Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, otherwise known as the Blind Sheikh, has sat in a Missouri prison since 1995 for terrorism related charges (specifically his connection to the 1993 WTC attack). Thanks to a reader, Thomas, we learn of a letter sent to the Sheikh’s followers from Abdel-Rahman himself has made it to the internet.

The letter’s contents are in English and appear on a terrorist sympathiser forum. How did this letter find the way from a prisoner who has been denied outside communication in fear of inciting attacks? Most likely his lawyer, Lynn Stewart who has now been charged with spreading the Sheikh’s communications, took the letter from the Sheikh and delivered it to the right people. Stewart is not exactly a friend to the United States, but that hasn’t kept some Americans from heralding her as a hero.

On to the letter. As it is long and I have provided the link to the full letter and a downloadable PDF file, I will only provide small excerpts.

Date: 02-Jan-2005 Shaykh Omar Abdur Rahman, the blind Alim, incarcerated in the Springfield Centre (Missouri), sent out the following letter from Prison. Its contents are shocking and humiliating. We reproduce most of it below so that the world would know what the Americans are doing to a respected Muslim Alim.

‘The conditions in the prison (where I am kept) are very bad and extremely poor. This can be seen from the following:

What they claim about freedom of religion and freedom of worship is all false. I have not been allowed to pray the Jumuah prayers, or even pray in congregation since I arrived at the prison in October, 1995.

There is prejudice and discrimination in 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 no**** responds to my needs.

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahmen is kept in solitary confinement for a variety of reasons. First off, he would most likely be killed by any other prisoner if they could. Secondly, Abdel-Rahmen was arrested for his connection with the 1993 WTC attack in which he helped indoctrinate jihadis. If he is allowed to converse with other prisoners, he could very well incite hatred and indoctrinate other terrorists.

(more…)

Armies of Liberation linked with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahmen
Hyscience linked with Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahmen’s Smuggled Letter

While I am still unclear whether or not the female body found in Northern Iraq was that of Iraqi television reporter Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan, Wazan’s body has been found and identified by her husband.

MOSUL, Iraq - A female Iraqi television presenter kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul last week was found dead, her husband said Saturday.

Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan was abducted Feb. 20 by several masked gunmen. Her corpse was found Friday, said her husband, Salim Saad-Allah. She had been shot in the head.

[snip]

Saad-Allah said there would be no funeral procession for Wazan because he’d received threats not to hold one. He gave no details.

Wazan’s husband cannot even have a funeral for his wife because of threats. Can there be any more doubt to the depravity of those who commit these deeds?

Six Meat Buffet linked with Tag teaming for terror
The Jawa Report linked with Terrorists Behead Another Woman; second beheading victim this week and third woman
Interested-Participant linked with Body of Raiedah Wazan Dumped on Street

“To promote peace and stability in the broader Middle East, the United States will work with our friends in the region to fight the common threat of terror, while we encourage a higher standard of freedom. Hopeful reform is already taking hold in an arc from Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain. The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future. And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East.”

- President Bush during the 2005 State of the Union

It is no coincidence that following President Bush urging Egypt to move more towards Democracy that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today announced Egypt will allow presidential challengers to his position.

An open election has long been a demand of the opposition but was repeatedly rejected by the ruling party, with Mubarak only last month dismissing calls for reform as “futile.”

The sudden shift was the first sign from the key U.S. ally that it was ready to participate in the democratic evolution in the Middle East, particularly historic elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Mubarak’s government has faced increasingly vocal opposition at home and growing friction with the United States over the lack of reform.

“We have moved a mountain,” said Rifaat el-Said, leader of the opposition Tagammu party. “This should open the gate for other democratic reforms.”

Freedom is on the march in the Middle East. Egypt’s opening towards further democratic reform is just the latest sign of a new-found mindset.

This is clearly a historical time period for the Middle East. In the past four years alone, we have witnessed three new democracies (Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan), a former terrorist state give up their WMD program (Libya) and democratic ferver spreading throughout the region. There are still countries resisting such changes, Iran and Syria, but make no mistake about it, freedom is on the march.

The Politicker linked with Freedom Is On The March

Syria cannot get a break from the international community. When former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Harir was assassinated, many suspect Syria’s involvment. Following yesterday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel has blamed Syria for cooperating with Hezbollah.

Although Mofaz blamed Syria for Friday night’s bombing outside a nightclub, he did not immediately threaten retaliation against Israel’s northern neighbor.

Speaking at a meeting with defense chiefs, Mofaz said Israeli officials would go abroad in coming days on a diplomatic offensive to present the case against Damascus, a statement from his office said.

“The defense minister ruled that Israel sees Syria and the Islamic Jihad movement as those standing behind the murderous attack in Tel Aviv,” the statement said.

The suicide bomber was an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was believed to have been recruited by Hezbollah to carry out this attack. Hezbollah is housed in Lebanon, Syria and Iran and financed by both Syria and Iran. Islamic Jihad is also housed in Syria.

While Syria cannot get a break, they do not deserve a break from anyone who despises terrorism. Syria has been integral in keeping the Iraqi insurgency alive through housing Saddam loyalists, training and indoctrinating jihadis and allowing insurgency groups to cross the border into Iraq without a problem.

Wichita police have a man in custody that is suspected to be the BTK killer. Yesterday they took Dennis Rader into custody for interrogation and DNA analysis. Today they announced Rader will face charges as being the BTK killer.

WICHITA, Kan. - Police said Saturday they have arrested a man they believe is the notorious BTK serial killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s and then resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence.

“The bottom line: BTK is arrested,” Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims’ family members.

BTK investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr identified the suspect as Dennis Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday at his suburban home.

Rader, an animal control officer, had been a suspect early on in the case, however he was deemed not a suspect at the time. The BTK killer killed on the very street in which Rader lives, though there was no evidence pointing to Rader’s involvment.

Another person of interest in the Bind, Torture, Kill (BTK) case is in custody and being questioned by the FBI. KAKE news, which has been BTK’s television station of contact throughout the years, reports there will be a news conference held tomorrow at 10 a.m.

February 25– A 10 a.m. news conference is scheduled in Wichita tomorrow to discuss the BTK case. Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston and Police Chief Norman Williams will take part in the conference. Also scheduled to take part are Congressman Todd Tiahrt and KBI Director Larry Welch. Families of BTK victims will also be in attendance.

Law enforcement sources tell KAKE News “they’ve got their man”. A person of interest was taken in for questioning today. The man is 59-years-old. Wichita State University records show he graduated in 1979 with a degree in Administration of Justice.

According to KAKE News, the police have finally caught the BTK killer. It would be rather odd to hold a press conference with the victim’s families in attendance if this person of interest is not in fact the BTK killer. We shall see tomorrow morning.

For more information on the BTK killer, visit Crime Library.

Yet another top aide, Abu Qutaybah, to Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured (via Backcountry Conservative).

The man, identified as Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured during a Feb. 20 raid in Anah, about 160 miles northwest of Baghdad, a government announcement said.

“Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with al-Zarqawi,” the government said.

The more top aides to Zarqawi we capture, the closer we will be to the arrest of Zarqawi himself.

A suicide bomber ran into a crowd awaiting to enter a night club in Tel Aviv today, killing 4 and injuring over 50 Israeli youths.

Suddenly there was this huge explosion and we just ran,” said Merav Ayush, 20, who was on her way to the club when the explosion occurred.

“I saw a boy and a girl sitting on the ground. At the entrance to the club there were about 15 people just lying on the floor,” Ayush said as she lay in a bed at the nearby Ichilov hospital. She was being treated for shock.

Both Israeli leader Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had come to an agreement of a cease-fire no less than one month ago. As worries then included the various terrorist groups would not abide to the cease-fire, Abbas personally talked with leadership in the terrorist groups and was assured they would abide by the agreement. What remains of the agreement now is unknown.

Right now the focus on which terrorist group is responsible for the attack centers on Hezbollah. In a case of strange irony, this is the group in which President Bush urged the EU to consider a terrorist group. The EU declined the terrorist group tag. What more will it take before some countries in Europe wake up to realize that Hezbollah is in fact a terrorist group?

Abu Ali, who yesterday was arrested for plotting to assassinate President Bush, has claimed he was detained in Saudi Arabia by American intelligence and tortured under both the watch and request of the U.S. government. United States doctors have checked out Abu Ali and have found no evidence of torture.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said that the student, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, saw a doctor Monday and that the physician found no evidence of harm. The prosecutor said Abu Ali was allowed to play soccer and work out while in Saudi custody and called his allegations of mistreatment “an utter fabrication.”

An attorney for Abu Ali said in court this week that his client was whipped and handcuffed while he was held in a Saudi prison from June 2003 until early this week. Saudi security sources said yesterday that officers had used physical and psychological pressure on Abu Ali to elicit information about al Qaeda cells and operations but that it stopped short of severe or prolonged torture. They said the FBI was not directly involved and compared the treatment to tactics used by U.S. military officers against suspected terrorist detainees.

“The defendant’s claims of mistreatment are an utter fabrication intended to divert attention from his criminal involvement with an al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia,” McNulty said in the papers, which ask the court to keep Abu Ali incarcerated until his trial.

This is not the first time a suspected terrorist has played the torture card. Each and every time a terrorist defendent has done so the claim has achieved front-page status in world-wide newspapers. Like many other alleged cases of torture, there is no evidence of torture.

Rusty Shackleford has stayed on top of this case and has some evidence pointing to Abu Ali’s ties with terror and the Saudi Arabian government. Read this post and then read this one.

‘Unfit for Command’ co-author Jerome Corsi has been threatened with a $10 million lawsuit, though not from who most people would assume. The threat comes from Hassan Nemazee, a member of the Iranian American Political Action Committee Board of Directors, former U.S. Ambassador to Argentina nominee as appointed by President Clinton and former John Kerry advisor and contributor. So what is Corsi’s response?

“Why so little?” is his response, Corsi said, pointing out one of his sources already has been sued by Nemazee for $10 million, Aryo Pirouznia, leader of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran.

“I’ll say the same thing as I said to John Kerry – I’ll send him the Federal Express package and save him the trouble,” Corsi said.

For those unaware, the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran is just what it says. The SMCCDI is a group that is trying to bring Democracy to Iran.

Nemazee is upset at Corsi for Corsi allegedly tying Nemazee to supporting the Mullahs in Iran in Corsi’s upcoming book ‘Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians’ to which Corsi denies doing so.

“I don’t have any proof of that,” he said. “But he was part of the pro-mullah lobby who worked with the Iranian-American Council, a group whose policy was to establish relations with the mullahs.”

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this lawsuit is that it throws Hassan Nemazee back into the ring. Nemazee is a shady character to say the least despite being the Kerry/Edwards ‘04 New York Finance Chairman. Nemazee argued against Kerry’s plan to send nuclear fuel to Iran which was covered in brief in the first presidential debate.

Kerry: I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes

In what serves as a shocking reminder, Nemazee is on the Board of Directors for a group which promotes dialog between the U.S. Government and the Mullahs of Iran. The candidate he supported and served as a fundraiser for advocated sending nuclear fuel to Iran to “test them.”

Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of this lawsuit threat. Corsi’s new book, ‘Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians,’ is scheduled to be released in March.