Emergency.Blog

Jailed cleric's illness triggers al Qaeda attack fears

Jailed cleric's illness triggers al Qaeda attack fears
Sick Sheik Could Portend Future Terror Events

MISSOURI: The imprisoned blind cleric who inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has been hospitalized, raising fears of new attacks if he dies in U.S. custody, the FBI said in a bulletin. Radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, 68, spat up blood on December 6 and was rushed to a hospital, the FBI notice said.

He had a small tear in his esophagus and was treated with a "needed transfusion to replace lost blood," said the FBI bulletin to staffers.

Medical personnel then discovered the cleric had a tumor on his liver, the FBI said.

Al Quintero, a public information officer for the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, said Abdel-Rahman remained at the hospital for five days.

"His condition improved, and he was returned back to prison on December 11, where he remains in stable condition," Quintero said.

Abdel-Rahman, who is serving life in a U.S. prison, has called for attacks if he dies in jail. But, law enforcement sources said there is no intelligence to suggest there are any attacks being planned.

The FBI bulletin includes what it said was Abdel-Rahman's last will and testament distributed at an al Qaeda news conference in 1998: "My brothers, if they kill me -- which they will certainly do -- hold my funeral and send my corpse to my family but do not let my blood be shed in vain. Rather extract the most violent revenge."

Read the entire article from CNN/Time.Com, visit: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/14/rahman.health/index.html

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FLASHBACK

Excerpt from: EmergencyNet NEWS Service, Tuesday, April 23, 1996, Vol. 2 - 114

Threats Against U.S. Continue to Increase

By: Paul Anderson, ENN Metro Correspondent

CHICAGO (ENN)--Calls for violence against the United States continue to come from members of several international Islamic extremist movements. The latest threat involves a message sent over the weekend to several news agencies in Cairo, Egypt by a group calling themselves "The Vanguards of Conquest". The message calls for "Muslims everywhere to sacrifice lives and all that is valuable to strike at American and Israeli targets."

This latest threat follows calls, late last week, by another Egyptian based group called Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, to "kidnap Americans to exchange for Sheik Abdel-Rahmann." Rahmann, the convicted mastermind and spiritual advisor to a group that intended to carry out bombings at a variety of vital locations in New York City, is currently confined for an extended term in a federal prison hospital in Springfield, MO. On Saturday (04/20), al Gamaa al-Islamiya clamed responsibility for last Thursday's (04/18) bombing and assault that killed eighteen (18) Greek tourists at hotel popular with Israeli visitors to Cairo.

On 04/16/96, Israeli embassies and commercial concerns tightened security measures following published threats by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization to "strike at vulnerable Jewish targets outside of Israel's borders." Unspecified "upgraded" security measures were reported to have been undertaken at that time in Britain, France, Hungary, Argentina and several other countries. Hezbollah has maintained and even escalated its rhetoric since the 16th statement and as the shelling and rocket attacks continue on the Israeli/Lebanese border.

Not to be left out in the battle of words, on 04/02/96, the Islamic militant group Hamas also issued warnings of more "wonderful martyrdom operations" against Israel. Hamas, along with her smaller sister organization Islamic Jihad, has continually promised additional suicide bombings. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are thought to be responsible for a recent spate of bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that have left at least 59 dead and hundreds injured.

At least two times in the past three weeks, the Emergency Response & Research Institute and it's computer-generated threat analysis program have warned of the increased likelihood of an attack on America, U.S. citizens, her embassies, military bases, or commercial concerns overseas. According to Clark Staten--Executive Director of the Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI), American citizens traveling overseas should exercise extreme caution while in-transit or avoid traveling, unless it is a necessity.

"As the strife continues on the Israeli/Lebanese border, additional Islamic extremist violence can be expected almost anywhere in the world...Isreali synagogues, embassies, and commercial concerns along with American businesses, diplomatic missions, military sites, airports, and other places where Israelis/Americans congregate can expected to be potential targets," Staten said in an Monday morning teleconference briefing for a group of emergency managers.

Staten, who spent this past weekend in Atlanta, GA conferring with emergency service officials on counter-terrorism measures and conducting a disaster drill involving the bombing of a domestic airliner, has been assisting in special operations training of fire/police/EMS and disaster officials and responders for more than ten years.