Agent Provacateur Par Excellence: The NYC Landmarks Case

By now, most people have heard of the infamous "Blind Sheik," and have a vague impression about a plot to blow up New York City landmarks. Many think the case is connected to an attack on the World Trade Center. (The only connection is that the WTC bombing shares the same agent provacateur.)

In fact, five Muslim men who were swept up in the case of the "Blind Sheik" are currently incarcerated in the CMU in Marion.

As explained in "Victims of America's Dirty Wars":

[T]he government paid a million dollars to a former associate of Abdel Rahman’s essentially to frame the Sheikh and his associates. As in other cases of entrapment, the agent provocateur worked diligently to create a conspiracy, which involved a truck bomb directed at the UN, so that there would be a real crime to prosecute. Other defendants were swept up in the conspiracy . . . . (p. 45)

The agent provacateur in the case was F.B.I.'s chief informer in the case, Emad Salem, a former Egyptian Army officer. Salem was also a key witness in the trial of Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, convicted in the World Trade Center Bombing of February 26, 1993.

As the New York Times reported at the conclusion of the trial in 1995, "Mr. Abdel Rahman has long considered Mr. Mubarak an archenemy and urged that his Government be overthrown -- an exhortation that Mr. Abdel Rahman continued after leaving his native Egypt in 1990 and arriving in the United States later that year." (This is an "accusation" that takes on a different meaning in light of the Arab Spring and the euphoria over the popular Tahrir Square movement in Egypt that ended in the ouster of Mubarak.)

The trial was also notable for the bias shown by Federal Judge Michael B. Mukasey. "This country has experienced militant fascism that failed and militant communism that failed," Judge Mukasey said, adding that "you and the others sentenced today will never be in a position to commit such crimes again."


THE NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS CASE

The broad outlines of the case are provided in "Victims of America's Dirty Wars":

In 1993, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (the “Blind Sheikh”) and ten other co-defendants were charged with conspiracy to bomb New York City landmarks, including two tunnels, the UN, and FBI headquarters (ironically, the landmarks did not include the World Trade Center, although the public often erroneously believes that Abdel Rahman was convicted of plotting to bomb the World Trade Center). There was no doubt that Abdel Rahman was an outspoken critic of the corrupt secular government of Egypt and urged that it be overthrown. But he denied that he inspired terrorism or that he was leading any conspiracy in this country, and there was little evidence involving him in the landmarks case.

As described above, "the government paid a million dollars to a former associate of Abdel Rahman’s essentially to frame the Sheikh and his associates."


INCARCERATION AT MARION

Currently, five men convicted in this case in 1995 are held at Marion. Three were convicted of seditious conspiracy, bombing conspiracy and attempted bombing:

Mohammed Saleh (b. 1956)
A Jordanian immigrant who came to the United States around 1977. Sentence: 35 years.

Clement Rodney Hampton-El (b. 1938)
An American-born Muslim, who was injured when he was a fighter in Afghanistan during the U.S.-backed resistance to the Russian invasion. Sentence: 35 years.

Fares Khallafalla (b. 1962)
From Jersey City. Sentence: 30 years.

In addition, two men incarcerated at Marion were convicted on a different combination of charges:

El Sayyid Nosair (b. 1955)
Convicted of conspiracy; of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Zionist militant; of assault on two others at the Kahane shooting site. Sentence: life in prison.

Ibrahim A. Elgabrowny (b. 1950)
Convicted of seditious conspiracy; assault of a Federal agent and city police detective seeking to search his home after the World Trade Center bombing; possession of false identification documents and false passports. An Egyptian immigrant and cousin of Mr. Nosair, he was accused of being Mr. Nosair's "eyes and ears on the outside" after he was imprisoned in the Kahane case. Sentence: 57 years.

The others convicted in the same case are: Victor Alvarez, Tarig Elhassan, Fadil Abdelghani, and Amir Abdelgani, as well as Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, himself. [Source: Sheik Sentenced to Life in Prison in Bombing Plot.]


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write to the five men in the NYC Landmarks case being held at Marion:

Mohammed Saleh
34853-054
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Marion IL, 62959

See SALAM Illinois Guidelines for Writing to Prisoners.

Clement Rodney Hampton-El
34854-054
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Marion IL, 62959

See SALAM Illinois Guidelines for Writing to Prisoners.

Fares Khallafalla
34856-054
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Marion IL, 62959

See SALAM Illinois Guidelines for Writing to Prisoners.

El Sayyid Nosair
34854-054
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Marion IL, 62959

See SALAM Illinois Guidelines for Writing to Prisoners.

Ibrahim A. Elgabrowny
28054-054
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1000
Marion IL, 62959

See SALAM Illinois Guidelines for Writing to Prisoners.