Husain

THE MUSLIM "CONSPIRACY" TRIALS

Dozens of people called in to claim credit for the World Trade Center bombing, but the FBI and other authorities narrowed their focus on Muslims residing in the area as prime suspects. Eventually, four men were convicted of conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center.

In the course of the conspiracy trial, it became evident that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had "infiltrated" circles of Muslims in the New York-New Jersey area and had an operative working on their behalf for some time prior to the World Trade Center blast. The FBI operative, an Egyptian-born man by the name of Emad Salem, attempted to set up people by furnishing them with explosives, with a house meant to be used as a bomb-making factor, suggested various targets, including the World Trade Center, to prospective "recruits," and even may have actually driven the van with the explosives into the parking garage on February 26th, 1993.

The four defendants in the conspiracy case, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmoud Abouhalima, Ahmad Ajaj, and Mohammad Salameh, were convicted purely on the basis of circumstantial evidence, none of which tied any of them directly or concretely to the crime.

Not only was FBI-man Emad Salem in on the World Trade Center blast, but he also was the prime tool in the engineering of another "conspiracy" case against 15 other Muslims, including the blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. They are charged with conspiring to blow up several major New York landmarks, including the United Nations and the Lincoln Tunnel. Over 150 hours of taped conversations taken by Emad Salem form the basis of this case. Reportedly, one of the defendants has been "persuaded" to turn state's evidence against his co-defendants. . . .

Emad Salem, who allegedly had a rank of major in the Egyptian army (some reports have him claiming the rank of colonel) set up Sheikh Omar, as well as anyone else he could ensnare, in a "conspiracy" which was cooked up to help the Egyptian regime get rid of some of its opponents and for the U.S. government to go after Muslims and Arabs who will not go along with American designs for supremacy in the Middle East and particularly with Israel and its occupation of Palestine. . . .

The tape recordings made by Salem have also been doctored by the prosecution. For example, at one point Salem says to the Sheikh, "We really should blow up the World Trade Center." The Sheikh responds by saying, "That's interesting BUT ISLAM IS AGAINST IT." The 'ISLAM IS AGAINST IT" portion of his reply is left out of the transcript prepared by the prosecution.

The prosecution's case in the first conspiracy trial seemed to fall apart as the trial wound down. A star witness pointed to two of the jurors when asked to identify two of the suspects he had allegedly seen in the vicinity before the explosion. He was allowed to change his testimony by the judge, once his "mistake" had been pointed out. They did find a "bomb factory" in New Jersey, but it turns out that the one man most active in making bombs, providing supplies, suggesting possible targets and even renting a place where bomb-making was taking place was none other than Emad Salem. . . Not one shred of evidence was produced to prove that materials found in Jersey City or elsewhere were found at the scene of the blast. . . . Jurors watched in awe as they were shown a video which showed American installations abroad blown up. It turned out the video was an item readily available at most video rental stores and was a Hollywood-type thriller of the Rambo-Chuck Norris type.

The defense apparently felt that the lack of concrete and direct evidence combined with the many mistakes made by the other side, was sufficient to acquit the defendants. This proved to be the mistake which sealed the fate of the four. It is certain that insofar as they exist, the conspiracies had their guiding hand attached to the burly body of the one-time Green Beret trainee.

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