Ahmed Sattar update. From Newsday, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Morvillo grilled Sattar in Manhattan about his knowledge of the sheik, the Islamic Group and their goals to overthrow the secular Egyptian government. Sattar insisted the Islamic Group sought, “not to overthrow the government, but to replace it.”
There’s a distinction without a difference if I ever saw one.
Morvillo also questioned Sattar about a list of 14 convicted terrorists that was found in his possession that included their inmate numbers and mailing addresses.
“You have corresponded with people convicted of terrorism-related charges?” Morvillo asked.
“Yes,” Sattar replied. “They were sending me letters asking for me to assist … some were calling me that they are in need of money and, as a point of the charity for many Muslims, especially during Ramadan, I used to send them money. Yes, they are criminals, but they are also human beings.”
Morvillo asked Sattar if he knew Yousef, and Sattar replied, “I never met Ramzi Yousef … I never spoke to him.”
“Wasn’t it true you had some letters from him?” Morvillo asked.
“Yes, I had a letter,” Sattar said, explaining that he had published a Muslim newspaper and that after he stopped publishing it, Yousef “sent me a letter asking me why we stopped sending it to him. That was my only contact with him … “
Sattar also attempted a bit of taqiyya, but failed:
Morvillo asked Sattar if “jihad” to Abdel-Rahman meant “jihad by the sword.” Sattar insisted “jihad” was a struggle in one’s heart, adding, “it could mean by hand, by intention and the act of opposing something.”
Morvillo showed him one of the sheik’s sermons found among Sattar’s possessions in which the sheik declares, “If God … say do a jihad, it means do it with the sword, with the cannon, with the grenade and with the missile; this is jihad.”
Sattar conceded, “Right here in this sermon … he is saying that, yes.”