TOPDOG08.COM

« Gorelick and Zelikow, birds of a feather? | Main | No respect »

October 25, 2005

What exactly was Atta's connection to Rahman?

While avoiding the subject of a misguided CIA connection with Rahman, the Norristown Times Herald is back on the case at least:

Previously, Shaffer said that Atta, an Egyptian, had been linked to the El Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., a hotbed of anti-American sentiment once frequented by Sheik Omar Ahmed Abdul Rahman, know as the "Blind Sheik." Rahman is also Egyptian. Atta was not believed to be in the U.S., however, when he came to the attention of the team.

In 1995, Rahman was convicted of plotting to bomb various sites in New York City. Four of Rahman's associates were convicted in 2002 of conspiring with him to commit terrorist acts while he was in prison.

Though Shaffer was not allowed to give testimony at the Sept. 21 committee hearing, his attorney, Mark Zaid, did testify.

As a sobering reminder of "Able Danger's" unfulfilled promise, Zaid said the missing charts showing terrorist links likely still contained "several dozen" individuals yet to be captured.

"There are terrorist on the chart who may still be out there and planning attacks," Zaid said.

This Ashcroft press conference might explain it:

A U.S. grand jury has indicted four people for supporting and providing resources for convicted blind terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and the organization known as the Islamic Group, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced at an April 9 news conference in New York.

"The Islamic Group is a global terrorist organization that has forged alliances with other terrorist groups, including al Qaeda," Ashcroft said, noting that it has an active membership in the United States, concentrated in the New York City metropolitan area....

Among other overt acts, the indictment charges that, during a May 2000 visit to Sheik Abdel-Rahman, Stewart allowed Yousry to read letters from Ahmed Abdul Sattar regarding whether the Islamic group should continue to comply with a cease-fire in terrorist activities against Egyptian authorities that had been in place following the shooting and stabbing of 58 tourists and four Egyptians visiting an archaeological site in Luxor, Egypt in 1997. That's a terrorist attack for which the Islamic group claimed credit....

QUESTION: Do you know what, if anything, is the consequence of the letters that you allege were read to the Sheik, and if you read letters back in addition to (inaudible) which you say was issued under his name in the year 2000? What, if any, are the consequences of these communications?

ASHCROFT: Well, the first consequence is that the agreement and that the rules relating to his incarceration have been broken.

The second is that the communication, in accordance with the items mentioned in the indictment, that he had lifted his approval of the cease-fire is a very important signal to members of the Islamic group.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: How did these people provide financial support (inaudible) and other things, including sending money to Sheik Rahman's son in Afghanistan?

ASHCROFT: The indictment alleges that money was transferred, but frankly, for us to go beyond the indictment at this time would be improper....

QUESTION: Could you talk about the Luxor attack and the taking of the tourists as hostages? Did the sheik--the information that got out--what were the repercussions, that they encouraged these gentlemen to take the hostages?

ASHCROFT: Well, you know that dozens of people died in Luxor.

QUESTION: Right.

ASHCROFT: And the sheik is a person whose leadership is substantial in the community of terrorists. Scattered on the bodies of those who died in Luxor were the pamphlets saying, ``Release the sheik from his imprisonment in the United States,'' just to indicate that his influence in the Islamic group as a terrorist organization was a profound influence, and so that signaling from him would be important....

QUESTION: When did you start monitoring conversations? Can somebody answer that question?

ASHCROFT: 1998, I believe, is it? December of 1998.

From the Wikipedia entry for Ayman al-Zawahiri:

On February 23, 1998, he issued a joint fatwa with Osama bin Laden under the title "World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders", an important step in broadening their conflicts to a global scale.

In 1999 al-Zawahiri was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military tribunal for his role in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad insurgency, including the massacre of sixty-two civilian tourists in Luxor in 1997.

According to Vincent Cannistraro, former top CIA counterterrorist official, "Zawahiri is the guy-he's the operational commander...number one, on the right hand side of Osama."

Posted by Mike at October 25, 2005 12:36 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.topdog08.com/cgi-bin/mt-trackback.cgi/835

Comments

Post a comment