Posted on 02/02/2002 2:32:18 AM PST by kattracks
The son of a blind Egyptian cleric in prison for plotting to bomb New York landmarks may be a detainee at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, his brother said.
"I have contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross, gave them Ahmed's photos and will be checking with them in about two days," Abdullah Abdel-Rahman, who lives in Cairo, said yesterday.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman is the son of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Muslim cleric serving a life sentence in federal prison for conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and blow up five New York landmarks, including the United Nations, in the 1990s.
He also has been linked to the men who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.
The sheik moved from Egypt to the United States in the early 1990s and became imam at Masjid Al Salaam, a mosque on Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City.
He also preached regularly at Abu Bakr El Siddique mosque in Midwood, Brooklyn.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman was captured in Afghanistan last month by anti-Taliban forces. Vice President Cheney has indicated he is likely to face a U.S. military commission.
Abdullah Abdel-Rahman said it appeared anti-Taliban forces had turned over all their prisoners to the United States. He said he had heard reports that his brother was in U.S. military detention at Guantanamo.
Members of Egypt's parliament have demanded the government report to the People's Assembly on nine alleged Egyptian Al Qaeda members, including the sheik's son, detained by the United States, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported.
Another son of the sheik, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, was reported dead last month after he was wounded in the bombardment of Afghanistan's Tora Bora caves.
U.S. officials believe the two sons, in Afghanistan since 1989, were senior members of Al Qaeda, the terror group led by Osama Bin Laden. But Abdullah Abdel-Rahman has denied that, saying the group his father led and to which his brothers belonged, al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, had several differences with Al Qaeda.
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or "the Islamic group," is a radical organization that attempted an insurrection against the Egyptian government in the 1990s.
Of course, Abdullah, anything you say. They were in Afghanistan for the waters.
Aaahh...I love the smell of a daisy-cutter in the morning
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