A bell tolled and a moment of silence was held Tuesday to honor six people who died 20 years ago in the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
The ceremony was held at the 9/11 memorial, where the twin towers were destroyed eight years later. About 50 people, including Mayor Bloomberg and former Mayor Dinkins, attended.
The moment of silence was observed at 12:18 p.m., the time when a truck bomb was detonated below the north tower. The victims' names were read by family members before bagpipers played "Amazing Grace."
More than 1,000 people were injured in the 1993 blast in an underground garage below one of the towers. It was the first dramatic demonstration that "terrorism is theater and New York is the biggest stage," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last week. Read more
The Blind Sheikh: A Flashpoint for Terror 20 Years After the World Trade Center Bombing
Just how dangerous is the blind Sheikh? Article by Peter Lance in AlterNet, Feb 26, 2013 |
| Pres. Mohammed Morsi and Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman |
February 26th, 2013, the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured a thousand, may be the latest proof of George Santayana’s prediction that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Why? Because Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind cleric convicted as the leader of that bombing cell, continues to inspire acts of terror throughout the middle east, including the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September and the January Algerian hostage crisis — both directly linked to demands by Islamic radicals to “free the blind Sheikh.”
An FBI informant who has helped catch some of the world's most dangerous terrorists is coming out of witness protection to warn that a terrorist sheik in prison remains a significant threat to the U.S., as the nation marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. WNBC-TV's Chief Investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst has more.
Emad Salem is urging the U.S. to keep the ailing 74-year-old sheik Omar Abdel Rahman behind bars and to not transfer him, even as governments overseas continue to press for his release.
Indeed, new evidence was uncovered last summer by ex-FBI asset Emad Salem, proving that Abdel-Rahman, now 74 and serving a life sentence in a North Carolina federal prison, was able to issue a fatwa that helped propel Egyptian Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi to victory – a bit of prison-cell electioneering that prompted an immediate quid pro quo by Morsi demanding Abdel-Rahman’s release.
That set off a firestorm of unwanted fears on the U.S. right that the Obama administration would be naïve enough to extradite Sheikh Omar, the head of al-Gamma Islamiyya (the Islamic Group) one of the world’s most virulent terrorist organizations; responsible for the bloody 1997 Luxor massacre in which fifty-eight tourists and four Egyptians were murdered.
Still, in the bickering that turned the Sheik’s purported exit into a rallying point for Obama bashers, the full significance of Abdel-Rahman as a flashpoint for global terror has been lost. Further, the failure by administration officials and critics to appreciate his key role in the ongoing jihad could have deadly consequences in the future. Today’s anniversary of the Twin Towers bombing is an opportunity for us to answer the question: just how dangerous is the blind Sheikh?
No comments:
Post a Comment