Posted on 04/28/2002 11:37:10 AM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
N E W Y O R K, April 28 — For years, Ahmed Abdel Sattar seemed a friendly, mild-mannered postman who happened to know a lot of terrorists. Now the government says there was a reason for that: He was a terrorist, too.
Sattar is being held without bail on charges of helping a blind Egyptian cleric deliver a message of hate across the world from behind bars. But while the charges are new, Sattar is a familiar face to government investigators.
Nearly a decade ago, the government suspected Sattar used his postal job to track down the home address of an FBI terrorism investigator. In recent years, the government now alleges, he exchanged phone calls with a "who's who" of Egyptian extremists to coordinate terrorist directives.
All of this is beyond belief to Sattar's wife and friends, who say the 42-year-old father of four has led a law-abiding life in Staten Island. Any associations Sattar had with people the government considers extremists, they say, were a reflection of his Muslim beliefs and an assertion of his constitutional rights.
"I know my husband better than anybody. All the stuff they said is not true," said his American-born wife, Lisa.
"My phone has been ringing nonstop with people who are prepared to come forward on behalf of my client," said his lawyer, Kenneth Paul. Among those friends, he said, are a pediatrician, a university professor, a real estate executive and a retired city housing official.
In an indictment filed this month, authorities allege Sattar delivered messages from the federal prison cell of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. The blind cleric, a leader of the Egyptian-based Islamic Group terrorist organization, is serving a life term on charges of conspiring to blow up New York landmarks in 1993.
Sattar is accused of relaying directives from Abdel-Rahman's Minnesota prison cell, under the guise of serving as an interpreter for the sheik's lawyers. One of those lawyers, Lynne Stewart, and two others have also been charged, and Abdel-Rahman has been moved to an undisclosed federal prison.
All four defendants were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to the terrorist organization. If convicted, they could face 5 to 20 years in prison on each count.
The government says the jailhouse messages included an edict "mandating the bloodshed of Israelis everywhere." Prosecutor Joseph Bianco said court-ordered telephone wiretaps found Sattar talking with "a virtual who's who of the Islamic Group's top leadership."
Sattar's relationship with the sheik dates back a decade. He helped Abdel-Rahman speak publicly after his 1993 arrest, and he attended the sheik's 1995 trial on off-days from work.
He also translated jailhouse interviews for journalists and arranged for Abdel-Rahman to preach to his followers from prison until the government restricted the sheik's communications.
Sattar arrived in the United States in 1985, became a citizen in 1989 and joined the postal service a year later. Investigators have been tracking him since Middle East terrorism arrived on U.S. shores with the assassination of extremist rabbi Meir Kahane on Nov. 5, 1990.
As the government tells it in court papers, Sattar was among several men who regularly attended the trial of El Sayyid Nosair, the man charged with shooting Kahane.
Prison records showed Sattar visited Nosair in jail seven times, including once with Mahmoud Abouhalima, a man later convicted in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
After Nosair was acquitted of all but gun charges, Sattar was among a group of men at a victory celebration at a Brooklyn mosque, according to an FBI informant. The party included two other men later convicted in the 1993 trade center bombing, the government said.
The government also suspects Sattar used his job to track down an FBI investigator. At a mosque meeting in 1993, Sattar said he knew the home address of Agent John Anticev, the informant reported.
Anticev confirmed that he was approached by a uniformed Sattar near his home, court records show. The agent said the incident disturbed him enough that he moved his family.
Yet none of the charges against Sattar accuse him of any role in the 1993 trade center attack, or in the plot to blow up New York landmarks. And the government has said the charges do not allege any involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Sattar's lawyer also noted that the government does not allege his client relayed any instructions to commit specific terrorist acts.
"To use the government's own theory of this case," Paul said, "my client is in the middle, communicating from party to party."
A damning explanation if I ever heard one.
Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”
How very tolerant of the government: I only hope 9/11 changed that -- forever.
laf
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