That is the US government's charge against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. The government successfully convinced the jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York -- hence Rahman's conviction -- and the Second Circuit judges, but the government's case is weak.
Here are the basic charges against Rahman: "The defendants were convicted of the following: seditious conspiracy (all defendants); soliciting the murder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and soliciting an attack on American military installations (Rahman); conspiracy to murder Mubarak (Rahman)" (at <http://www.mipt.org/usvrahman2cir081997.asp>). It is clear that Rahman thought that it would be justified to wage war against oppressors, but did his speech in fact constitute solicitation and conspiracy to murder Mubarak and seditious conspiracy against the United States, Egypt, or Israel? Or was he merely stating his religious, political, and philosophical opinion regarding what a just war is and how to wage it?
Let's take a look at what the government says Rahman said and did, based on the Second Circuit's summary of facts (at <http://www.mipt.org/usvrahman2cir081997.asp>), keeping in our mind that Emad Salem is a notorious liar who "received more than $1 million for his services as an FBI informer" (Maurice Williams, "Bomb Trial Suspects Railroaded To Prison," <em>The Militant</em> 59.38, <a href="http://themilitant.com/1995/5938/5938_10.html">October 16, 1995</a>):
* As a result of these contacts, Salem traveled to Detroit with Rahman and others to attend a conference on the Islamic economy. During this trip, Salem, seeking to ingratiate himself to Rahman, informed Rahman of his prior service in the Egyptian military during the 1973 conflict with Israel. Rahman told Salem that this was not jihad because he had been paid to fight by an infidel government. Rahman also told Salem that he could make up for this, however, by assassinating Mubarak, a "loyal dog to the Americans." Tr. 4633-34.
* By early 1992, Rahman had also welcomed Salem into the group. Rahman specifically praised Salem for attempting to restart paramilitary training with the group, noting that there would come a day when the training would be needed.
* As Siddig Ali later explained to Salem, the training was meant to prepare the trainees for jihad wherever it was needed. During training, Siddig Ali reported to Rahman, and Rahman offered his insights into the training.
* Rahman was making numerous calls to overseas numbers, including a Pakistan number which Yousef had inscribed in a bomb making pamphlet. Rahman, Salameh, and Yousef also made several calls to the same number in Pakistan in November.
* In January 1993, Rahman appeared at a conference in Brooklyn, and voiced his beliefs in violent jihad. Rahman further stated that being called terrorists was fine, so long as they were terrorizing the enemies of Islam, the foremost of which was the United States and its allies.
* While building the World Trade Center bomb, the builders kept in close phone contact with El-Gabrowny and Rahman. Salameh and Yousef repeatedly called El-Gabrowny at home and at the Abu Bakr Mosque and Rahman at home.
* After contemplating bombing a U.S. armory, Siddig Ali proposed bombing the United Nations complex. When initially discussing this plan with Salem, he stated that Rahman had approved the attack on the United Nations, and had called it not merely permissible, but a "must" and a "duty."
* Taking Siddig Ali up on his earlier invitation, Salem had a private conversation with Rahman on the night of May 23, 1993. At the bidding of Siddig Ali, Salem began the conversation by pledging allegiance to Rahman. Salem then told Rahman that he and Siddig Ali were planning to "do a job." Govt. Ex. 311T at 3. Salem explicitly asked Rahman about the United Nations. Rahman replied that bombing the United Nations was "not illicit, however will be bad for Muslims." Id. at 6-7. Rahman instead told Salem to "Find a plan, find a plan . . . to inflict damage on the American army itself." Id. Salem then asked about a strike on the FBI headquarters in New York. Rahman told him to "wait for a while," and to "plan carefully." Id. at 7.
* Salem recounted this conversation to Siddig Ali, who stated that when he had discussed the United Nations issue with Rahman, Rahman had been in favor of the plan. Subsequently, in discussing the plan to bomb the United Nations with Hampton-El, Siddig Ali told him that he had received an "official fatwa" from Rahman regarding the plan. Govt. Ex. 315T at 7-9. Siddig Ali also told Khallafalla and Amir Abdelgani the same thing, stating the Rahman's approval was necessary whenever one did something "basically unlawful," which would be wrong unless the "mission [was] under the flag of God and his messenger." Govt. Ex. 320T at 7-9.
* As a result of the failure of the plan to execute Mubarak, there was some speculation by members of the group that Siddig Ali was an informer. Siddig Ali and Salem conversed one day with Rahman about the issue. Rahman voiced his suspicions that Siddig Ali was the informer. Ironically, Salem secretly tape recorded this conversation for the Government. During the conversation, Rahman revealed that Abouhalima, one of the World Trade Center bombers, was supposed to have fled to Sudan, not to Egypt, where he was subsequently arrested after the bombing. After the discussion, Siddig Ali told Salem that Rahman had ordered that they be circumspect when discussing their plans with him so that he would not be incriminated.
Evidence that Rahman's speech constituted solicitation and seditious conspiracy is lacking. Salem, the informer, tried to entrap Rahman into specifically calling for strikes against the United Nations and the FBI headquarters, but the sheik, if anything, counseled against such ideas. The rest of what the government said he said could very well be construed as his religious, political, and philosophical opinions concerning hypothetical examples brought up in discussions of just war theory. In short, the government, in my view, did not prove that Rahman engaged in seditious conspiracy and solicitation for murder beyond reasonable doubt.
What is interesting (but missing from the Second Circuit's summary) is that "[t]hree of the four defendants [of whom Rahman isn't one] who testified explained they thought they were preparing to go to Bosnia to help Muslims fight the Serbs. The fourth defendant stated that he was duped into believing that he was aiding plans to attack a Serb warehouse in New York where arms were stored. 'They baited these guys with Bosnia and halfway through they switched to talking about American targets,' said [Valerie] Amsterdam [defense attorney for Fadil Khallafalla]" (Williams, <a href="http://themilitant.com/1995/5938/5938_10.html">October 16, 1995</a>). If they had thought that a jihad against the Serbs would be in accordance with Washington's wishes, the Bill Clinton Administration's overall conduct must have led them into thinking so: "The committee [U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in a November 1996 report] did find that the Clinton administration knew about the Third World Relief Agency -- a Muslim organization that also had ties to Osama bin Laden and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical Egyptian cleric convicted of masterminding the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 -- and its activities beginning in 1993. The United States took no action to stop the organization's fund-raising, transportation of fighters or arms purchases because of the administration's sympathy for the Muslim government and ambivalence about maintaining the arms embargo" (Gregory Piatt, "Report: No Evidence of U.S. Weapons Assistance," <em>Stars and Stripes</em>, <a href="http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=126&article=8575&archive=true">April 14, 2002</a>). -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>