Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Egyptian terrorist who helped mastermind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, died Saturday in North Carolina prison hospital after a long battle with diabetes and coronary artery disease.
The 78-year-old blind sheik was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding a thwarted plot to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the United Nations, and the FBI's New York headquarters. The FBI busted the blind extremist and nine conspirators before they were able to carry out the deadly large-scale attack.
Abdel-Rahman showed no remorse during his sentencing as he rambled for 100-minutes and called on his Muslim followers to stand up to an "infidel" America.
“America will go and be withered and this civilization will be destroyed,” Abdel-Rahman said in Manhattan Federal Court. “Nothing will remain. We will not kneel.”
“The prosecution wants that we should kneel and be subservient to America and obey America,” he added, “but we do not kneel to anyone, except to God.”
Abdel-Rahman sought to direct his followers to carry out terror attacks even from behind bars. Years before the American public learned about Osama Bin Laden, Abdel-Rahman was the bearded face of Islamic terrorism.
The 1993 World Trade Center attacked killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others. Abdel-Rahman was never charged in the plot but prosecutors maintained that he conspired with the six men who were convicted in the bombing.
In February 2007, Abdel-Rahman was transferred to the medical center. He died at 5:40 a.m. Saturday (Feb. 18) inside the Federal Medical Center in Butner.
Source: nydailynews.com
