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'El Sayyid Nosair' (born November 16, 1955) is an Egyptian-born American citizen and terrorist involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. El Sayyid Nosair was convicted of nine counts, including seditious conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder of a postal police officer, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, use of a firearm during an attempted murder, and possession of a firearm.
He was also charged by the State of New York as the gunman who killed Rabbi Meir Kahane, the controversial leader of the Jewish Defense League and the founder of the political party Kach, in Manhattan in 1990. Although there were numerous eye-witnesses, Nosair was acquitted of the murder but convicted for possession of an illegal firearm.
Nosair was convicted as part of the trial of the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences for the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years imprisonment. [1] Since it was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was finally convicted of killing Kahane. [2] He is serving his sentence in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Contents

Kahane trial

Pipe bomb plot, 1991

World Trade Center bombing, 1993

References

Kahane trial

According to prosecutors, a man named Wadih el Hage purchased the .38 caliber revolver used by Nosair. El-Hage was told by a man named Mahmud Abouhalima to buy the gun.
Nosair was acquitted of murder but convicted of gun charges. High-profile defense attorney William Kunstler served as his attorney in the case. Dozens of Arabic bomb-making manuals and documents related to terrorist plots were found in Nosair's New Jersey apartment, also Army Special Warfare Center manuals from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, secret memos linked to Joint Chiefs of Staff, tapes of the Blind Sheik threatening "high world buildings," and 1440 rounds of ammunition. (Lance 2004 26). Osama bin-Laden contributed approximately $20,000 towards his defense.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "In taped messages made before killing Kahane, Nosair urged others to launch a jihad....'Remember ye brothers that God the Almighty commanded us to fight,' he said, according to a federal transcript of the tape. 'Without fighting there will not be justice on earth...We cannot establish God’s rules on earth except by fighting.'"^[1]
Conspiracy evidence was ignored to avoid a 'show trial' by NYPD chief detective Joseph Borelli. Mahmud Abouhalima and Mohammed Salameh, who was also present in Nosair's apartment, were released the night of Meir Kahane's murder. Abdel-Rahman's tapes were not translated until after the World Trade Center bombing.

Pipe bomb plot, 1991

On March 8, 1991, El-Hage visited El Sayyid Nosair in Rikers Island, where he told him he wanted to execute a bomb plot - 12 pipe bombs, to be used for assassinating his judge and a Brooklyn assemblyman, the others to be used against Jewish targets. (Mylroie 1996)

World Trade Center bombing, 1993

Main articles: World Trade Center bombing

Nosair was later convicted as part of the trial of the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences for the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years imprisonment. [3] Since it was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was finally convicted of killing Kahane. [4] He is serving his sentence in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

References

1. Pittsburgh Tribune Review, August 4th, 2002. "Rabbi's killer turned radical during years in Pittsburgh."