El Sayyid Nosair
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El Sayyid Nosair (born November 16, 1955) is an Egyptian-born American citizen and terrorist involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. El Sayyid Nosair was convicted of 9 counts, including seditious conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder of a postal police officer, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, use of a firearm during an attempted murder, and possession of a firearm.
He was also charged by the State of New York as the gunman who killed the controversial leader of the FBI classified terrorist organization, the Jewish Defense League rabbi Meir Kahane in Manhattan in 1990. While acquitted of that crime, Nosair was convicted of weapons charges.
Nosair was convicted as part of the trial of the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences for the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years imprisonment. [1] Since it was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was finally convicted of killing Kahane. [2] He is serving his sentence in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
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[edit] Kahane trial
According to prosecutors, a man named Wadih el Hage purchased the .38 caliber revolver used by Nosair. El-Hage was told by a man named Mahmud Abouhalima to buy the gun.
Nosair was acquitted of murder but convicted of gun charges. High-profile defense attorney William Kunstler served as his attorney in the case. Dozens of Arabic bomb-making manuals and documents related to terrorist plots were found in Nosair's New Jersey apartment, also Army Special Warfare Center manuals from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, secret memos linked to Joint Chiefs of Staff, tapes of the Blind Sheik threatening "high world buildings," and 1440 rounds of ammunition. (Lance 2004 26). Osama bin-Laden contributed approximately $20,000 towards his defense.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "In taped messages made before killing Kahane, Nosair urged others to launch a jihad....'Remember ye brothers that God the Almighty commanded us to fight,' he said, according to a federal transcript of the tape. 'Without fighting there will not be justice on earth...We cannot establish God’s rules on earth except by fighting.'"[1]
Conspiracy evidence was ignored to avoid a 'show trial' by NYPD chief detective Joseph Borelli. Mahmud Abouhalima and Mohammed Salameh, who was also present in Nosair's apartment, were released the night of Meir Kahane's murder. Abdel-Rahman's tapes were not translated until after the World Trade Center bombing.
[edit] Pipe bomb plot, 1991
On March 8, 1991, El-Hage visited El Sayyid Nosair in Rikers Island, where he told him he wanted to execute a bomb plot - 12 pipe bombs, to be used for assassinating his judge and a Brooklyn assemblyman, the others to be used against Jewish targets. (Mylroie 1996)
[edit] World Trade Center bombing, 1993
Nosair was later convicted as part of the trial of the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences for the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years imprisonment. [3] Since it was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was finally convicted of killing Kahane. [4] He is serving his sentence in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
[edit] References
- ^ Pittsburgh Tribune Review, August 4th, 2002. "Rabbi's killer turned radical during years in Pittsburgh.". Retrieved on 2006-09-19.
