textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/wtcbomb1.xml

<xml><p>Wrong Number Filename: WTCBOMB1.ZIP</p>

<p> [From _<ent type='ORG'>The Village Voice</ent>_, March 30, 1993]</p>

<p> THE <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> AND THE SHEIK</p>

<p> The Agency <ent type='PERSON'>Coddled Omar Abdel Rahman</ent>, Allowing
Him to Operate in the U.S.
Now This Unholy Alliance Has Blown Up in Our Faces.</p>

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

<p>"They were talking all the time about targeting <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> symbols," says the
<ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> undercover informant, "<ent type='ORG'>the Empire</ent> State Building, the Statue of
Liberty. A few of the guys came to <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent> to pray and go home. But
others gathered to conspire in small groups, talking in deep, low voices.
They see the U.S. as an imperialist power, the Big Satan, the root of all
the evil in the world."</p>

<p>The <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> operative, <ent type='PERSON'>Mamdouh Zaki Zakhary</ent>, monitored the radical activities
at the El Salaam Mosque in <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent>, which was the headquarters of the
terrorist cell that allegedly planned and carried our the of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent>
Trade Center on February 26. Zakhary, a heavily bearded <ent type='NORP'>Coptic</ent> Christian
from <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> who owned an import-export firm in <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent>, spent a year and
a half spying on the local <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> community and <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent>,
beginning January 10, 1990. During this time, he watched the first two men
arrested in connection with the bombing. <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent></ent> and Ibraham
<ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent>, as well as the spiritual leader who may have inspired them, the
fiery blind fundamentalist cleric Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Omar Abdel Rahman</ent>, who is infamous
throughout the <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> world for his alleged role in the assassination of
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian president <ent type='PERSON'>Anwar</ent> el-<ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent>.</p>

<p>"The only thing they want is to establish an <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> world," Zakhary told
<ent type='ORG'>The Village Voice</ent> during an interview from his home in <ent type='GPE'>Alexandria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>.
"They will do anything to achieve it. You have to understand their desire
to strike out, to avenge anything that hurts <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>. I asked <ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent>,
'Why do you stay here [in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>]?' And he told me, I want to earn their
dollars so that I can stab them in the back."</p>

<p>Zakhary reported the group's subversive activities in regular meetings with
his <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> handler, Special Agent <ent type='PERSON'>Kenneth Strange</ent>. But Zakhary, who was not
able to penetrate the cell's inner circle, had no advance warning that
there was a plan to commit one of the most sensational acts of foreign
terrorism on <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> soil before the bombing of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center:
the assassination of the controversial right-wing <ent type='NORP'>Zionist</ent> leader Rabbi Meir
<ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent>.</p>

<p>On November 5, 1990, El <ent type='PERSON'>Sayyid Nosair</ent>, a pudgy, bearded 34-year-old
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> and a core member of the El Salaam Mosque, calmly walked
up to the podium of a conference room in the <ent type='ORG'>Halloran House</ent>, a midtown
<ent type='GPE'>Manhattan</ent> hotel, after <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> had finished, a one-hour speech. Moments
later, <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> was shot once in the throat at point-blank range with a .357
magnum, and <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> bolted outside. During a running gun battle down
Lexington Avenue, <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> was wounded by an off-duty postal inspector and
finally captured by <ent type='GPE'>New York City</ent> police.</p>

<p>"At first, no one knew who <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> was," recalls Zakhary, "so when I heard
about it I called the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> and identified him,' I told them he was a member
of <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent> and that he was very close with the sheikh [<ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>]. I
told them that, four days before, I saw with my own eyes the sheikh meeting
with <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> at a <ent type='NORP'>Lebanese</ent> restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>. It was
7 p.m. There was <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>, the sheikh, a person escorting the sheikh, and
another person I don't know. They were deep in conversation."</p>

<p>Shortly after police arrested <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> they found startling evidence that the
<ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> killing was just the first in a planned spree. <ent type='PERSON'>Scrawled</ent> on a bank
calendar in Nosair's home was a "hit list" that included the names of a
U.S. representative, two federal judges, and a former assistant U.S.
Attorney. Local police searching Nosair's Cliffside Park, <ent type='GPE'>New Jersey</ent>, home
discovered a trove of terrorist paraphernalia: bombmaking manuals, AK-47
cartridges, a stolen <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> State license plate, and a bullet-riddled
target board. There were also a number of passports and driver's licenses
under various names, as well as articles about the assassination of <ent type='PERSON'>Anwar</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent>.</p>

<p>But despite Zakhary's reports, Nosair's hit list, and the suspicious cache
at his home, the authorities seemed to be downplaying all signs of a
terrorist conspiracy. Within 12 hours of the shooting, <ent type='GPE'>New York City</ent> chief
of detectives <ent type='PERSON'>Joseph Borrelli</ent> declared the <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> assassination was the
work of a "lone gunman." <ent type='ORG'>Borrelli</ent> added, '"There was nothing found [at
Nosair's house] that would stir your imagination."</p>

<p>One <ent type='GPE'>New York City</ent> detective close to the investigation told me that the
case was handled like a routine homicide. "They [the <ent type='ORG'>NYPD</ent>] wanted to make
it as simple as possible," said the detective. "It was treated as a
homicide at the precinct level. The higher-ups didn't want to take it
further. The police department stated that they got the gunman and that
was it. We're not equipped to investigate international terrorism."</p>

<p>But the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> is. On the eve of Nosair's trial, a frustrated federal
investigator told me that he didn't believe <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> had acted alone.
"There's nothing to prove that <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> took it upon himself to [kill
<ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent>]. There are many conspiracy theories. We hit a lot of dry wells."
Yet the federal agent said that the <ent type='ORG'>NYPD</ent> had jurisdiction in the case and
that the FBI's investigation was "superficial."</p>

<p>What investigators would have found if they had done their job thoroughly
is that Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> and El <ent type='PERSON'>Sayyid Nosair</ent> were at the heart of a
far-flung terrorist conspiracy. A magnet for the angry and dispossessed of
the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>, through his violent preaching, has been
linked to dozens of terrorist incidents in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and now to the attack on
<ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center. an act he says he deplores.</p>

<p>In the aftermath of the bombing, many are wondering why there wasn't a
comprehensive, wide-ranging investigation of Meir Kahane's murder. One
possible explanation is offered by a counterterrorism expert for the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>.
At a meeting in a Denny's coffee shop in <ent type='GPE'>Los Angeles</ent> a week after the
<ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> assassination, the 20-year veteran field agent met with one of his
top undercover operatives, a burly 33-year-old <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> contract employee who
had been a premier bomber for a domestic terrorist group before being
"turned" and becoming a government informant.</p>

<p>"Why aren't we going after the sheikh [<ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>]?" demanded the
undercover man.</p>

<p>"It's hands-off," answered the agent.</p>

<p>"Why?" asked the operative.</p>

<p>"It was no accident that the sheikh got a visa and that he's still in the
country," replied the agent, visibly upset. "He's here under the banner of
national security, the State Department, the <ent type='ORG'>NSA</ent> [National Security
Agency], and the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>." The agent pointed out that the sheikh had been
granted a tourist visa, and later a green card, despite the fact that he
was on a State Department terrorist watch-list that should have barred him
from the country. He's an untouchable, concluded the agent. "I haven't
seen the lone-gunman theory advocated [so forcefully] since John F.
Kennedy."</p>

<p>Why might the U.S. government protect a militant sheikh linked to numerous
acts of terrorism?</p>

<p>Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> left <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> in 1990, in the wake of a series of bloody
clashes between his militant fundamentalist group, Al Gamaat al <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>ia,
and the secular <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian government. The sheikh traveled to <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>, where
he met with representatives of the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent>, who were providing
training for his underground terrorist group in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, the very same
<ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> who were receiving financial aid and training from the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> in
the war to rid <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>istan of the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> Army. Even after the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>s
pulled out of <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>istan in February 1989, the U.S. and the Saudis
continued to aid the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> through <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent> until December 1990, in an
attempt to topple the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> government.</p>

<p>According to a very high-ranking <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian official, when the sheikh moved
to <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent> in May 1990, he worked closely with the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>, helping to channel
a steady flow of money, men, and guns to <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> bases in <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>istan
and <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>. The camps became a mecca for disaffected youth from across
the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world.</p>

<p>Of course, the mujahedeen's agenda was not exactly the same as the CIA's.
While <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> was perfectly happy to accept <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> help to chase the
godless <ent type='NORP'>Russians</ent> out of <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent>istan, it didn't stop him from teaching his
recruits his revolutionary agenda. The camps, says the high-ranking
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian official, were "schools for jihad," or holy war. The sacred
mission was to be waged on two fronts. In the <ent type='LOC'>Middle East</ent>, his holy
warriors were to overthrow secular, pro-<ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> regimes and replace
them with austere <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> theocracies. The main target was <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, the
largest and most powerful nation in the <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> world. The sheikh believes,
the high-ranking <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian official says, "that if you take <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, you take
all the <ent type='LOC'>Middle East</ent>." <ent type='PERSON'>Mamdouh Zaki Zakhary</ent> concurs: "<ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>
repeatedly preached that <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> is the hand of Satan, and that you have to
cut off the hand of Satan immediately."</p>

<p>The Great Satan itself, of course, is <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, a state that, in the eyes of
the sheikh and his supporters, has routinely committed atrocities against
the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world. "<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s," said the sheikh on a recent <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ic-language
radio broadcast, "are descendants of apes and pigs who have been feeding
from the dining tables of the <ent type='NORP'>Zionist</ent>s, Communism, and colonialism." He
advocates the destabilization of the U.S. by violent attacks on its symbols
of prestige and power, while proselytizing among <ent type='NORP'>African</ent> <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s and
other disenfranchised minorities. <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>'s "long-term goal is to
weaken U.S. society and to show <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> rulers that the U.S. is not an
invulnerable superpower," says <ent type='PERSON'>Matti Steinberg</ent>, an expert on <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent>
fundamentalism at <ent type='ORG'>the Hebrew University</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Jerusalem</ent>.</p>

<p>According to <ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> intelligence sources, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> has 10000 fanatic
disciples in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and several hundred in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. But, as far as anyone
knows, he never issues them direct orders. "He talks about the importance
of jihad in the U.S. without being concrete," says <ent type='PERSON'>Matti Steinberg</ent>. "It's a
form of spiritual brainwashing called Dawa. All it takes is a few angry
people to understand his message." A high-ranking <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian official agrees:
"This man is instigating violence in a very clever way. You can't really
hope to establish a direct link" between the sheikh and <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade
Center bombing.</p>

<p>Just four months before the bombing, <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian intelligence officials warned
the U.S. that the sheikh's principal mosques in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, the El Salaam
Mosque and the El Farouq Masjid Mosque in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>, were "hotbeds of
terrorist activity," and that the fiery blind <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> preacher was plotting
a new round of terrorist attacks in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>. "There were many, many contacts
between <ent type='GPE'>Cairo</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>," says the official.</p>

<p>The <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> received a violent reminder of the sheikh's agenda on November 12,
1992, when a terrorist hit squad linked to <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> machine-gunned a
busload of <ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> tourists in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, injuring five <ent type='NORP'>Germans</ent>. In the last
year, three <ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> tourists have been killed in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and at least two
dozen have been wounded, crippling the country's $2.5 billion tourist
industry. When asked on an <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ic-language radio show in <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>, D.C.,
about terrorist attacks on foreign tourists, the sheikh replied, "<ent type='ORG'>Force</ent> is
used with tourists. But tourists should use good manners. Tourism is not
nightclubs, alcohol, gambling, fornicating. They should stay away from
this behavior, the spread of AIDS and corruption with which they have
filled <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>."</p>

<p>Some three months after the attack on the tourist bus, a rental van packed
with a witches' brew of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and urea exploded in
the subbasement of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center, killing six people and injuring
more than 1000. "If they had found the exact architectural <ent type='PERSON'>Achilles</ent>' heel
[of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center]," says an explosives expert who works for the
<ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>, "on if the bomb had been a little bit bigger, not much more, 500
pounds more, I think it would have brought her down. It's really scary."</p>

<p>As <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s reeled from the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the
first rumors that swept the country centered on an unidentified <ent type='NORP'>Serbian</ent>
terrorist group. The theory was abandoned only after a sharpeyed
investigator from <ent type='ORG'>the Bureau</ent> of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a New
York City cop who were combing through the rubble found a tiny metal
fragment with the identification number of the van rented by <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent>. "It was a miracle that it wasn't destroyed," says the explosives
expert. If it had been, the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> might have been tracking <ent type='NORP'>Serbian</ent>s for
weeks in stead of Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> and hi labyrintine web of local <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>
terrorists</p>

<p>Lost in the press avalanche about <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing was the
new that on the same day terrorists linked to <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> had detonated a
bomb packed with rusty nails in the Wadi el-Ni caf , a fashionable
restaurant in <ent type='GPE'>Cairo</ent>, killing two tourists and two <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ians, and wounding
16. "They wanted to show the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian authorities that they could operate
in the heart of the nation's capital; says the high-ranking <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian-government official, who adds bitterly, "We begged <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> not to coddle
the sheikh."</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Jack Blum</ent>, a widely respected former special investigator for the Senate
Foreign Relations subcommittee, puts it bluntly The <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> trained the
<ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> in terrorism, then dumped them in 1990 as part of an agreement
with <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent>, leaving behind a ragtag army of anti-<ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> extremists
burning to vent their rage on their former patrons, <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. "One of the
big problems here is that many suspects in <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing
were associated with the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent>," says <ent type='PERSON'>Blum</ent>. "And there are components
of our government that are absolutely disinterested in following that path
because it leads back to people we supported in the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> war." The first
suspect arrested in <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing was <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent></ent>, a
25-year-old <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> with a thick black beard and a degree from a
<ent type='NORP'>Jordanian</ent> university in the shariah, <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> religious law. On February
23, he rented the <ent type='ORG'>Ryder</ent> van that was packed with explosives and detonated
underneath <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center. When it was revealed that he had
returned four times to claim a $400 refund for the vehicle, which he claims
was stolen the night before the bombing, many assumed he was either a patsy
or the stupidest terrorist in history. What was forgotten, of course, was
that the odds against identifying the van were astronomical.</p>

<p>"He's not a clever man, but he's not a stupid man," says Zakhary, the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>
undercover operative who met <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent> at the El Salaam Mosque. "He's an
ordinary man, a working man. I think that, for him, the bombing was coming
from his heart, not his brain."</p>

<p>The seeds of Salameh's discontent were sown in <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent>, a dusty, nondescript
farming village of 6000 <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>s near <ent type='ORG'>the Nablus</ent>-Tel Aviv Highway,
on the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent>-occupied <ent type='GPE'>West Bank</ent>. The squat, ramshackle, cinder-block
homes line unpaved streets that are strewn with garbage. Indoor plumbing is
rare, and the town doesn't have a single telephone. The gray concrete walls
of Bidya's four schools are covered with pro-<ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> graffiti and fierce
tirades against <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent>.</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> is a glaring contrast to nearby <ent type='PERSON'>Ariel</ent>, the gleaming suburban
settlement of 15000 secular <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> that was built on land expropriated from
<ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> and other nearby <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> villages in the mid 1970s. <ent type='PERSON'>Ariel</ent> has the
look and feel of an <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Sunbelt</ent> suburb in the midst of a boom. At the
mall in the heart of town, shops sell everything from falafel for $ 1.50 to
expensive clothes. A large outdoor swimming pool attracts suntanned <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>
settlers, who moved to this <ent type='GPE'>West Bank</ent> outpost for its front yards and
scenic vistas.</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> has a long history of violence and rebellion. In 1936, when
<ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>s began a three-year revolt against the <ent type='GPE'>British Mandatory</ent>
authorities then ruling <ent type='GPE'>Palestine</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> minority who were
struggling for statehood, <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> became a staging base for fedayeen, or
<ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> guerrillas. <ent type='ORG'>The British Army</ent> was far more brutal putting down
the revolt than the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> Army has been during the intifada. <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
planes strafed <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> villages, thousands of <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent>s were herded into
concentration camps, and authorities passed emergency laws that made the
possession of a gun or even a bullet a crime punishable by death. More
than 10000 <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent>s were killed in the fighting; <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> suffered
hundreds of casualties.</p>

<p>After Israel's 1948 War of Independence, the <ent type='NORP'>Jordanian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> Legion occupied
the <ent type='GPE'>West Bank</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> spearheaded <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> opposition to Jordan's
King <ent type='PERSON'>Hussein</ent>, a <ent type='NORP'>Hashemite</ent> originally from Saudi <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ia who treated West
Bank <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent>s with high-handed contempt. In 1959, 15 high-ranking
officials of the <ent type='NORP'>Jordanian</ent> military, including a leading notable from
<ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent>, plotted King Hussein's assassination. But the <ent type='NORP'>Jordanian</ent> mukhabarut
(secret police) discovered the scheme, and the plotters were sentenced to
death. <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent></ent> was born in <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> in September 1967, just three
months after it was occupied by <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> troops in the June 1967 Six Day
War. "When the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent>s came to our village' says <ent type='PERSON'>Osama Odeh</ent>, a distant
cousin of <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent>, "they made a gentlemen's agreement with my father and
uncle, who is a lawyer. 'We know your Family is very nationalistic and
won't accept occupation,' they said, 'so if the fedayeen come to <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent>, you
can feed them so long as you then tell them to go. We will give you money
for your new school and build roads and sewers."'</p>

<p>But from the onset of <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> rule, Bidya's residents waged a fierce
guerrilla war against the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> occupation, and <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent></ent>'s family
was in the forefront of that opposition. Salameh's maternal grandfather,
one of Bidya's largest landowners, was active in the 1936 <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> Rebellion
and later joined the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent>. He was arrested in the early 1980s for membership
in the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent>, and, in spite of his advanced age, was imprisoned by the
<ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent>s and allegedly tortured. He died soon after his release. Salameh's
uncle spent 18 years in prison for a <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> attack on <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> civilians. <ent type='PERSON'>Odeh</ent>
told me that Salameh's "hate" comes from the "injustice" of the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent>
occupation, his uncle's and grandfather's imprisonment, and Ariel's rapid
expansion. "<ent type='PERSON'>Ariel</ent>," says <ent type='PERSON'>Odeh</ent>, "is growing, and sucking the red blood of
our land."</p>

<p>When I last journeyed to <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent>, in the fall of 1990, the main entrance was
blocked by a knot of heavily armed <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> soldiers in riot gear. "A
shooting took place," explained a soldier, who looked no more than 18. "The
road is closed. If you go in, we will shoot you."</p>

<p>Earlier in the day, students had gathered in the center of <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent>, shouting
anti-<ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> slogans under a huge banner that read <ent type='ORG'>FATAH</ent> AND <ent type='ORG'>HAMAS</ent>
TOGETHER. (<ent type='ORG'>Hamas</ent> is the large <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> fundamentalist group
dedicated to Israel's destruction.) Then hundreds of <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> youth
marched to <ent type='ORG'>the Nablus</ent>-Tel Aviv Highway, where young boys and girls began to
throw stones at <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> cars. Soldiers raced to the scene and fired into
the air, trying to disperse the demonstrators. Several armed <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>
settlers got out of their cars and fanned out among the almond trees that
line the side of the road and started shooting. <ent type='PERSON'>Akhlam Abed</ent>, a 13-year-old
girl, was killed. She was Bidya's first casualty of the intifada.</p>

<p>In the wake of Israel's lightning victory in the June 1967 Six Day War,
Salameh's parents left <ent type='PERSON'>Bidya</ent> for a squalid shantytown on the outskirts of
<ent type='GPE'>Amman</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Jordan</ent>, forfeiting their home and possessions, as did tens of
thousands of <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent>s. Like all <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> youth, <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent> passionately
followed the course of the intifada, the <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> uprising that began in
<ent type='GPE'>the Gaza Strip</ent> in December 1987 and quickly spread to every <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> town,
village, and refugee camp in <ent type='GPE'>the Occupied Territories</ent>. Every day <ent type='NORP'>Jordanian</ent>
television broadcast images of <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> boys, their faces swathed in
black-and-white-checkered <ent type='ORG'>kaffiyehs</ent>, their eyes unafraid, hurling
pomegranate-sized stones at <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> troops brandishing automatic weapons.
The children of the "stone revolution," as they are called, gave
<ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent>s around the world a collective sense of pride and
determination.</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent>, one of 11 brothers and sisters, was an indifferent student with a
poor self-image. According to <ent type='PERSON'>Odeh</ent>, he became a devout <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> in his
teens. Salameh's parents have expressed surprise about his alleged role in
<ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing. "The <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, this is from the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, who have
done this and blamed my son," Salameh's mother, Aysha, told The <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent>
Times.</p>

<p>Aysha might well blame Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> for leading her wayward son down
the combustible path of <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> fundamentalism. <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent>, who received a
tourist visa from the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> consulate in <ent type='GPE'>Amman</ent> in December 1987, moved
to <ent type='GPE'>New Jersey</ent>, where he worked at menial jobs, constantly changing
addresses. He met <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> not long after the sheikh arrived in
<ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>; he was captivated by the sheikh's call for jihad and the downfall
of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, becoming his sometime gofer, according to one U.S. law-enforcement source. <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent> quickly fell into a circle of like-minded
<ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s, including <ent type='PERSON'>Nidal Ayyad</ent>, a chemical engineer of <ent type='NORP'>Palestinian</ent> descent
who allegedly concocted <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bomb.</p>

<p>In <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>'s name lives in infamy for his role in the October
6, 1981, assassination of <ent type='PERSON'>Anwar</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent>, who was cut down in a hail of
grenade and automatic-weapons fire while he reviewed a military parade. In
1980, <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> had issued a <ent type='ORG'>fatwa</ent>, or religious decree, that called
<ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent> an infidel for turning his back on <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> and for making peace with
<ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent>. This made <ent type='PERSON'>Sadat</ent> a prime target for assassination, an act eventually
executed by the operational arm of <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>'s organization, Al Gamaat
al <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>ia, which had penetrated the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian army and security services.</p>

<p>During a tumultuous trial in which the defendants publicly charged they had
been tortured by police interrogators, the sheikh was acquitted. The
sheikh, who continued to agitate against the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian government while his
followers carried on a campaign of lethal bombings, was imprisoned for
three months in 1985, for one month in 1986, and for four months in 1989.
He finally left his homeland in 1990, saying, "It was too much for me."
After brief stays in Saudi <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ia and <ent type='GPE'>Iraq</ent>, the sheikh slipped into
<ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>, where he forged operational links with <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> strongman
Gulbuddin <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent>, the head of a radical <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> fundamentalist
army that was being covertly backed by the <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent>. According to Stephen Van
Evera, an affiliate of Harvard's Center for Science and International
Affairs, <ent type='ORG'>Hekmatyar</ent> "strongly chastised <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States and its 'immoral'
society, even while <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> lavished him with aid." In Hekmatyar's
guerrilla training camps, <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> advisers taught everything from using
explosives to shooting down enemy planes with shoulder-held Stinger
missiles.</p>

<p>The <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> base camps in <ent type='GPE'>Peshawar</ent> were also places where militant
<ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s were caught up in the spirit of the two supreme moments in recent
<ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> history: the revolution in <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>, which transformed the country into
a self-righteous bastion of zealous fundamentalism, and the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> war.
"<ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent> symbolizes the rise of the <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> state," says the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian
official, "and the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> war was a real battlefield for these people to
acquire the stamina and capabilities to wage war." And since these two
events were successful, the militants "decided to pursue this march and
spread their revolutionary message to other countries."</p>

<p>In <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, <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. His mosques in <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent> also attracted fundamentalists expelled from <ent type='LOC'>the Gulf Emirates</ent>
after <ent type='EVENT'>the Gulf War</ent>. But many <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s repudiate his radical preachings.
Mosques across the country closed their doors to the rabble-rousing blind
man. Local <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s grew even more wary in March 1991 when <ent type='PERSON'>Mustafa Shalabi</ent>,
a 39-year-old <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian electrical contractor living in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>, was found
lying face down on his kitchen floor in his pajamas. He had been shot once
at close range near the left ear and stabbed in the back and stomach.</p>

<p>Police sources say <ent type='PERSON'>Shalabi</ent> had been running guns to the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> rebels, as
well as raising money for the legal defense of El <ent type='PERSON'>Sayyid Nosair</ent> before his
trial on charges of assassinating <ent type='PERSON'>Rabbi Meir Kahane</ent>. Earlier, <ent type='PERSON'>Shalabi</ent> had
helped <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> find an apartment in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>. Police speculate that
<ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent> had <ent type='PERSON'>Shalabi</ent> murdered for pocketing some of the money. <ent type='PERSON'>Shalabi</ent>
"had a lot of enemies," says a police source. "There was also a lot of
intrigue and infighting at his mosque in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>."</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Shalabi</ent> worshipped at the El Farouq Masjid Mosque, located in a bleak
storefront building at 554 Atlantic Avenue in <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>. The Friday sermons
were delivered by <ent type='PERSON'>Abdel Rahman</ent>, until the directors of <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent> expelled
him soon after Kahane's assassination.</p>

<p>The sheikh then moved entirely to the El Salaam Mosque in <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent>. The
founder of <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent> is <ent type='PERSON'>Sultan Ibraham</ent> El Gawli, a wealthy 55-year-old
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian businessman who was convicted by a federal jury in July 1986 for
conspiring to export 150 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives to <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent> for use
by the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> in a Christmas bombing. El Gawli, who sports a full, white Santa
Claus beard, served 18 months in prison before returning to <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent>.
He often marched in front of the courthouse during Nosair's trial, carrying
banners with fierce anti-<ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent> slogans. "It's no crime praying together,
is it?" El Gawli asked me when I questioned him about his friendship with
<ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>.
It was the infiltrator <ent type='PERSON'>Mamdouh Zaki Zakhary</ent> who helped U.S. Customs set up
the sting operation that netted El Gawli. Zakhary , a frail man afflicted
with blindness in one eye and a large goiter on his neck, wore a wire into
El Galwi's office at a travel agency he owned, <ent type='ORG'>Sultan Travel</ent>, recording
five incriminating conversations. "There were some references on the tapes
about doing it [transporting the explosives] for God," recalls Kevin
<ent type='PERSON'>McCarthy</ent>, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted El Gawli.</p>

<p>"Sultan El Gawli was the brains behind the terror cell at <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent>," says
Zakhary . "There were lots of meetings in his office. He also got foreign
money from the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>. Many times he entertained and was visited by
officials from Saudi <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ia, the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>."</p>

<p>"I always thought the El Gawli case was just scratching the surface of what
was really going on [in the El Salaam Mosque]," admits a federal official
who worked on the case. "First, El Gawli himself was this businessman who
seemed to be trying to do things for the money, not for any grander scheme.
And secondly, since <ent type='PERSON'>Mamdouh</ent> was a [<ent type='NORP'>Coptic</ent> Christian], I thought he wouldn't
have access to the real inner world of whatever was going on in <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent>.
At the same time, I didn't have any indications that there was more stuff
going on in <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent>."</p>

<p>After testifying as the key witness in a <ent type='GPE'>Camden</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>New Jersey</ent>, courthouse,
Zakhary entered a federal witness-protection program. At first, he and his
new bride lived in <ent type='GPE'>New Orleans</ent>, before he became convinced the <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> was
stalking him. He moved throughout the <ent type='LOC'>Southwest</ent>, driving the federal
marshals responsible for him crazy with complaints about the program.</p>

<p><ent type='ORG'>Homesick</ent> and desperate for cash, Zakhary offered to return to <ent type='GPE'>Jersey City</ent>
to spy on the <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> community and the El Salaam Mosque, this time
for the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>, under the code name <ent type='PERSON'>Mubarak</ent>. He stayed away from <ent type='ORG'>the mosque</ent>
itself except for three visits gathering what information he could --
through friends and acquaintances.'</p>

<p>"I didn't know <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent> very well," says Zakhary, who was better acquainted
with <ent type='PERSON'>Ibraham Elgabrowny</ent>, a cousin of both El Gawli and El <ent type='PERSON'>Sayyid Nosair</ent>.
"<ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent> was a very extreme fundamentalist. He belonged to the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>
Brotherhood in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>. In 1985, when the <ent type='ORG'>TWA</ent> plane was hijacked to <ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent>,
<ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent> said he was very happy. He said, 'lf I was the kidnapper, I
would start executing passengers right now."'</p>

<p>In 1991, a year and a half after he began to work for the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>, Zakhary
reported to his handler that he had overheard a plot to assassinate the two
U.S. senators from <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Daniel Patrick Moynihan</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Alfonse</ent> D'Amato.
When incredulous <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> agents hooked him up to a lie detector, Zakhary failed
the test. He blames the result on prescription medication he was taking at
the time because of an automobile accident. The <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> did not believe him and
terminated his employment.</p>

<p>"<ent type='PERSON'>Mamdouh</ent> [Zakhary] is an honest man with very good intentions," Richard
Kennan, a U.S. Customs agent, told the <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> newspaper Ma ariv. "[He]
prevented a mass terror attack on Christmas 1985. Unfortunately, he didn't
understand the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> system. He was confused. I'm very sorry about
what happened to him. We tried to get him asylum in the U.S., but his
behavior didn't help." The U.S. has had a long and tortured history with
the <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> world. While most <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s see <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s as the aggressors,
<ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s view the West the same way. In fact, the U.S. and the <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent> world
have been trading acts of terrorism for years. In 1986, <ent type='NORP'>Libyan</ent>-backed
terrorists bombed the La Belle discotheque in <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent>, killing two <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
servicemen. In response, the U.S. bombed <ent type='GPE'>Libya</ent>, killing 36 civilians and
wounding 92. On July 3, 1988, during the <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Iraq</ent> war, the U.S.S.
Vincennes accidentally shot down an <ent type='GPE'>Iran</ent>ian passenger plane over the <ent type='LOC'>Gulf</ent>,
killing 290 people. Six months afterward, Pan Am 103 disintegrated in a
shower of fire and debris over <ent type='GPE'>Lockerbie</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Scotland</ent>. No one claimed credit,
but it is widely believed in intelligence circles that the Pan Am bombing
was Iran's revenge.</p>

<p>The U.S.-funded attack that killed the greatest number of innocent
civilians took place on March 8, 1985, when the U.S. tried to liquidate
what it believed was the very symbol of international terrorism:
fundamentalist <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> leader <ent type='PERSON'>Sheikh <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Fadlallah</ent></ent>, the head of
<ent type='ORG'>Hizbollah</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>the Party</ent> of God. On October 23, 1983, <ent type='GPE'>Fadlallah</ent> had sent a
suicide bomber barreling into the <ent type='NORP'>Marine</ent> compound in <ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent>, killing 241
<ent type='NORP'>Marine</ent>s. <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> director <ent type='PERSON'>William</ent> Casey contracted out the job of retaliation
to Saudi intelligence, which sent a car packed with explosives into a
<ent type='GPE'>Beirut</ent> slum near Fadlallah's headquarters. A city block was devastated and
more than 90 people were buried under the rubble.</p>

<p>Because of the persistent fear of <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent> terror during <ent type='EVENT'>the Gulf War</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s say they have been unfairly targeted for special surveillance by
federal agencies. Actually, there has been little evidence of <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>
terrorism on <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> soil. The <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> raises money and spreads propaganda in
the U.S., but has refrained from attacking targets here -- although it has
staged murderous assaults against <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s abroad. Ironically, the week
<ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center was bombed, a <ent type='ORG'>PLO</ent> official was being tried in a
<ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent> federal court for planting powerful time bombs in rented cars
parked outside two <ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> banks in <ent type='GPE'>Manhattan</ent> and the El Al terminal at
Kennedy Airport in 1973.</p>

<p>Most <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s would be surprised to learn, however, that the terrorist
group that led the hit parade through much of the 1980s was the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>
Defense League, <ent type='PERSON'>Rabbi Meir Kahane</ent>'s fanatical right-wing <ent type='NORP'>Zionist</ent>
organization. By 1985, the <ent type='ORG'>JDL</ent> was ranked by the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> as the most lethal
domestic terrorist group in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, overtaking the Aryan Nation, the
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Nazi Party, and <ent type='ORG'>the Puerto Rican Revolution</ent>. The <ent type='ORG'>JDL</ent> has been
linked to dozens of bombings and at least two assassinations, including the
widely admired regional director of the <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Anti-Discrimination
Committee, Alex <ent type='PERSON'>Odeh</ent>.</p>

<p>For years the <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent>-born <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> had been calling for the expulsion of
all <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>s from <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent>. After moving to <ent type='GPE'>Jerusalem</ent>, he established the Kach
Party and was elected to Israel's parliament in 1984. He drafted a slew of
bills that were never passed, including one that would have made it a crime
punishable by two years in prison for a <ent type='NORP'>Jew</ent> to have sex with an <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>.
Israel's High Court banned <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> from running for reelection in 1988 on
the grounds that his party was racist and antidemocratic.</p>

<p>It seems certain now that Kahane's fanatical ideas made him the target of
terrorism himself. On November 5, 1990, he gave the last speech of his
life. "My whole life has been ideas which eventually were taken up by
other people and succeeded," said <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> in his characteristic stutter, an
impediment since childhood. "Today <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> defense is an accepted thing. A
patrol in a neighborhood is an accepted thing." But patrols were no longer
adequate to defend <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> in a country that was becoming increasingly anti-<ent type='NORP'>Semitic</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> warned. He urged his <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> audience to move to <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent>
before a new <ent type='EVENT'>Holocaust</ent> engulfed them in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. "They hate us with a
passion out there," thundered <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent>, "with a virulence that's frightening
to see."</p>

<p>Following Kahane's speech, El <ent type='PERSON'>Sayyid Nosair</ent> approached the podium wearing a
black yarmulke, as if to ask a question. Moments later, <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> was dead.
In the irony of ironies, the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> put the <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> branch of <ent type='ORG'>the Kach Party</ent>
under surveillance to prevent it from avenging their slain leader. The <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>
failed, however, to monitor activities at the radical mosques.</p>

<p>I interviewed <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> for <ent type='ORG'>The Village Voice</ent> in a tiny detention cell on
<ent type='LOC'>Rikers Island</ent> on the eve of his trial. <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>, who was wearing a white
tunic and a white skullcap with the words ALLAH WILL BE VICTORIOUS knitted
in bold blue <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>ic calligraphy across the front, began our 90-minute talk
by handing me a number of pamphlets showing why <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> was the true path. "I
started to practice my religion as much as I can since I came to <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent>
States," said <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>. "Of course, I read a lot. I read about different
religions -- <ent type='NORP'>Christianity</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> -- I studied all these religions that
led me to believe that <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> is the true way of life.</p>

<p>"You face many different doors" in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, continued <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent>, who had
immigrated to <ent type='GPE'>Pittsburgh</ent> from <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> on July 14, 1981. The true path is
behind one door, he explained, while evil lurks behind the others. "Because
I believe that <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> is the true way of life, I began to preach <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>, to
prove to people from their own [religious] books that <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> is the correct
way of life." <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>, he told me, is encoded in each of us at birth. Each
person is created in submission to Allah. We pervert nature, he said, when
we embrace <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> or <ent type='NORP'>Christianity</ent>. "<ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> has a lot of materialistic
rituals with a minimum of spiritual rituals, and that's why Allah sent
<ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> to mankind," <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> said. <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> is an abomination, he explained,
not because of race or blood (the <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>s too are <ent type='NORP'>Semites</ent>), but because the
<ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> refuse to accept <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> as the Prophet.</p>

<p>I asked <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> if the <ent type='PERSON'>Koran</ent> says there is such a thing as a just killing.
"Of course, there has to be," he replied. "We have to have an <ent type='NORP'>Islamic</ent>
state -- that's why we try to preach <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent> to everybody."</p>

<p><ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> admitted he is a big "celebrity" in the <ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent> world, where he is
credited with killing <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent>. When Nosair's wife, <ent type='ORG'>Caren</ent>, a blue-eyed <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> convert to <ent type='ORG'>Islam</ent>, and three children traveled to <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> a year
after Kahane's murder, they were met at the airport by government officials
and driven through <ent type='GPE'>Cairo</ent> in a motorcade. Caren's chaperone was none other
than Nosair's cousin, <ent type='PERSON'>Ibraham Elgabrowny</ent>.</p>

<p><ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent> had helped raise more than $250000 for Nosair's legal defense.
The trial turned out to be one of the most shocking in <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> history.
The <ent type='GPE'>Manhattan</ent> D.A.'s case against <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> was as narrowly focused as the
investigation had been. The prosecution didn't present any of the evidence
police found in Nosair's apartment suggesting his terrorist connections'
and never offered the jury an explanation of Nosair's motive, despite the
fact that <ent type='GPE'>Manhattan</ent> Assistant District Attorney <ent type='PERSON'>William</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Greenbaum</ent> knew that
<ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> was bragging to fellow inmates at <ent type='LOC'>Rikers Island</ent> that "Allah chose me
to kill the big <ent type='NORP'>Jew</ent>." At least one inmate reported Nosair's confession to
the D.A.'s office, according to sources close to the investigation. After
close questioning that included a lie-detector test, the inmate was deemed
highly credible by the D.A. But in a catastrophic miscalculation, <ent type='PERSON'>Greenbaum</ent>
decided not to put the inmate on the stand.</p>

<p>The D.A. believed there was ample evidence to convict <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> without
delving into his motive, which would have led the trial into the swamp of
Kahane's radical ideas, 50 years of <ent type='NORP'>Arab</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Israeli</ent> enmity, and the internal
politics of <ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>. What looked to every observer like an open-and-shut case ended with Nosair's stunning acquittal; he was, however,
sentenced to 22 years for related charges.</p>

<p>"In this case the result is so jarring that has tempted people to talk
about taking the law into their own hands," former U.S. Attorney Rudolph
<ent type='PERSON'>Giuliani</ent> wrote to <ent type='GPE'>Manhattan</ent> U.S. Attorney <ent type='PERSON'>Otto Obermaier</ent> after the verdict.
<ent type='PERSON'>Giuliani</ent> recommended that the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> reopen the <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> investigation. The
Justice Department refused, and the case dimmed from public memory until
<ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center was bombed.</p>

<p>The authorities are just now reopening the <ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> investigation. It is
possible that <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> will be tried in federal court for violating Kahane's
civil rights, much as the police in the <ent type='PERSON'>Rodney King</ent> case are now being
tried. A new investigation may find that the bombers of <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade
Center were also Kahane's killers. The connections seem strong. Both
<ent type='ORG'>Elgabrowny</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent> visited <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Attica</ent>. And federal agents found
forged <ent type='NORP'>Nicaraguan</ent> passports made out to <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> and his family in
Elgabrowny's <ent type='GPE'>Brooklyn</ent> brownstone. <ent type='GPE'>Attica</ent> officials are currently
investigating whether an escape was being planned.</p>

<p>Another suspect in the case, <ent type='PERSON'>Mahmud Abouhalima</ent>, a <ent type='GPE'>New York City</ent> taxi driver
and an associate of both <ent type='ORG'>Nosair</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Salameh</ent>, fled the U.S., reportedly for
<ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>. Investigators believe he may now be in <ent type='GPE'>Pakistan</ent>, where he had
trained with the <ent type='GPE'>mujahedeen</ent> and later fought in the <ent type='NORP'>Afghan</ent> war.
Investigators are also looking for links between the bombing suspects and
<ent type='PERSON'>Mir Aimal Kansi</ent>, who is being sought for the slaying of two <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> employees
in front of the agency's <ent type='GPE'>Virginia</ent> headquarters. According to a federal
prosecutor, Kansi had told his roommate that he was going to commit a
violent act to protest what he perceived as <ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> mistreatment of
<ent type='NORP'>Muslim</ent>s.</p>

<p>This much is certain: Just 12 hours after Kahane's killing, the government
was espousing the lone-gunman theory and Nosair's terrorist connections
were ignored. Had the investigation into the assassination of Rabbi Meir
<ent type='PERSON'>Kahane</ent> been vigorously pursued, <ent type='ORG'>the World</ent> Trade Center bombing may never
have happened.</p>

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