Convicted Terrorists Send Advice to Brethren From Within U.S. Prisons

By Evan Kohlmann

NBC News has done an intriguing story on how, "from inside America�s most secure prisons, 1993 World Trade Center bomber Mohamed Salameh wrote letters to a Spanish terror cell and to Arabic newspapers praising Osama bin Laden and suicide bombers, saying, 'Anyone who rises up against American arrogance and tyranny and causes the Americans fear and trembling also are heroes.'�  Click to view Part I, Part II

In my book, Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe, I described how--despite the restrictions imposed on his communications--Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman (ideological mentor to the 1993 World Trade Center bombers) was likewise able to secretly contact his followers in August 1998 from within his prison cell and ordered them to carry out acts of violence against Americans...

In response to Al-Qaida's embassy bombings in East Africa and the resulting U.S. missile strikes on Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, Shaykh Omar Abdel Rahman issued a new call to arms in the form of a religious fatwah (edict).  The fatwah was smuggled out of Shaykh Omar�s American prison cell with the help of his paralegals and lawyer Lynne Stewart.
The fatwah urged all Muslims:

�[The Jews and Christians] are the ones that are fighting every Muslim resurrection in the whole world, they act to spread prostitution, usury, and other kinds of corruption all over the land.  Oh, Muslims everywhere! 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.  Kill them when you find them, take them and encircle them, paralyze their every post .  Kill those infidels� Allah will torment by your hands those who wish to kill you; Allah will put shame upon them, he will blow wind in the chests of the believers and show the anger of their hearts.� 

Al-Qaida terrorist Ahmed Ressam--who attempted to carry out a bombing at Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the Millenium--later recalled the same fatwah distributed widely in Afghan terror training camps in 1998-1999 �issued by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman with his picture on it� It said it was a fatwah by Omar Abdel Rahman  from prison.  It says fight Americans and hit their interest everywhere.�

The lesson for the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons: don't underestimate the enduring influence of unrepentent terrorist captives held in U.S. prisons--no matter how "insignificant" or "isolated" they may appear to be.

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