail for 16 months on a civil contempt charge for refusing to answer questions before the grand jury about his communications with Usama bin Laden. He was charged with contempt and perjury in September 2000. Since March 2001, all documents in his case have been sealed. On March 14, 2001, March 24, 2001 and April 10, 2001 sealed documents were submitted to the Court. In April 2001 the Americans obtained information from a source with jihadi connections that speculated that bin Ladin was interested in commercial pilots as potential terrorists. The source warned that the United States should not focus only on embassy bombings, that terrorists sought "spectacular and traumatic" attacks and that the first World Trade Center bombing would be the type of attack that would be appealing. The source did not mention a timeframe for an attack. Because fools believed the source was offering personal speculation and not hard information, the information was not disseminated within the American Intelligence Community, thank God. On May 24, 2001 Ali was re-arrested. On September 24, 2001 Judge Mukasey issued an ORDER EXCLUDING THE SPEEDY TRIAL ACT. He may be cooperating with federal authorities or he might be among the “disappeared,” as there is no word on his whereabouts.

In 1998 FBI visited the Airman Flight School to inquire about Ali. When Zacarias Moussaoui popped up at the Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma, from February 26, 2001 until May 29, 2001 (when he ended his classes early because his instructors told him he would never be able to learn to fly) no one there tipped off the FBI.

THE OTHER 1998 CLUES

The United States intelligence community was told in August 1998 that unidentified Arabs were planning to fly a bomb-laden plane into the World Trade Center from a foreign country, but the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration did not take the threat seriously because the country was Libya. In September 1998 American intelligence agencies obtained information warning that Usama bin Laden’s next major operation could involve flying an aircraft loaded with explosives into an American airport and then detonating it. That same fall, another intelligence report stated that there was an al-Qaeda plot in the works that involved the use of aircraft in both New York and Washington.110

2000 THE FLIGHT SCHOOL CLUES

The dog FBI Agent Kenneth J. Williams picked up our scent but was not dogged or swift enough to track al-Qaeda down. In the mid-1990’s Kenneth Williams (left) ran an informant named Harry Ellen - a convert to Islam whose step-grandfather was a Jew. Harry Ellen became part of a sting operation that involved funneling money to Hamas leader Abu

110. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D16FE3B540C7A8DDDA00894DA404482

Shanab to see where the money would end up. Brother Shanab was assassinated on August 21, 2003, by the Mossad. Nothing was discovered by the operation FBI Agent Kenneth J. Williams ran against Hamas and we were actually funded by the FBI, praises be to Allah! Harry Ellen would later claim that he would never aid anyone with “violent purposes.”111 Because Ellen’s allegiance to Islam was a sham, he had an adulterous affair with a Chinese woman he was supposed to spy upon. When the FBI found out about this, we found out about Harry Ellen’s true identity and issued a fatwa sanctioning his death, that is still in effect.

As a result of this informant/handler dispute after the September 11 th Raids Ellen took the opportunity to revenge himself upon the FBI. He claimed that in October 1996 he told FBI Agent Kenneth Williams that he met an Algerian pilot and several Middle Eastern men at an Arizona mosque. “My comment to Kenneth Williams was that it would be pitiful if the bad guys were able to gain this kind of access to airplanes flight training and cropdusters, you really ought to look at this, it's an interesting mix of people. Williams did not seem particularly interested in the presence of these people. I stressed it was very odd that the Algerian man was involved in aviation.” Harry Ellen never identified any of these students by name. The FBI denied Harry Ellen ever made such a report and so do the Elders of Islam. 112

It was not until the spring of 2000, when Islamist fervor was widespread, that FBI Agent Kenneth J. Williams became aware of our connection to flight schools. Many Brothers studying in the United States related strongly to Usama bin Laden and were vocal about their enthusiasm. One of these Brothers, who had no direct connection to al-Qaeda inadvertently called attention to our flight training activities. The near-tragedy began after FBI Agent Kenneth J. Williams received a tip from a flight school instructor and racial profiler at Embry Riddle University in Prescott, Arizona about an outspoken Brother who was studying aviation there. As a result FBI Agent Kenneth J. Williams investigated all Middle Eastern students that attended this flight school and subsequently determined that an unwarranted number of Arab students were training at flight schools in Arizona.

111. Timothy O’Brien “FBI Agents Are Examined For Tactics With Hamas” New York Times October 8. 2003.112. John Solomon, Associated Press, May 3, 2002. Dana Priest and Richard Leiby Washington Post, May 24, 2002; Page A10 Palestine Chronicle October 8, 2003 “Hamas Sent FBI-Funneled Money To Charities: Agent.” http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20031008145849754

FBI Agent Kenneth Williams waited for seventeen months before he sent an Electronic Communication to four men in the Radical Fundamentalist Unit including Unit Head David Frasca113 and his subordinate Michael Maltbie; two in the Usama bin Laden Unit at FBI Headquarters, and to two on International Terrorism squads in the FBI’s New York Field Office. In the communication, FBI Agent Kenneth Williams wrote: “

July 10, 2001 – Title, “IT Other: Islamic Army of the Caucasus. Synopsis: UBL and al-Muhajiroun supporters attending civil aviation universities / colleges in the State of Arizona. Full Field Investigation Instituted March 17, 2000 (NONUSPER): Details: The purpose of this communication is to advise the Bureau and New York of the possibility of a co-coordinated effort by Usama bin Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges. Phoenix has observed an inordinate number of individuals of investigative interest who are attending or who have attended civil aviation universities and colleges in the State of Arizona. The inordinate number of these individuals attending these types of school and fatwas issued by Al-Muhjiroun spiritual leader Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed Fostok, an ardent supporter of UBL gives reason to believe that a coordinated effort is underway to establish a cadre of individuals who would one day be working in the civil aviation community around the world. These individuals would be in the position in the future to conduct terror activity against civil aviation targets. Phoenix believes that the FBI should accumulate a listing of civil aviation universities and colleges around the country. FBI Field Offices with these types of schools in their area should establish appropriate liason. FBIHQ should discuss the matter with other elements of the U.S. Intelligence Community and task the community for any information that support’s Phoenix’s suspicions…Phoenix has drawn the above conclusion for several Phoenix investigations to include caption

113. Frasca, a 1976 Methuen, Massachusetts High School graduate, was a popular student -- voted "king" by his classmates. He

became an FBI agent in 1987 and spent eight years in the Newark Division. Between 1990 and 1995, he worked international terrorism matters on the Newark counterterrorism squad. In 1995, he was promoted to an SA position in a unit other than the RFU in ITOS in FBI Headquarters. In 1998, he became the supervisor of a counterterrorism squad in the Miami Division and remained there until his promotion to the Unit Chief of RFU in 2001.

investigation and the following investigations. (Deleted) a Saudi Arabian national and (Deleted).” Investigation of Zakaria Mustapha Soubra was initiated as a result of information provided by (Deleted) a source who has provided reliable information in the past. That source reported in April

2000 that Soubra was a supporter of UBL and (deleted) the Al-Muhjiroun… FBIHQ, Intelligence Research Analyst (deleted) Radical Fundamentalist Unit, wrote an analytical paper on Al-Muhjiroun dated November 9, 1999, in support of FBINY investigation captioned (deleted)…The Al-Muhjiroun, which in English means The Immigrants, is a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist organization

based in the United Kingdom. The organization’s spiritual leader is Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok. The organization is dedicated to the overthrow of Western society. British officials reported that Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok first came to their attention during the Gulf War after calling for the assassination of Prime Minister John Major. Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok has connections to UBL, Jammat al-Muslimian (JM), Hamas, Hizb’allah and the Algerian Salvation Front. Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok has made several controversial statements to the press. For example, he stated in public interviews that the bombings of United States Embassies in Africa were legitimate targets. Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok, while representing the Al-Muhjiroun, signed a fatwa during February 1998 which stated the following, “The Fatwa is Jihad against the U.S. and British Governments, armies, interests, airports (emphasis added by the FBI in Phoenix) and instructions it has been given because of U.S. and British aggression against Muslims and the Muslim land of Iraq…we…confirm that the only Islamic fatwa against this explicit aggression is Jihad. Therefore the message for the British Government or any other government of non-

Muslim countries is to stay away from Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Arabia etc…or face full scale war of Jihad which is the responsibility and duty of every Muslim around the world to participate in…We…call upon…Muslims around the world, including Muslims in the USA and in Britain to confront by all means whether verbally, financially,

politically or militarily the US and British aggression and do their Islamic duty in relieving the Iraqi people from the unjust sanctions.” This was a rewording of the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders World Islamic Front Statement February 23, 1998 signed by Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan and Fazlur Rahman, (left) Amir of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Omar Fostok’s organization Al-Muhajiroun is an Al-Qaeda front group active in recruiting British Muslims to defend the Taliban in Afghanistan. Al-Muhajiroun has offices in London, in Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Mauritius, and trains mujahedeen for Kashmir, the Palestinian territories and Chechnya. Al-Muhajiroun's aim is creating an international Muslim super state, Al-Khalifa, to include the United Kingdom and his fatwa suggested airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the United States.114 In 2002 Sheikh Fostok stated that any Muslim, British or foreign, who “wants to get rid of Tony Blair would not be punished under Islamic law, but praised because the allies, the British and the Americans, have started bombing the Muslims of Afghanistan, for those people over there, the government buildings in London, the military installations, including 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister’s office-cum-residence, become legitimate targets. That includes the Cabinet and it includes the Prime Minister as well.”115 Fostok joined the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man participating in their revolt in 1982 against the Syrian Ba'ath Party and the government of Hafez al-Assad. When the rebellion was crushed by the authorities Sheikh Fostok relocated in Saudi Arabia where he started Al-Muhajiroun and eventually ended up in London where he re-established this militant Islamist organization. On August 6, 2005 Sheikh Omar Baki Mohammed Fostok left the United Kingdom following stories that the UK Government was planning to investigate certain Muslim clerics under little-used treason laws. He was banned from returning by British Home Secretary Charles Clarke stating that Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed's presence in Britain was “not conducive to the public good”. He is subsequently residing in Lebanon and is believed to be heading the Al-Ghurabaa organization. In July 2006 he tried to leave Lebanon on a Royal Navy vessel evacuating British citizens, but was turned away.

Would the FBI Agents at Headquarters be able to weasel their way out of doing any actual “counter-terrorist” work or would they be forced to expend agent hours doing follow up on Kenneth Williams report? Dina Corsi an Intelligence Operations Specialist in the UBL Unit who had been an Intelligence Research Specialist for only six months before becoming an Intelligence Operations Specialist, said that based on what she saw in Williams’ Electronic Communication and knew about bin Laden, she did not see the connection between bin Laden and Soubra or the other subjects of the EC [Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi]. She stated that he did not feel "comfortable at this stage going forward with the theory that we think these individuals from these countries are coming here sent by UBL when the preponderance of evidence indicates that these people are aligned with Al-Muhajiroun and Ibn al-Khattab." She said that being associated with Ibn Khattab did not equate with being associated with bin Laden. “Ibn Khattab has never taken operational directions from Usama bin Laden."

In 1995, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi requested and received permission from Usama bin Laden to travel to Chechnya to fight alongside other Islamic militants against the Russians. Bin Laden financed al-Qosi’s trip to and from Chechnya. In 1996, al-Qosi departed Chechnya and sought out bin Laden. Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl the Infidel

114. “9/11 Hijackers Tied to British Group Tied to Bin Laden?” Chicago Tribune and Associated Press May 23, 2002. http://www.emergency.com/2002/al-Muhajiroun02.htm115. “Hate Speech Targets Blair” CBSNews.com October 10, 2001.http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/10/02/world/main313258.shtml

gave this information to the FBI long before the question of Zacarias Moussaoui arose.116

Dini Corsi said that, according to the Electronic Communication, the primary

evidence of the connection was that Soubra was a member of Al-Muhjiroun and had a picture of bin Laden on his wall. She stated that she confirmed with “Ellen” that while Al-Muhjiroun verbally supported bin Laden, the FBI had not developed any evidence that Al-Muhjiroun had provided any operational support to bin Laden. Dina Corsi joined the FBI in 1988 as a clerk while she completed her college education. After graduating from college in 1995, she entered the FBI's language training program and became a Russian language specialist working on foreign counterintelligence matters. In November 1997, she became an Intelligence Research Specialist, and a year later was assigned to assist the Radical Fundamentalist Unit on the East African Embassy Bombings investigation. In 2000 she was permanently assigned as an Intelligence Operations Specialist in the Usama bin Laden Unit and was assigned to work on the Cole investigation in October 2000.

In a show of unity, “Mark,” (probably Michael Anticev) who had been the case agent in New York on the FBI's investigation of the Al-Muhjiroun, said that the New York Division had closed its case on Al-Muhjiroun long before September 11th because the FBI was not able to establish that Al-Muhjiroun had engaged in terrorist activities or supported terrorist activities.” On June 30, 2003 Asif Mohammed Hanif, 21, killed himself and three other

people when he detonated explosives at Mike’s Place, a bar in Tel Aviv. Omar Khan Sharif who managed to flee when his explosive device did not detonate in the night attack disappeared until his decomposed body washed up three weeks later. Omar Khan Sharif left Derby, England, to study in London. On his return to his hometown he wore robes, grew a beard and prayed every day. He also attended public meetings organized by al-Muhajiroun and was a student at the " Shari'ah School" that was taught by Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed Fostok. Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed Fostok said that Sharif was a "martyr" who had died in the cause of Muslim lands and Muslim people. He said: I knew Sharif very well and he used to attend regularly at my sessions. He was my brother and I am very proud of him and any Muslim who will do the same as he did."117

ZAKARIA SOUBRA

Except for Brother Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, only men peripherally connected to al-Qaeda like Zakaria Soubra, or not connected at all, were mentioned in the memorandum and just one, who was fingered by an informant or tipster, was interviewed. FBI Agent Kenneth Williams reported:

Zakaria Mustapha Soubra within weeks of his arrival at Prescott, Arizona, [deleted – but probably ‘was reported to have given speeches’]

116. http://www.justicescholars.org/pegc/archive/JTF-GTMO_Cases/OMC_20040224_Al_Qosi.pdf117. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/20/nbomb20.xml

supporting Usama bin Laden, at mosques located throughout Arizona. Soubra has also organized anti-United States and anti-Israeli demonstrations in the area of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona… the FBI Phoenix interviewed Zakaria Soubra on June 7, 2000 and May 11, 2000 at his residence. On June 7, 2000 interviewing Agents observed photocopied photographs of Usama bin Laden, Ibn Khattab, and wounded Muslim separatists from Chechnya tacked to his living room wall. Soubra admitted to (deleted – being illegally) in the State of Arizona. Zakaria Soubra stated he considers the U.S. Government and U.S. Military forces in the Gulf as ‘legitimate military targets of Islam.’…Soubra was defiant towards interviewing Agents and it was clear he was not intimidated by the FBI presence. It is obvious that he is a hard core Islamic extremist who views the U.S. as an enemy of Islam. Investigation of Zakaria Soubra is continuing. (Deleted) Phoenix believes that it is more than a coincidence that subjects who are supporters of Usama bin Laden are attending civil aviation universities /colleges in the State of Arizona. As receiving offices are aware, Phoenix has had significant Usama bin Laden associates / operatives living in the State of Arizona and conducting activity in support of Usama bin Laden. Wadih el-Hage, a Usama bin Laden lieutenant recently convicted for his role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa, lived in Tucson, Arizona, for several years during the 1980s. Essam Al-Ridi, a personal pilot for UBL, traveled to Tucson, Arizona during 1993 at the direction of El-Hage to procure a T-39 jet aircraft for UBL’s personal use. (Deleted) Phoenix believes that it is highly probable that UBL has an established support network in place in Arizona. This network was most likely established during the time period that El-Hage lived in Arizona.

Kenneth J. Williams designated the Zakaria Soubra investigation as a terrorist

matter. Kenneth J. Williams told the OIG that he had opened the Zakaria Soubra case under this designation after obtaining material in Zakaria Soubra's garbage relating to Ibn Khattab, who Williams believed had a connection to bin Laden.

Soubra was a sympathizer, not a member of al-Qaeda. The soldiers of al-Qaeda operating within the United States had been instructed not speak loudly; to have a general appearance that did not indicate Islamic orientation (beard, toothpick, book, long shirt, small Qur’an); to be careful not to mention the Brothers’ common expressions or show their behaviors (special praying appearance, “may Allah reward you”, “peace be on you” while arriving and departing, etc.); to void visiting famous Islamic places such as mosques, libraries, Islamic fairs, and most importantly not get involved in advocating good and denouncing evil in order not to attract attention to oneself. Soubra did just the opposite. After 9/11 Soubra was arrested and imprisoned for over a year for a minor visa violation (not enough college credits to qualify as a full-time student) and was deported to Lebanon in May 2003 after testifying under immunity in Virginia.118

118. Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic, June 21, 2003. One month later an acquaintance of Soubra, Muhammad Al-Qudhai'een, was arrested and held as a material witness. (Soon after Egyptair pilot Gamil El-Batouty sacrificed his life for Allah, Al-Qudhai'een and Hamdan Al-Shalawi were handcuffed and taken off flight in Columbus, Ohio, after an attendant complained that they asked

Soubra’s connections to Al-Muhajiroun, Ibn Khattab should have set off an alarm at FBI Headquarters, even if he was not part of the September 11th Operation.

suspicious questions and jiggled the cockpit door. Al-Qudhai'een filed a racial profiling lawsuit against the airline that was thrown out of court).