Israel Matzav

The murder of Meir Kahane HY"D and the World Trade Center

My last job in New York City before I made aliya in 1991 was located on Third Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets. On the night that Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D was murdered, I was in my office, just a few blocks away from what is today a Marriott Hotel, located on Lexington Avenue in the low 50's (it's been more than sixteen years since the murder, so please forgive me if I have forgotten some of the details). At the time, the hotel was owned by a gentleman who had been convicted of racketeering, and I was involved in the sale of some of his assets. I won't be more specific than that, but I did feel a connection to that hotel.

Rabbi Kahane, formerly an Israeli MK and the founder of the Jewish Defense League in the United States, was murdered by an Egyptian member of what is today called al-Qaeda, named el-Sayed Nuseir. Nuseir was acquitted of murder, because no one actually saw pull the trigger, and was instead convicted on a lesser charge of possession of an illegal weapon. Three years later, he was one of the terrorists involved in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

That is what I knew before I read the article I'm about to link. Now, we're going to learn more:

At the time, the theory that Kahane’s murder had been part of a terror conspiracy was discounted by federal investigators. But Detective John Molelli knew better, having been the first to find and examine the papers in Nuseir's rented house in Cliffside New Jersey .

Molleli found and closely examined boxes of notebooks and other papers written in Arabic, complete with diagrams that revealed the existence of a terrorist cell operating in the New Jersey – New York area. The papers included plans to attack a number of targets in New York City, including the World Trade Center. Police found photos of the Twin Towers, the Empire State Building and the Washington Monument. They found manuals on how to make bombs. They also found written materials promoting terror attacks on American soil.

He broke his silence about the evidence he found and its link to the World Trade Center attacks this year, the fifth since the Twin Towers were completely destroyed in a terror attack that rocked the world.

According to a program broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 TV, the evidence was ignored because Kahane was the victim in the case. Kahane was considered a troublemaker who promoted an unpopular view that Arabs who lived in Israeli territory should be encouraged to move out of the country.

The evidence was quickly removed to the offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and was largely ignored until the 1993 terror attack on the Twin Towers. Six people died and 100 were injured in the bombing. In the wake of the attack, the boxes that Molelli had discovered in Nuseir's rented house and which had been confiscated by the FBI were finally opened and closely examined, and the Arabic was translated.

Nuseir was later convicted as a co-conspirator of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman for the 1993 bombing, as well as conspiracy to attack New York landmarks and assassinate U.S. politicians.

Both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 15 years. It was only after that trial that Nuseir was also convicted of murdering Kahane as part of the “seditious conspiracy.”

"First they came for the Jews, but I didn't protest, because I wasn't a Jew...." We're all in this together folks. The War on Terror knows no boundaries. As far as I am concerned, that is the message of 9/11.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:43 AM