Editing Omar Abdel-Rahman (section)

==Activities in the US==
Abdel-Rahman was issued a tourist visa to visit the United States by the consul of the United States Embassy in [[Khartoum]], [[Sudan]], despite his name being listed on a [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] terrorist watch list. Abdel-Rahman entered the United States in July 1990 via [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Pakistan]], and [[Sudan]]. The State Department revoked his tourist visa on 17 November.<ref name=nsec>{{cite news|last=McKinley|first=James |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/16/nyregion/islamic-leader-on-us-terrorist-list-is-in-brooklyn.html|title=Islamic Leader on U.S. Terrorist List Is in Brooklyn|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 December 1990|access-date=18 September 2012}}</ref> Despite this, in April 1991, he obtained a [[Permanent residence (United States)|green card]] from the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]] office in [[Newark, New Jersey]]. After leaving the U.S. to go on an overseas trip, he tried to re-enter the U.S. in August 1991. At that point, U.S. officials recognized that he was on the lookout list, and began the procedure to revoke his permanent resident status. The U.S. government still allowed him to enter the country, as he had the right to appeal the decision to revoke his residency status. Abdel-Rahman failed to appeal the decision, and on 6 March 1992, the U.S. government revoked his green card. He then requested political asylum. A hearing on that matter was held on 20 January 1993.<ref name=nthi>{{cite news|last=Jehl |first=Douglas|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/07/nyregion/the-twin-towers-rahman-errors-admitted.html |title=Rahman Errors Admitted |newspaper=The New York Times |date=7 March 1993 |access-date=18 September 2012}}</ref> It was later revealed that Abdel-Rahman was given most of his visa approvals by the CIA.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=cia Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Harvard University Press, 2002), p.300-304]</ref> Egyptian officials have testified that the CIA was actively assisting him in entering the US.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/22/nyregion/cia-officers-played-role-in-sheik-visas.html Douglas Jehl, "C.I.A. Officers Played Role In Sheik Visas" The New York Times, 22 July 1993]</ref><ref>Cooley, John, "Unholy Wars" (Pluto, 1999), pp. 11, 54</ref> The CIA also protected Abdel-Rahman after he arrived in the United States.<ref>Cooley, John, "Unholy Wars" (Pluto, 1999), pp. 230ff</ref>

Abdel-Rahman traveled widely in the United States and Canada. Despite U.S. support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan, Abdel-Rahman spoke out vociferously against the country. He issued a [[fatwa]] in the US that declared it lawful to rob banks and kill Jews in the US. His sermons condemned Americans as the "descendants of apes and pigs who have been feeding from the dining tables of the Zionists, Communists, and colonialists".<ref>[[Evan Kohlmann|Kohlmann, Evan F.]], ''Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe'', Berg Publishers, 25 November 2004, p. 26</ref> He called on Muslims to assail the West, "cut the transportation of their countries, tear it apart, destroy their economy, burn their companies, eliminate their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, kill them on the sea, air, or land".<ref>Kohlmann, Evan F., ''Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe'', p. 185</ref>

Preaching at three mosques in the New York City area, Abdel-Rahman was soon surrounded by a core group of devoted followers that included persons who would soon be responsible for the [[1993 World Trade Center bombing]], which took place five weeks into the [[Bill Clinton]] administration. One of Abdel-Rahman's followers, [[El Sayyid Nosair]], was linked to the 1990 [[Manhattan]] assassination of Israeli nationalist Rabbi [[Meir Kahane]], founder of the [[Jewish Defense League]].

[[Steven Emerson]]'s 1994 television documentary ''[[Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America]]'' contains a video of Abdel-Rahman in Detroit, calling for ''jihad'' against the "infidel".<ref>{{cite news|last=Goodman|first=Walter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/21/arts/television-review-in-jihad-in-america-food-for-uneasiness.html |title=Goodman, Walter, "Television Review; In 'Jihad in America,' Food for Uneasiness,"|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 November 1994|access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref>

In 1993, Egypt suffered a spate of terrorist attacks in which over 1,100 people were either injured or killed. By comparison, the number for the prior year was 322.<ref name=afir>{{cite news|last=Weisser |first=Rebecca|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/hilalis-radical-mentor/story-e6frg6z6-1111112436639 |title=Hilali's radical mentor|newspaper=The Australian|date=30 October 2006|access-date=16 September 2012}}</ref> According to ''The New York Times'', these attacks had "shaken the Egyptian Government".<ref name=nfir>{{cite news|last=Hedges |first=Chris |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/07/world/a-cry-of-islamic-fury-taped-in-brooklyn-for-cairo.html|title=A Cry of Islamic Fury Tape in Brooklyn for Cairo|newspaper=The New York Times |date=7 January 1993|access-date=16 September 2012}}</ref>

Abdel-Rahman was the spiritual leader of Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, which included the terrorists who were conducting these attacks.<ref name="nfir"/> At that time, he was recording his sermons in Brooklyn on cassette tapes and sending them to Egypt. These tapes were duplicated and given to tens of thousands of followers in Cairo. In these tapes, Abdel-Rahman called for the murder of infidels, for the ousting of [[Hosni Mubarak]], and for Egypt to become a pure Islamic state.<ref name="nfir"/>

Mamdouh Beltagui, the head of the state information service in Egypt, told ''[[The New York Times]]'' in the early 1990s, "Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman uses New York as a base. He raises funds and sends money back to Egypt with couriers. He passes on messages to his followers, giving orders about what they should do next and who they should target. We do not understand why the U.S. authorities have allowed him to enter the country."<ref name="nfir"/>

===Arrest, conviction and death===
{{see also|New York City landmark bomb plot}}
After the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) began to investigate Abdel-Rahman and his followers more closely. An Egyptian informant wearing a listening device for the FBI managed to record Abdel-Rahman saying he preferred attacks be concentrated on US military targets, but also stating acts of violence against civilian targets were not illicit.<ref name="nyt95page2a">Fried, Joseph P.[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/02/nyregion/terror-conspiracy-overview-sheik-9-followers-guilty-conspiracy-terrorism.html?src=pm&pagewanted=2] 2 October 1995 ''New York Times'' Page 2: But his tapes made crucial points against Mr. Abdel Rahman. In one, Mr. Salem says one of the conspirators has proposed bombing the United Nations headquarters, and asks, "Is this considered licit or illicit?" "It is not illicit," Mr. Abdel Rahman replies, according to a transcript, "however, will be bad for Muslims." He goes on to tell Mr. Salem to find a way instead to "inflict damage on the American Army itself."</ref> The most startling plan, the government charged, was to set off five bombs in 10 minutes, blowing up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI.<ref name="nyt95page1">{{Cite news|last=Fried|first=Joseph P.|title=The Terror Conspiracy - The Overview - Sheik and 9 Followers Guilty of a Conspiracy of Terrorism - NYTimes.com|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/02/nyregion/terror-conspiracy-overview-sheik-9-followers-guilty-conspiracy-terrorism.html|date=2 October 1995|work=New York Times|page=1|quote=The centerpiece of the conspiracy, according to prosecutors who had no actual explosion to support their case and who relied heavily on secretly made tapes and a shady informer, was to be a cataclysmic "day of terror": five bombs that were to blow up the United Nations headquarters, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and 26 Federal Plaza, the Government's main office building in New York.|access-date=11 December 2016}}</ref> Government prosecutors showed videotapes of the defendants mixing bomb ingredients in a garage before their arrest in 1993.<ref name="nyt95page2">Fried, Joseph P.[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/02/nyregion/terror-conspiracy-overview-sheik-9-followers-guilty-conspiracy-terrorism.html?src=pm&pagewanted=2] 2 October 1995 New York Times Page 2: In addition, videotapes showed four defendants mixing diesel oil and fertilizer at a Queens garage for the intended bombs. The garage, which the suspects called a safe house, had actually been fitted out by the Government with hidden cameras and microphones for a sting operation.</ref> Abdel-Rahman was arrested on 24 June 1993, along with nine of his followers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 18, 2017 |title='Blind Sheik' linked to 1993 World Trade Center bombing dies in US federal prison |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/blind-sheikh-linked-1993-world-trade-center-bombing/story?id=45582741%7Cdate=18 |work=ABC News}}</ref> On 1 October 1995, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy, solicitation to murder Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, conspiracy to murder President Mubarak, solicitation to attack a U.S. military installation, and conspiracy to conduct bombings; in 1996 he was sentenced to [[life imprisonment|life]] in [[Solitary confinement in the United States|solitary confinement]] without [[parole]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/irp/threat/fbi_terror95/terrorin.htm#anchoNewYork|title=Terrorism in the United States |publisher=FAS|access-date=8 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The 9/11 Encyclopedia |last=Atkins |first=Stephen E. |publisher=Praeger Security International |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-275-99431-0 |location=Westport, CT |page=3}}</ref>

Abdel-Rahman began serving his life sentence at the [[Federal Medical Center, Rochester|FMC Rochester]] in Minnesota.<ref>{{cite web | publisher=[[KROC (AM)]] |title=Blind Sheik – Former Rochester Federal Prison Inmate – Has Died |date=18 February 2017 |url=http://krocam.com/blind-sheik-former-rochester-federal-prison-inmate-has-died/ |access-date=18 February 2017}}</ref> After the [[September 11 attacks]], he was transferred to the [[Federal Medical Center, Butner|FMC Butner]] in North Carolina.<ref>"[http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=omar&Middle=&LastName=rahman&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=0&y=0 Omar Ahmad Rahman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011165647/http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=omar&Middle=&LastName=rahman&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=0&y=0 |date=11 October 2013 }}." [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]]. Retrieved on 21 May 2010.</ref> He died there on 18 February 2017 at the age of 78 due to complications from [[diabetes]] and [[coronary artery disease]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Preston|first1=Julia|title=Omar Abdel Rahman, Blind Cleric Linked to World Trade Center Bombing, Dies at 78|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/world/middleeast/omar-abdel-rahman-dead.html|access-date=18 February 2017|work=New York Times|date=18 February 2017}}</ref>

It was arranged for the U.S. to transport his body to Egypt for his funeral.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Reuters |date=22 February 2017 |title=Thousands Mourn 'Blind Sheikh' Convicted In 1993 World Trade Center Bombing |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/blind-sheikh-death-mourners_us_58adecdbe4b01406012f4589 |newspaper=WORLDPOST }}</ref> His funeral was mentioned in an article in the publication ''Al-Masra'' by the terrorist group [[Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/Terror_Monitor/status/836282545402593284 |title=#YEMEN Pro-#AQAP's #AlMasra Newspaper Slams #WhiteHouse Chief Strategist #SteveBannon. #TerrorMonitor |date=27 February 2017 |website=Twitter |publisher=Terrormonitor.org |access-date=27 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/836606118403141632 |title=Latest #alQaeda paper just out. Congrats #SteveBannon for being lead story with headline "the war is with #Islam as a religion". Yes, a gift |last=Kendall |first=Elisabeth |date=28 February 2017 |website=Twitter }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://jihadology.net/2017/02/27/new-issue-of-an%e1%b9%a3ar-al-shariah-in-the-arabian-peninsulas-newspaper-al-masra-41/ |title=New issue of Anṣār al-Sharī'ah in the Arabian Peninsula's newspaper: "al-Masrā #41" |date=27 February 2017 |website=Jihadology }}</ref>