Omar Abdel Rahman

The lawyer for the radical Egyptian cleric accused of plotting to bomb U.S. landmarks unleashed her fury on the government's top informant, forcing him to admit repeatedly he had lied to almost everyone. In her cross-examination of Emad Ali Salem, Lynne Stewart recounted for a federal jury how he had lied to FBI agents, his former wife and others about his background.

This week Lynne Stewart, a former attorney who in the tradition of activist lawyers spent her career defending cases of the indigent and politically controversial, will learn if she will be sentenced to die in prison. The charges against Stewart are related to a long-ago client, the infamous "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who in 1995 was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" for encouraging his followers to commit terrorist acts in and around New York City. Stewart's offense came in 2000, as the case was on appeal.

Blind theologian Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mentor of many Muslim militants, denied any link with an attempt to kill Egypt's hard-line interior minister and said the government fabricated the incident. The minister, Maj. Gen. Zaki Badr, 53, who has spearheaded past crackdowns on Islamic fundamentalists, escaped unhurt when a truck packed with explosives blew up near his motorcade in Cairo on Saturday.

The Egyptian "blind sheik" convicted in 1995 in connection with a plot to blow up the World Trade Center suffered a "medical emergency" at a federal prison in Springfield, Mo., last week, and the FBI is warning that his apparently imminent death could trigger attacks against the United States. Law enforcement officials said an FBI advisory was sent about the deteriorating condition of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, 68, "out of an abundance of caution," but there was no specific threat information.

The government's key informant in the "terror trial" of a radical Muslim cleric and his followers charged with plotting to bomb New York landmarks said Monday that the group also planned to build 12 bombs targeting the Jewish community. During a tense day of testimony by Emad Ali Salem, a Muslim spectator in the back of the courtroom interrupted proceedings by standing and yelling at the informant as he identified a gun he said was given to him as part of the scheme. "This man is a liar . . .

In his first interview since he was convicted of waging a holy war against the United States, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said Monday that the government was trying "to break my spirit" by moving him from New York. The sheik was moved at 5:30 a.m. from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.

The Egyptian "blind sheik" convicted in 1995 in connection with a plot to blow up the World Trade Center suffered a "medical emergency" at a federal prison in Springfield, Mo., last week, and the FBI is warning that his apparently imminent death could trigger attacks against the United States. Law enforcement officials said an FBI advisory was sent about the deteriorating condition of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, 68, "out of an abundance of caution," but there was no specific threat information.

Abdullah Omar Abdel Rahman's father is serving a life sentence for conspiring to unleash a campaign of terror on Manhattan in the 1990s. But without hesitation, the son condemns this week's attacks. Still, like other longtime critics of the United States in this region, his expressions of sympathy barely paper over a deep hostility toward America. In his case, it's personal because he thinks his father, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, was framed.

A jury began deliberating Saturday in the terrorism trial of a blind Egyptian cleric and nine other men accused of plotting a series of bombing attacks to terrorize the United States into changing its Middle East policies. Deliberations probably will be lengthy as jurors follow U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey's 200 pages of instructions and study evidence from more than 200 witnesses. The six men and six women deliberated for 1 1/2 hours the first day before adjourning until this morning.

An Egyptian man accused of conspiring to assassinate an Afghan Northern Alliance leader was freed Thursday after a terrorist charge against him was dismissed--but he was immediately rearrested on an extradition warrant from the United States. Yasser Serri, who lives in London, was arrested in October in connection with the killing of Ahmed Shah Masoud, a veteran guerrilla commander who was mortally wounded in Afghanistan by two suicide bombers Sept. 9.

A well-known civil rights attorney and her associates showed "utter contempt" for anti-terrorism laws by smuggling secret communications from terrorists to an imprisoned Egyptian cleric, and then communicating his incendiary views to colleagues worldwide, a federal prosecutor charged Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrew Dember's comments came during closing arguments in the trial of attorney Lynne F. Stewart and two colleagues in New York. The defendants had provided legal assistance to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind cleric convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up New York landmarks.

Los Angeles attorney Russell Hayman sits in the United Nations detention center at The Hague. The room is cramped, divided by glass 2 inches thick. Beside him is an interpreter. On the other side of the divider is Tihomir Blaskic, a meaty man with a receding hairline and round-rimmed glasses. It is July 1996. Hayman has flown to the Netherlands to resolve a moral dilemma.

An Egyptian man accused of conspiring to assassinate an Afghan Northern Alliance leader was freed Thursday after a terrorist charge against him was dismissed--but he was immediately rearrested on an extradition warrant from the United States. Yasser Serri, who lives in London, was arrested in October in connection with the killing of Ahmed Shah Masoud, a veteran guerrilla commander who was mortally wounded in Afghanistan by two suicide bombers Sept. 9.

Abdullah Omar Abdel Rahman's father is serving a life sentence for conspiring to unleash a campaign of terror on Manhattan in the 1990s. But without hesitation, the son condemns this week's attacks. Still, like other longtime critics of the United States in this region, his expressions of sympathy barely paper over a deep hostility toward America. In his case, it's personal because he thinks his father, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, was framed.

The wires from the polygraph machine had come off, and finally the intense questioning by investigators from the Central Intelligence Agency was over. Robert Cleare, an American spy who had once been on the CIA's career fast track, had just endured a combined total of 19 hours of interrogation by his employer. Yet even as his grilling was completed in the fall of 1993, Cleare's troubles were just beginning.

With the conviction of Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine other Muslim co-defendants in a planned terrorist plot, U.S. officials are now confronting a prospect that has troubled them for months--that a new terrorist attack could be launched in revenge.

A key FBI undercover informant testified Wednesday that a defendant in the "war of urban terrorism" trial, El Sayyid A. Nosair, wanted him to kidnap and perhaps murder the judge who had sentenced Nosair to prison in the slaying of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Nosair was found not guilty on Dec. 21, 1991, of shooting Kahane, the militant founder of the Jewish Defense League, in 1990 in a Manhattan hotel, but he was convicted on assault and weapon charges.

A former aide to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman testified Thursday that the fiery religious leader urged him to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Abdel Rahman and 10 others are charged with helping to plan the fatal February, 1993, blast at the World Trade Center in Manhattan as well as with plotting to bomb the United Nations building and bridges and tunnels leading into New York.

In his first interview since he was convicted of waging a holy war against the United States, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said Monday that the government was trying "to break my spirit" by moving him from New York. The sheik was moved at 5:30 a.m. from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.

The largest terrorism trial in the nation's history concluded Sunday with the conviction of Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine co-defendants on charges of conspiring to wage urban warfare against the United States. After seven days of deliberations, a federal court jury delivered what prosecutors called a major victory for the government in its fight against international terrorism, finding the defendants guilty of all but two charges.