textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/wtcbomb2.xml

<xml><p>WRONG NUMBER FILENAME: WTCBOMB2.ZIP </p>

<p> [From _The Village Voice_, April 6, 1993] </p>

<p> THE SHEIK'S REWARD </p>

<p> Will the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Come Clean About <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>? </p>

<p> By <ent type='PERSON'>Robert</ent> I. Friedman </p>

<p> Several prominent law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, say that it appears that Sheikh Omar <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> was allowed to
enter <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States because of his support for the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> -- the
fractious coalition of <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>-backed <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> extremists who fought the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
army in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent> and later the moderate regime in <ent type='GPE'>Kabul</ent>. </p>

<p> The Voice revealed last week that in 1990 <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> left <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> for
<ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>, where he met rebel <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> leader Gulbuddin <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>,
who was already providing training for the sheikh's militant fundamentalist
terrorist group in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, Al Gamaat al <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>ia. The rebel camps were
"schools for Jihad," where fundamentalists from across the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world
received courses in everything from making car bombs to shooting down
planes with <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>-made Stinger missiles. After several months in
<ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> traveled to <ent type='GPE'>Khartoum</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Sudan</ent>, where he received a
U.S. tourist visa, despite his presence on a State Department terrorist
watch-list that should have barred him from the country. In <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, where
he was also granted a green card, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> raised funds and recruits
for the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent>, many of them first-generation <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> immigrants living
in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>New Jersey</ent>. One was <ent type='PERSON'>Mahmud Abouhalima</ent>, a World Trade
Center bombing suspect and an <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> war veteran. </p>

<p> Not only did the sheikh encourage his flock of <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> zealots to fight the
godless <ent type='NORP'>Russians</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent>, but he also exhorted his followers in
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> to wage a terror campaign against <ent type='PERSON'>Hosni Mubarak</ent>'s secular government.
In a <ent type='ORG'>CNN</ent> interview Monday, <ent type='PERSON'>Mubarak</ent> said that a current wave of terror
bombings in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> was being funded by a U.S. group tied to <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>.
"There is an association in <ent type='GPE'>New Jersey</ent> collecting a lot of money for the
refugees in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent>," said <ent type='PERSON'>Mubarak</ent>. "All this money is now being
channeled to those extremists [in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>]." </p>

<p> But even as the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian government begged the U.S. not to coddle the
sheikh, who was smuggling cassettes of his fiery speeches into <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> --
much the way <ent type='PERSON'>Ayatollah Khomeini</ent> did from his safe-haven in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> before
the fall of the shah -- <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> was also denouncing his patron,
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, as the root of all evil. </p>

<p> Although the sheikh is apparently at the heart of a far-flung terrorist
conspiracy, he is not considered a suspect in <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center
bombing. Incredibly, the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> has not even questioned him about the blast,
and only last week was he reportedly placed under round-the-clock federal
surveillance. </p>

<p> "My gut feeling is that we are protecting the sheikh," says a law enforcement source familiar with the case. "We got him a visa as a reward
for his help in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent>." </p>

<p> The source worries that the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> appears to be shutting down the
investigation prematurely. "My ears perked up when I heard the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> say
that they have apprehended all but one of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombers,"
he says. "These guys [the suspects) don't look like self-starters to me."
Professionals from abroad, he says, may have assisted the suspects. </p>

<p> The <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> already has been criticized for failing to untangle the terrorist
web around El Sayyid <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>, following the murder of the <ent type='NORP'>Zionist</ent> demagogue
Rabbi <ent type='PERSON'>Meir Kahane</ent>. Just 12 hours after Kahane's shooting, the government
was espousing the theory that <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> was a lone gunman, despite having
found considerable evidence that appeared to link him to a wider terrorist
network. </p>

<p> Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> causes chaos wherever he goes. In <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, his
organization assassinated <ent type='PERSON'>Anwar Sadat</ent>. Though acquitted himself, be was
imprisoned three times during the 1980s. He finally left his homeland in
1990. After a pilgrimage to <ent type='GPE'>Mecca</ent>, he traveled to <ent type='GPE'>Baghdad</ent>, where <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian
authorities believe he may have been involved in the planning of the
unsuccessful assassination of <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian Interior Minister Mohammed Abdel-Halim Moussa. </p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> later slipped into <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>, where he forged operational links
with Gulbuddin <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>, the head of a radical rebel <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> army backed by
the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>. Hekmatyar's career in politics began in 1972, when as an
engineering student at <ent type='GPE'>Kabul</ent> University, he founded the Young <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s,
which advocated turning <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent> into a single-party <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> republic
based on the Sharia, or <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> law. In June 1974, <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent> fled to
<ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent> after a government crackdown on <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> fundamentalists. </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent> immediately began to call for the armed overthrow of <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent>
-- an idea that won the approval of <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>i leader <ent type='PERSON'>Zulfikar Ali Bhutto</ent>,
who supplied <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent> with arms, training, and money. <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>
orchestrated an insurrection in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent> in 1975, but it was crushed.
Many of his followers subsequently joined him in <ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent>. </p>

<p> By 1979, six fundamentalist <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>i rebel groups were operating in
<ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent>. Hekmatyar's was by far the largest and most important, thanks
to the support of his newest <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>i patron, President <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed Zia</ent>. At
the time, the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>-backed, <ent type='NORP'>Marxist</ent> government in <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent> was
attempting to weaken the hold of the traditional religious elite, who for
centuries had ruled the countryside. The <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>i <ent type='NORP'>Marxist</ent>s even went so
far as to remove the <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> green from the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>i flag. <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>
resisted, waging a fierce terrorist war. In December 1979, the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>s,
fearing the violence would spill across their borders, invaded <ent type='GPE'>Afghanistan</ent>.
<ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>i president <ent type='PERSON'>Hafizullah Amin</ent> was killed in the royal palace by <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>
troops, and replaced by Babrak Karmal, an exile who had been living in
<ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>. </p>

<p> Hekmatyar's relationship with <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> began around the time of the
<ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> invasion. <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>, who had only cursory religious training, drew
his inspiration from the sheikh's attempts to overthrow <ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent> and his call
for a pure <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> state, where women would be veiled and children would be
scrupulously taught by mullahs. </p>

<p> During <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>'s visit to <ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent> in 1990, the two charismatic
leaders talked about spreading their holy war beyond the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world into
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, say several well-placed sources. But one of their most pressing
concerns were the <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> republics of the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> Union. As early as 1987,
Hekmotyar's warriors were fighting <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> troops in <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Tajikistan</ent>,
according to <ent type='ORG'>the Washington</ent> Times. Meanwhile, the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> spent lavishly on
the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> rebels. In 1987 alone, the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> received $640 million --
a sum matched by the Saudis. Additional funds were raised in the <ent type='LOC'>Gulf</ent> and
among <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>'s <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> disciples. At the same time, the U.S. was
building up the <ent type='NORP'>Iraqi</ent> war machine. When U.S. aid to the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> stopped
in late December 1990 as part of an accord with <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>, the ragtag army of
<ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> fundamentalists turned its wrath on <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. Around the same time,
<ent type='GPE'>Iraq</ent> swallowed <ent type='GPE'>Kuwait</ent>, forcing <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> into the <ent type='LOC'>Gulf</ent> War. </p>

<p> It is not surprising the U.S. government is attempting to cover up its
relationship with <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>. It may take a congressional investigation
to unearth the extent of the sheikh's ties to U.S. intelligence. Last
week's report in the Voice about <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> links to <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> has "<ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>
officials running for cover," says a source close to the agency. </p>

<p> Instead of ducking, the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> should tell law enforcement what it knows about
<ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> and his <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> followers. <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> files might shed light on the
letter to <ent type='ORG'>The New York</ent> Times from <ent type='ORG'>the Liberation Army Fifth Battalion</ent>,
which declared that <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing was in retaliation for
America's support for <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent> and pro-Western Arab regimes. The letter
threatened that the bombings would continue unless <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> suspended aid to
<ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent>. Authorities told the Times that the letter was prepared by one of
the five suspects in custody. </p>

<p> Some terrorism experts fear that <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing is the
first round in radical Islam's war against <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. They point to a wave
of bombings in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> in 1985 and 1986 that was masterminded by <ent type='GPE'>Tehran</ent>, and
facilitated by <ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent> students and small businessmen living in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>.
While the locals provided safehouses, bomb-making materials, and other
logistical support, professional terrorists from abroad carried out the
bombings and fled. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government later struck a secret deal with
the <ent type='GPE'>Khomeini</ent> regime. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> took a more "neutral" position in the Iran-<ent type='GPE'>Iraq</ent> war and released several imprisoned <ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent>s. In return, the bombings
stopped. * </p>

<p> WRONG NUMBER FILENAME: WTCBOMB2.TXT
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