Postal Worker's Letter Tied To Slaying of Afghan Leader

Washington Post ^ | 5/13/02 | Steve Fainaru and Brooke A. Masters

[LarryLied]

NEW YORK -- Authorities believe a U.S. postal employee in custody here helped draft a letter of introduction that may have been used by two men who posed as journalists to assassinate a leading opposition figure in Afghanistan last fall, according to a U.S. official familiar with the case.

[LarryLied]

Post worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar may be implicated in the Sept. 9 slaying of Northern Alliance Gen. Ahmed Shah Massoud. The government has described Sattar as a ""communications center" for the blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman who is serving a life sentence for plotting attacks on the WTC and other NYC landmarks.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is chilling!

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Authorities believe the case of Sattar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came here from Egypt in 1982, provides a window on the domestic activity of global terror networks and a way to understand the relationships between Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization and other extremist groups such as Abdel-Rahman's Gama'a al-Islamiyya, or the Islamic Group.

He has been in the US since 1982!

[Lion's Cub]

FYI

[piasa]

FYI

[aristeides]

Until 1997, Sattar had government clearance as a paralegal to visit Abdel-Rahman in federal prisons. Even as the government was tapping his phone, Sattar, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, was drawing a $40,000 salary for a job with the main post office on Staten Island that included picking up priority mail from secure areas of John F. Kennedy International Airport. That job ended when he was abruptly transferred to a desk job at a remote branch on Staten Island after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sattar had the same job at the Staten Island post office that the first postal worker to come down with anthrax had at the Brentwood postal facility in D.C. The D.C. guy transferred mail between Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the Brentwood facility.

[LarryLied]

Thanks for the added info. Seems to be a big story which has not gotten much play elsewhere. It is Page One at the WP. Imagine we'll see more as the day progresses.

[bvw]

Thanks for the info, LL.

[Shermy]

Good catch. ty

[LarryLied]

This guy takes the phrase "going postal" to a whole new level.

[piasa]

bump for more discussion

[piasa]

1995 : (NY : SHEIKH OMAR ABDEL RAHMAN IS CONVICTED OF PLOTTING TO BLOW UP THE WTC IN 1993; HE WOULD LATER DIRECT THE MURDER PLOT FROM HIS PRISON CELL -WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF HIS LEFTWING LAWYER, US POSTAL WORKER AHMED ABDEL SATTAR, AND EGYPTIAN YASSIR SIRRI - WHICH ASSASSINATED NORTHERN ALLIANCE LEADER AHMED SHAH MASSOUD ON SEPT 9, 2001, JUST DAYS BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK OF 9/11) -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm (* My note: So much for the 'criminal justice method of dealing with terrorists...)

1997 : (LUXOR, EGYPT MASSACRE OF TOURISTS & EGYPTIAN SECURITY GUARDS ) -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm

1999 : (GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR THE 1997 MASSACRE IN LUXOR, EGYPT ASKS AHMED ABDEL SATTAR) According to Sattar's indictment, an Islamic group leader asked him to help expand the group's presence in the United States three years ago. The group has taken responsibility for the 1997 massacre at Luxor, Egypt in which 58 tourists and four Egyptian security guards were hacked and shot to death. -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm

2001summer : (EGYPTIAN-BORN US POSTAL WORKER AHMED ABDEL SATTAR'S CONVERSATION ABOUT HIS 'LETTER OF INTRODUCTION 'TO AFGHAN NORTHERN ALLIANCE LEADER AHMED SHAH MASSOUD IS WIRETAPPED; SATTAR ACTS AS IMPRISONED SHEIKH OMAR ABDEL RAHMAN'S 'COMMUNICATIONS CENTER') But a conversation in the summer of 2001 about the letter surfaced during a wiretap involving Sattar, who [would later be] charged with serving as a communications center for an Egyptian terrorist group allegedly directed by Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman from his U.S. prison cell, the Post reported [later]. Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up New York landmarks, including the World Trade Center. -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm

SEPTEMBER 9, 2001 : (AFGHANISTAN : NORTHERN ALLIANCE LEADER AHMED SHAH MASSOUD IS ASSASSINATED BY AL QAEDA OPERATIVES BEARING A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION PARTIALLY DRAFTED BY EGYPTIAN-BORN US POSTAL WORKER AHMED ABDEL SATTAR AND EGYPTIAN YASSIR SIRRI) Massoud's murder, which took place on 9 September 2001. ...U.S. authorities [would come to] believe that Massoud was killed as a pre-emptive strike in advance of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed more than 3,000 people two days later, the [NY Post] newspaper [later] said. -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm

MAY 13, 2002 : (WASHINGTON POST REPORTS : 'LETTER OF INTRODUCTION' PARTIALLY DRAFTED BY US POSTAL WORKER AHMED ABDEL SATTAR MAY BE LINKED TO THE ASSASSINATION AFGHAN NORTHERN ALLIANCE LEADER AHMED SHAH MASSOUD IN 2001; ANOTHER OF THE LETTER'S AUTHORS, AN EGYPTIAN NAMED YASSIR SIRRI, HAS BEEN CHARGED BY BRITAIN WITH CONSPIRING TO KILL MASSOUD) U.S. officials believe that a letter partially drafted by a U.S. postal worker now in custody may have had a role in the death of an Afghan resistance leader, The Washington Post reported on May 13. U.S. authorities believe that Ahmed Abdel Sattar, 42, helped write a letter of introduction for two men who posed as journalists to kill General Ahmed Shah Massoud in northern Afghanistan last fall, the Post said.
Sattar, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, has not been charged in Massoud's murder, which took place on 9 September 2001. But a conversation in the summer of 2001 about the letter surfaced during a wiretap involving Sattar, who is charged with serving as a communications center for an Egyptian terrorist group allegedly directed by Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman from his U.S. prison cell, the Post reported.
Another Egyptian man who allegedly helped draft the letter, Yassir Sirri, has been charged by Britain with conspiring to kill Massoud. ...Sattar, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Post office, earned $40,000 per year working at the main post office in Staten Island, New York. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. According to Sattar's indictment, an Islamic group leader asked him to help expand the group's presence in the United States three years ago. The group has taken responsibility for the 1997 massacre at Luxor, Egypt in which 58 tourists and four Egyptian security guards were hacked and shot to death. -- "U.S. man's letter links to Afghan killing," Middle East Times, 2002, http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-20/eg/us_mans_letter.htm

[piasa]

Sattar had the same job at the Staten Island post office that the first postal worker to come down with anthrax had at the Brentwood postal facility in D.C. The D.C. guy transferred mail between Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the Brentwood facility.


9 posted on 05/13/2002 7:37:47 AM PDT by aristeides

[Cindy]

THANK YOU Piasa.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the information!

[piasa]

Lynne Stewart's associate Sattar...

[philetus]

Until recently, he was a peaceful, moderate muslim.