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It is worth noting that GMU microbiology grad Ali Al-Timimi was not the only US-based insider who supports the militants. One New York-based post office worker was an Islamic Group leader according to DOJ officials. US Postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar was a “surrogate” for the blind sheik Abdel-Rahman and issue in Abdel-Rahman’s name a fatwa to kill jews. He distributed through the Vanguards of Conquest publicist in the Fall of 2000.

In the Spring of 1999, he had fielded a proposal by Al-Timimi’s colleagues from the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) quarterly journal — one of whom was the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad — to channel their efforts through nonviolent means, through political participation. After that proposal was rejected, the post office worker worked closely with the head of the Egyptian Islamic Group Taha, the blind sheik’s successor. Taha was the guy pictured alongside Zawahiri and Bin Laden urging that Americans be killed and vowing to free the blind sheik. Abdel-Rahman’s voice was heard in the September 2000 videotape aired on Al Jazeera urging “avenge your sheik” and let the spilling of blood begin. The New York-based post office worker was home from work and watching the videotape as it aired in his small Staten Island apartment when the Islamic Group head Taha called to ask him what he thought.

Sattar came to the United States in 1982 as a tourist. He married a Catholic who converted. He became a naturalized American. They had four children and lived in a small apartment in Staten Island. He went to work for the main post office in Staten Island in 1988. He became a fan of the blind sheik when Abdel Rahman arrived in 1991 and was giving lectures in New Jersey and Brooklyn. He can been pictured alongside Abdel-Rahman in 1993 leaving the courthouse with the blind sheik followers. Sattar made hundreds of phone calls from his family’s small apartment to fundamentalist followers of the sheik across the globe, from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan. He ran a diaper and baby foods business to raise funds for Abdel Rahman. Over the years, in the course of the calls he arranged, Mr. Sattar eventually joined their debates about using violence. Senior IG leaders began calling in late 1998.

The wiretapped calls show a tense dispute over whether to continue a cease-fire in their long war against the Egyptian government or return to violence. His comments suggest he came to favor the view of those who wanted to abandon the truce. Mr. Sattar’s phone calls show the debate between Sheik Salah Hashim, the group’s leader in Egypt, an outspoken proponent of the cease-fire and Taha, who opposed it. Taha was close to the Taliban and drawing ever closer to Bin Laden and Zawahiri. It was public outrage over those killings led the Islamic Group to announce the cease-fire later that year

In his opening argument, the federal prosecutor explained:

“Sattar led a double life. By day he was a postal worker. By night he was a terrorist living in a shadowy world, a world where to avoid detection people speak in code and don’t use their real names when they speak on the telephone. A world where Abdel Rahman is revered, a world where violence is solicited and terrorist conspiracies are hatched, a world where Sattar can proudly utter the words that he wants everybody to hear. These are his words: ‘Kill Jews wherever they are and wherever you find them.’”

In 1999, Sattar emphasized in a Frontline interview that reaction to what he perceived as a war against Islam was inevitable “You’re going to see the same feeling everywhere in a Muslim country toward Americans right now. In Syria, in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, in Morocco, everywhere you go, you’re going to have the same feeling that there is a war declared by the West on Islam, and in particular, the United States of America on Islam. And ... something has to be done about it. [The] reaction ... could be like the bombing in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. It could be some demonstrations in front of American embassies throughout the Islamic world that we saw before. Could be kidnapping of Americans.”

In 1999, US Postal employee Sattar explained his admiration for Bin Laden “I have an admiration for anybody who will stand up to a tyrant and tell him, “You are a tyrant” whether this tyrant [is a] man named [Mubarak] or [the] government of the United States of America.” Sattar described the Blind Sheik as “My friend, my mentor, my sheik, my imam, my father... “ He recognized that it made him a suspect. He explained that he had been followed days and nights, under surveillance 24 hours a day sometimes. He said he had been visited by FBI agents at his Staten Island Post Office job in an attempt to prejudice my co-workers against me. He said “To me, am I a terrorist? Nope. I am a father. I am a man who believes in his religion.”

When the Frontline interviewer in 1999 suggested that the NYC joint terrorism task force likely thought he knew a lot of people who know a lot, he said he did. But he explained that an act like the World Trade Center or Oklahoma City bombing or the 1998 embassy bombings does not need many people to do it. As the result of this operational security and compartmentalization, he is not in a position to know. “Could be four or five people like in the World Trade Center.” He continued: “I’ll tell you something. When the World Trade Center occurred here, the American government released a list. 173 names. And they called them co-conspirators of people who were living in this country, and people living abroad. 173 names. So, let’s not just jump to conclusions because the American government, you know, released a name that he must be a part of it. 173.”

Before 2000, Mr. Sattar seemed to stay aloof from the group’s internal feuds, simply connecting phone calls among its members after finishing his work at the post office. But he began to change in June of that year after Mr. Abdel Rahman issued a statement, announced by Attorney Stewart in a press release in defiance of formal prison restrictions on communication, in which he withdrew his support for the cease-fire. He rushed the news of the cleric’s new view in calls to Islamic Group members overseas. Islamic Group military leader Hamza, who was in Afghanistan at the time as was Taha, protested the sheik’s change and pleaded with Mr. Sattar not to release it to the press.

In his opening argument before the jury, the federal prosecutor explained: “But all the secret messages back and forth between Abdel Rahman and his terrorist network culminate in the spring of 2000, when a public announcement is made by Abdel Rahman, courtesy of these defendants, saying that Abdel Rahman no longer supported a cease fire by this terrorist organization, the cessation of terrorist violence between his organization and the Egyptian government. In essence, these defendants helped Abdel Rahman break out of jail to inspire his terrorist group to return to terrorism. They allowed Abdel Rahman to tell his followers, ‘Fire.’”

After the press release by Attorney Stewart announcing the blind sheik’s new position, Mr. Sattar set up conference calls and then remained on the line while Mr. Hashim speaking from Egypt and Mr. Taha speaking from Afghanistan argued angrily. Mr. Taha said the Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak “must be removed, and will not be removed except by using armed force.” “We are in a difficult stage; we can’t use force at all,” Mr. Hashim insisted. Many hundreds of IG members were still in jail and negotiations were underway with the government that sought their release.

At the time of these exchanges, Taha appeared with Bin Laden on a videotape that was broadcast on September 21, 2000, by Al Jazeera. The call for violent worldwide jihad, or religious struggle, to free Mr. Abdel Rahman from jail. A couple days later Mr. Taha called Mr. Sattar to get his reaction. “The words caused such an impact,” Mr. Sattar exclaimed.

In late September 2000, during an upsurge of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Coming home from the post office each day, the transcripts show, he immediately goes to monitor Arab news Web sites and television. The images all look to him like Israeli attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians, according to the transcripts. “Animals, animals, I swear by God the Almighty,” Mr. Sattar said, referring to the Israelis. When Mr. Taha called, Mr. Sattar urged him to compose a religious decree that they could attribute to the sheik. Later he edited Mr. Taha’s draft. “Kill the Jews wherever they are found,” it says. On the day after the fatwah was published Sattar read a newspaper article to Taha. That article identified a man named Atia as the leader of the Islamic Group military wing in Egypt and so Sattar knew full well the line of work of the fellow that would be one the telephone conference call with him and Taha. Taha commented to Sattar that the writer of the article had really good information. Three days later, Taha called Sattar and told Sattar that he should contact Atia and tell them about the fatwah they had issued, the one demanding the murder of the Jews. Sattar agreed to do so and called Atia in early October 2000.

In his opening argument, the federal prosecutor explained: “Using the pretext of attorney-client visits and telephone calls, these defendants were able to break Abdel Rahman’s message of terror out of jail and deliver it to the very people who never should have heard it, other terrorists who still walk the streets and were still able to follow his instructions.” Separately, Taha wrote a legal justification for killing innocents and Sattar had a copy of the book.

Sattar helped Islamic Group leader Taha, who was in Afghanistan with the IG military commander Mustafa Hamza, compose a religious edict and release it under the sheik Abdel-Rahman’s name. He arranged for it to be uploaded to the internet and released to the press. He coordinated with Vanguards of Conquest spokesman Yasir Al-Sirri, based in London. Sattar says he was moved to order the killing of jews after the visit of Ariel Sharon to the site of the Al Aqsa mosque in September 2000. At trial, he lamented Mr. Sharon’s visit as a “violation of that holy place.” His fatwa urged 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.” The blind sheik did not see the fatwa issued in his name until the next week but approved it. The sheik has signed a power of attorney for Mr. Sattar and trusted his judgment completely.

There were among some 90,000 intercepted conversations from Sattar’s home phone made between March 1995 and March 2002, as part of a federal foreign intelligence investigation. The Assistant United States Attorney explained at trial that the “criminal investigation and any consideration of charges were put on hold due to a fear that the criminal investigation could possibly blow the intelligence investigation.” The coincidence that anthrax would be delivered by a postal worker, however, likely did not go unnoticed by those pursuing the theory that US-based supporters of Al Qaeda were responsible for the anthrax mailings.

On July 7, 2004, the restaurant two doors down fired his sons, after 8 months working there, Sattar’s sons were fired from their jobs as busboys. The son confronted the owner, after hearing from cooks and waitresses that it was because of who his father was. The ownder said: “My wife died 9-11, every time I look at you I think of my wife and I don’t want you working here!” His children wrote the judge and urged that their father had done nothing wrong and that it was too painful to be kept away from him. His wife urged leniency too, noting: “ I am convinced that you cannot truthfully evaluate a person unless you have actually had a chance to become acquainted with them.” “Honesty, respect, kindness as well as compassion towards all, qualities that are almost non existent in our youth today, are his legacy to our children.”

A May 2005 Statement of Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chief Counterterrorism Section before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Committee in the House of Representatives described Sattar as an Islamic Group leader. Sattar put Taha in direct contact with the head of the Islamic Group in Egypt who was hiding in southern Egypt. His name was Alla Atia. On October 11, 2000 Sattar told Taha that he had spoken with Atia. He told Taha that he believed that Atia was eager ready and able “to do things,” and that he ad o warn Atia repeatedly during their telephone call that his telephone was “not safe.” Atia then was killed in a raid a week later. In early November, Taha gave Sattar the news that Atia had been killed. Sattar claims that he realized only later that the Atia had been a key planner of an attack at the ancient ruins in Luxor, Egypt in November 1997 in which 58 tourists were killed. Taha in the calls set up by Sattar was urging him to conduct operations. Then Atia was caught and killed. “I feel guilty, guilty. I am telling you I suspect it is 90 percent my phone.”

On October 25, 2000, Sattar spoke by telephone to Taha and told Taha that an Egyptian male was involved in the bombing of the US.S. Cole and that Sattar should help in delivering a message to the US government suggesting that similar attacks wuuld occur unless Abdel Rahman were freed.

When the expert on functionalized polymers, Magdy al-Nashar who arranged for the London flat used by the 7/7 bombers is represented by Mamdouh Ismail (allegedly Zawahiri’s chief conduit to jihadis), it is significant that al-Nashar was connected to the people who did Luxor, according to the biochemist’s brother. US Postal office worker. Sattar was arrested in April 2002 at just about the time the pressure in the media on the FBI was increasing to investigate a US biodefense insider (rather than Al Qaeda) for the anthrax mailings.