Friday, 10 March 2017
Saturday, 18 February 2017
Blind Omar liked to 1993 World Trade Centre bombing dies in US prison
Blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian-born cleric linked to the bombing, died Saturday of natural causes in a US prison facility, the Justice Department said. He was 78 years old.
Abdel Rahman was serving a life sentence on several terrorism-related charges at a Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. His death came after a long battle with diabetes and coronary artery disease, the Bureau of Prisons said.
The sheikh was seen as a jihadist spiritual leader even after his conviction in 1995 for conspiring to bomb New York landmarks, including the United Nations, and assassinate the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Abdel Rahman, who sported a long, gray beard and signature sunglasses, led the militant Gamaa Islamiya group in Egypt before emigrating to the United States.
He preached a radical brand of Islam and was seen as having inspired the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center, which left six people dead and wounded around 1,000.
His son Mohamed Omar was informed of the death and told AFP the family had contacted the US and Egyptian authorities to repatriate the late cleric’s body.
Abdel Rahman had been imprisoned in North Carolina since 2007. He was hospitalized in late 2006 in the state of Missouri after he began to spit blood and was given a blood transfusion.
– Cause celebre –
After his incarceration, the sheikh became a cause celebre for jihadists and Islamists who demanded the blind and ailing militant’s freedom.
A year before Al-Qaeda carried out the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US, the group’s founder Osama bin Laden vowed to free Abdel Rahman in a statement broadcast on Qatar’s satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera.
In 2012, Egypt’s then-Islamist president Mohamed Morsi called for Abdel Rahman’s transfer to Egypt for “humanitarian reasons,” asking for a “prisoner exchange” with the United States.
Gamaa Islamiya militants took part in the 1981 attack that killed Egypt’s former president Anwar Sadat, whose assassination Abdel Rahman had legitimized by issuing a fatwa.
The militant group — long designated a terrorist organization despite its renunciation of violence in recent years — also claimed responsibility for a devastating 1997 attack in the country’s southern city of Luxor, which killed some 60 people, most of them tourists.
Born in May 1938 to a family of poor farmers in the town of Gamaliya, in the Nile delta, Abdel Rahman obtained a doctorate in theology at the Islamic university of Al-Azhar in Cairo.
Despite his radical connections, Abdel Rahman in 1990 traveled to the US and preached his impassioned sermons to mosques in New Jersey and Brooklyn, after obtaining a tourist visa from a US embassy in Sudan.
– ‘War of urban terrorism’ –
From the US he continued to urge the violent overthrow of the Egyptian government in cassette tapes sent to his homeland.
Abdel Rahman was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to execute a spate of bombings in New York against the UN headquarters, bridges and government buildings, a campaign its plotters never saw through.
The radical theologian — along with nine associates — had been convicted of waging “a war of urban terrorism” after an almost year-long trial in a US district court in New York.
Prosecutors argued the plot was geared toward pressuring the US to check its support of Israel.
“My killing will be a martyrdom in the cause of God,” said Abdel Rahman, who, along with his co-defendants, denied the charges against him.
He was not charged in the 1993 World Trade Center attack, in which a truck bomb detonated in an underground parking garage beneath one of the towers that once stood in southern Manhattan.
Four others were convicted of carrying out the attack in a separate trial, but authorities suspected the cleric was connected to it.
In 2005 the US human rights lawyer who represented Abdel Rahman, Lynne Stewart, was herself convicted for acting as a go-between for her jailed client and his followers.
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Zaria residents commend El Rufai over construction of drainages
Zaria (Kaduna State) – Some residents of Zaria, Kaduna State have commended Kaduna State Government for the construction of drainages in the town to facilitate free water flow to curb the menace of flood and check incidence of malaria.
The state government had embarked on construction of drains and culverts in Kaduna, Zaria and Kafanchan.
NAN reports that the project was to facilitate free water flow and to check breeding of mosquitoes in stagnant water.
The people made their position known in separate interviews with NAN in Zaria on Saturday.
Alhaji Abubakar Nuhu, described the project as very vital, necessary and timely and urged the residents to give the contractors maximum cooperation.
He said: “This is a very important project because drain blockage had in the past resulted in flood, thereby resulting in loss of lives and property.
“This project had gladdened our minds because of its importance to our health; we pray it will be completed before the commencement of rainy season.
“It is pertinent to appeal to residents to give the contractors all the necessary support and cooperation to enable them complete the work in time,” he pleaded.
Another respondent Malam Sale Mohammed, observed that the project would reduce the incidence of malaria, as mosquitoes breeding spaces would be highly limited.
“Apart from that, the project had provided job opportunities to large number of people from different places.
“Many people that included small contractors to labourers now earn a living using their physical strength.
“We thank the state government for a job well done, we pray they will see to its successful and speedy completion,” he advised.
Another resident Alhaji Habibu Musa, who also spoke, expressed satisfaction with the spread of the project in the city irrespective of tribe, religious or political affiliation.
The project in Zaria covered areas like: Kofar-Gayan Low-Cost, Tudun-Wada, Aguwan Dankali, Danmagaji, Sabongari, Sokoto Road, Wusasa and Tukur-Tukur, among others.
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Xenophobia: S/Africans attack Nigerian businesses
Port Harcourt, Feb. 18, 2017 (NAN) The Nigerian Community in South Africa have confirmed attacks and looting of Nigerian-owned businesses in Pretoria West on Saturday.
Mr Ikechukwu Anyene, President, Nigeria Union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from Pretoria, South Africa, that the attacks began at 4.00am.
He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigeria mission and South African police.
“ As we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans.
“ One of the buildings is a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the attack.
“ Also, the pastor of the church was wounded and is in the hospital receiving treatment,” he said.
Anyene said the union had informed Nigerians in South Africa to be vigilant in the face of renewed xenophobic attacks.
According to him, the union received information that there will be xenophobic attacks against foreigners on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23.
“ We began taking precautionary measures when the incident took place today.
“ The attack in Pretoria West is purely xenophobic and criminal attack because they loot the shops and homes before burning them,” he said.
Anyene called on the Federal Government to persuade its South African counterpart to protect Nigerians in their country.
“ These attacks should not be allowed to continue because it is a big setback,” he said.
The post Xenophobia: S/Africans attack Nigerian businesses appeared first on Vanguard News.
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