This is going to be a great test case. I eagerly await the howls of rights infringment from some of our nations more hysterical citizens.
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49888,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49888,00.html</a>
Four Indicted for Helping Terrorist Communicate With Followers From Jail
Tuesday, April 09, 2002
NEW YORK — Four people — including a New York lawyer — were indicted Tuesday on charges they helped a convicted terrorist imprisoned in the United States communicate with his followers in Egypt.
In announcing the federal indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft identified the sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, as a leader of a terrorist organization linked to Al Qaeda called the Islamic Group.
Ashcroft said the group spreads "a message of hate that is now tragically familiar to Americans," though he said the case had no apparent connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Abdel-Rahman, 63, is serving a life term in federal prison for his role in a 1993 conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks. He was also a spiritual leader of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The indictment accuses his attorney Lynne Stewart of carrying messages from the sheik from 1999 through mid-2001 when he was in prison in Rochester, Minn., despite rules prohibiting him from communicating with his followers.
The indictment charges that the unlawful communications happened during prison visits and attorney telephone calls involving Stewart and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator who also was charged.
Prosecutors said Stewart tried to fool prison guards by inserting extraneous comments in English into Arabic conversations between Abdel-Rahman and Yousry.
The two other defendants are accused of relaying a 2000 edict from Abdel-Rahman urging Muslims everywhere "to fight the Jews and to kill them wherever they are."
Stewart is a 62-year-old civil rights attorney and political firebrand whose clients have ranged from Weather Underground radicals to cop killers and recently, mob killer and turncoat Sammy "Bull" Gravano.
Stewart pleaded "emphatically not guilty" Tuesday in a courtroom packed with fellow defense attorneys. She was released on $500,000 bond.
Outside court, Stewart said she hoped the indictment becomes a "touchstone case ... something that points out the limits the government can go through in prosecuting people they don't like."
"I know a good fight when I see it, and I think this will be a very good fight," she said.
The others charged are Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 42, a New York postal worker described as a "surrogate" for Abdel-Rahman; and Yassir Al-Sirri, the former head of the London-based Islamic Observation Center.
Al-Sirri, who is in custody in Britain, was charged with "facilitating communications among Islamic Group members and providing financing for their activities."
Stewart represented the sheik in 1995 when he was convicted of seditious conspiracy. She wept when a jury found he conspired to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and that he and nine others sought to blow up the United Nations, a federal building, and two tunnels and a bridge linking New Jersey to Manhattan.
The indictment said all four defendants handled messages about the Islamic Group, which is dedicated to overthrowing Egypt's secular government and opposing others who do not share its radical interpretation of Islamic law.
All four were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to the terrorist organization. If convicted, each defendant could face maximum sentences of five to 20 years. Sattar and Al-Sirri, who allegedly delivered the fatwa, or edict, to kill Jews, were also charged with soliciting crimes of violence.
Sattar and Yousry both pleaded innocent.
Ashcroft also said the Justice Department will now monitor conversations between the sheik and his lawyers, the first use of an anti-terrorism tactic permitted under the Patriot Act passed after Sept. 11.
Michael Warren, a lawyer who represented the sheik several years ago, attended Stewart's arraignment and criticized the government's move.
"It is the beginning of an attempt to create a dangerous precedent flowing out of the Patriot Act," he said.
Lawyer Ron Kuby, who represented the sheik before Stewart took over, called the indictment "an attempt to intimidate the attorneys who are willing to stand up and challenge what John Ashcroft is doing to the Constitution."
The sheik, who suffers from diabetes, a heart ailment and asthma, has been moved from the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., said Tuesday. His new location was not disclosed.
According to the indictment, Stewart plotted with Sattar to mislead the public about the sheik's health. They allegedly agreed Sattar should claim prison officials were denying the sheik treatment for diabetes when he actually had refused medical care.
After Sept. 11, U.S. officials said two of Abdel-Rahman's sons were operatives for Al Qaeda.
The elder, Mohammad, has been described as a senior Al Qaeda operative and one of two dozen top targets in the U.S. war in Afghanistan. U.S. officials said he is still alive.
Another son, Ahmed, worked as a liaison between Al Qaeda and the Islamic Group before he was captured by anti-Taliban forces last year and turned over to the United States.
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49888,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,49888,00.html</a>
Four Indicted for Helping Terrorist Communicate With Followers From Jail
Tuesday, April 09, 2002
NEW YORK — Four people — including a New York lawyer — were indicted Tuesday on charges they helped a convicted terrorist imprisoned in the United States communicate with his followers in Egypt.
In announcing the federal indictment, Attorney General John Ashcroft identified the sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, as a leader of a terrorist organization linked to Al Qaeda called the Islamic Group.
Ashcroft said the group spreads "a message of hate that is now tragically familiar to Americans," though he said the case had no apparent connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Abdel-Rahman, 63, is serving a life term in federal prison for his role in a 1993 conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks. He was also a spiritual leader of the men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The indictment accuses his attorney Lynne Stewart of carrying messages from the sheik from 1999 through mid-2001 when he was in prison in Rochester, Minn., despite rules prohibiting him from communicating with his followers.
The indictment charges that the unlawful communications happened during prison visits and attorney telephone calls involving Stewart and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator who also was charged.
Prosecutors said Stewart tried to fool prison guards by inserting extraneous comments in English into Arabic conversations between Abdel-Rahman and Yousry.
The two other defendants are accused of relaying a 2000 edict from Abdel-Rahman urging Muslims everywhere "to fight the Jews and to kill them wherever they are."
Stewart is a 62-year-old civil rights attorney and political firebrand whose clients have ranged from Weather Underground radicals to cop killers and recently, mob killer and turncoat Sammy "Bull" Gravano.
Stewart pleaded "emphatically not guilty" Tuesday in a courtroom packed with fellow defense attorneys. She was released on $500,000 bond.
Outside court, Stewart said she hoped the indictment becomes a "touchstone case ... something that points out the limits the government can go through in prosecuting people they don't like."
"I know a good fight when I see it, and I think this will be a very good fight," she said.
The others charged are Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 42, a New York postal worker described as a "surrogate" for Abdel-Rahman; and Yassir Al-Sirri, the former head of the London-based Islamic Observation Center.
Al-Sirri, who is in custody in Britain, was charged with "facilitating communications among Islamic Group members and providing financing for their activities."
Stewart represented the sheik in 1995 when he was convicted of seditious conspiracy. She wept when a jury found he conspired to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and that he and nine others sought to blow up the United Nations, a federal building, and two tunnels and a bridge linking New Jersey to Manhattan.
The indictment said all four defendants handled messages about the Islamic Group, which is dedicated to overthrowing Egypt's secular government and opposing others who do not share its radical interpretation of Islamic law.
All four were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to the terrorist organization. If convicted, each defendant could face maximum sentences of five to 20 years. Sattar and Al-Sirri, who allegedly delivered the fatwa, or edict, to kill Jews, were also charged with soliciting crimes of violence.
Sattar and Yousry both pleaded innocent.
Ashcroft also said the Justice Department will now monitor conversations between the sheik and his lawyers, the first use of an anti-terrorism tactic permitted under the Patriot Act passed after Sept. 11.
Michael Warren, a lawyer who represented the sheik several years ago, attended Stewart's arraignment and criticized the government's move.
"It is the beginning of an attempt to create a dangerous precedent flowing out of the Patriot Act," he said.
Lawyer Ron Kuby, who represented the sheik before Stewart took over, called the indictment "an attempt to intimidate the attorneys who are willing to stand up and challenge what John Ashcroft is doing to the Constitution."
The sheik, who suffers from diabetes, a heart ailment and asthma, has been moved from the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., said Tuesday. His new location was not disclosed.
According to the indictment, Stewart plotted with Sattar to mislead the public about the sheik's health. They allegedly agreed Sattar should claim prison officials were denying the sheik treatment for diabetes when he actually had refused medical care.
After Sept. 11, U.S. officials said two of Abdel-Rahman's sons were operatives for Al Qaeda.
The elder, Mohammad, has been described as a senior Al Qaeda operative and one of two dozen top targets in the U.S. war in Afghanistan. U.S. officials said he is still alive.
Another son, Ahmed, worked as a liaison between Al Qaeda and the Islamic Group before he was captured by anti-Taliban forces last year and turned over to the United States.
