Posted on 11/17/2001 11:08:15 PM PST by HAL9000
DUBAI, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. bombing of Afghanistan has killed the son of an Egyptian cleric serving a life sentence in the United States on charges linked to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, a pan-Arab newspaper said on Sunday.Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted Islamist sources in London as saying Assad Abdel Rahman, 29, son of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, died in the same raid as killed Mohammed Atef or Abu Hafs al-Masri, a close aide to Osama bin Laden and suspected planner of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
There was no independent confirmation of the report and the Taliban have denied reports of Atef's death.
The United States is hunting down bin Laden for allegedly masterminding the attacks on Washington and New York that killed thousands.
Sheikh Omar was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 on charges related to a car bombing that killed six people and injured at least 1,000 others at New York's World Trade Center.
The blind cleric is the spiritual leader of the militant Egyptian Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group).
Asharq al-Awsat also quoted another son of Sheikh Omar, Abdullah, as saying that Assad and another brother Saif had been living in Afghanistan for more than 11 years. He said they had left home to join thousands of Muslim volunteers who flocked to the country to fight Soviet forces.
As I recall, this guy was reported to be cheering and praising Allah when he heard of the WTC attack and aftermath. I wonder if he is cheering now...?
Ain't justice sweet indeed.
'In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.'
'All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessing be upon the master of the messengers, Prophet Muhammad. Blessing and peace be upon his family, his companions and those who follow him faithfully until the Day of Judgement....'
'The conditions in the prison (where I am kept) are very bad and extremely poor. This can be seen from the following:
'1. What they claim about freedom of religion and freedom of worship is all-false. I have not been allowed to pray Juma (Friday) prayers, or even pray in congregation since I arrived at the prison in October 1995.
'2. There is prejudice and discrimination in the their treatment in prison. When other prisoners call for the guards, they hurry to respond. I keep knocking on my cell door for hours but nobody responds to my needs.
'3. I go for months without my hair and nails cut; similarly I have to wash my underwear myself.
'4. I am kept in solitary confinement, in my situation (sheikh Omar is blind, suffers from diabetes and is advanced in age) without anyone to help me arrange my belongings. I have no one to converse with day or night, nor am I allowed to socialise with others since there is no one close to my cell, neither Muslim nor anyone else who can speak Arabic (Remember, Sheikh Omar can only speak Arabic). I stay like that day and night.
What loneliness, what cruelty? By doing this they want to make me terminally ill to exact revenge because I am a Muslim. Are these the human rights they boast about so much and fill the airwaves and new media while persecuting us so that we are unable to speak or raise our voice?
5) Have you heard of the strip searches and exposure of the private parts, and stripping people of all their outer and inner garments so that they are naked as the day they were born?
By Allah, this occurs to me every time a friend or family member visits me (Although I have no relative in America, all Muslims are my family). Every visit means I have to strip twice. They order me to remove all my clothes, and I swish this was the end of it. Instead, the chief prison guard, named Curling, with another man named Dayand several other guards, order me to open my thighs and bend forward. And then, like beasts- I can not really say it out of shyness and shame, but I will say it to relieve the pressure on myself and to let the Muslim Ummah live up to its duties and responsibilities towards its religion-they search my private parts intimately while they stand around watching and laughing. Groups of guards race around to take turns in looking inside my private parts while I am in this bent position. The one who spends the longest time looking and inspecting is considered to have done the best job. They humiliate and degrade me in this manner because I am Muslim and what they do is expressly forbidden by Allah.
And shy should they not do this? They have found their prey and achieved their goal. What are they looking for in my private parts? Are they looking for weapons, explosives or drugs that I have taken from the prison cell to my visitor or from my visitor to my cell? They do this twice to me on each visit so that I melt from shame and embarrassment and wish that the earth would open up and swallow me rather than they do this to me. Does this please those who protect their religion and honour?
"O People of manliness and brotherhood. O People that save and fulfil. O People of sacrifice and dignity. O Men of Allah! Rise from your deep slumber. Rise up with your resounding voices be heard in every place., loudly without rear. Rise up, O Men of Allah and like one body, show the truth and negate the evil. 'And don't give in to those who aggress lest the fire take hold of you.'
'Prisoners are for Scholars or criminals to sleep in? Death has surrounded my Ummah. Say Allahu Akbar and tell death to live!
'Who will wake up a nation that builds its nest on the winds, its feelings numbed and shows no reaction to plots? It is lost if its scholars fill up the cells like sheep. Aren't there courageous men who fear Allah? Aren't there strong words to throw the evil and shrink it?
ALLAHU AKBAR
'Rise up as one!
Do not fear loss of income.'
A wife of Sheikh Omar had written to US President George W. Bush and the Taliban leadership to "urge them to agree to such an exchange" because of her husband's poor health, the Sheikh's son Abdullah said.
Sheikh Omar was sentenced to life in prison in Jan 1996 in New York for the deadly bombing of the World Trade Center, while the eight foreigners were arrested recently in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity.
Montasser al-Zayat, a lawyer for the outlawed Egyptian group Jamaa Islamiya, whose spiritual leader is Sheikh Omar, also confirmed the swap had been proposed.
Jamaa Islamiya officially declared it had stopped using violence in March 1999, but southern Egypt remains under tight security because of the continued presence of guerrillas and large number of local tourist sites.
Abdullah said his mother, Aisha Abdel Rahman, the first of the Sheikh's two wives, sent the letters to Sheikh Omar's lawyer in the United States, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark.
Clark is to transmit the letters to US officials and representatives of the Taliban, he added.
"In her letter to the Taliban, my mother urges them to agree to this exchange, applying the principles of Islam in which a Muslim who stops the suffering of another Muslim will be rewarded by God," Abdullah said. "Such an exchange must only take place after the trial of the eight humanitarian workers," according to Abdullah, who is a researcher in Islamic theology at Cairo's Al Azhar University.-AFP
He is actually currently at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota. There are a bunch of people who would love to send him to the SuperMax prison in Colorado.
Present the ol man with his son's head on a pike.....If they can find his charred carcass that is....
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