Word: abouhalima
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...American soil sent federal agents scrambling on a global manhunt. One of the suspects, a 33-year-old redhead, was captured in his native Egypt by government agents, brutally tortured until he confessed to the bombing and then flown back to America to stand trial. His name: Mahmud Abouhalima. Prosecutors say Abouhalima, a former New York City taxi driver, was the ) motorist who paid for the fuel on that February morning in Jersey City. But his significance doesn't end there. The U.S. contends that he is the epitome of the modern terrorist, a self-made commando pursuing a homemade...
...Today Abouhalima and three colleagues sit quietly in Courtroom 318 in downtown Manhattan, six blocks from the Twin Towers, watching intently as their lawyers and the prosecutors joust over the selection of jurors. So prominent is the case that U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy rounded up 5,000 citizens in his effort to assemble an unbiased jury -- 10 times the number called for last year's sensational trial of Mob chieftain John Gotti. Opening arguments in the bombing case are expected to begin next week. The trial will probably take three to four months, all the while under heavy security...
...that was not all of it. According to friends, Abouhalima developed a deep and growing hatred for Egypt because he felt his country offered little hope for his generation's future. Despite its poverty, Abouhalima's family was several cuts above the norm, which may have created an expectation in the $ young man that a better life was obtainable. His rebellion began in small ways. He started to smoke, but never once lit a cigarette in front of his stern father, a powerful weight lifter who would have disapproved. As a teenager, Abouhalima began to hang around with members...
...group, which is committed to making Egypt an Islamic state, was banned on college campuses in 1979. Several times, Abouhalima's friends were rounded up by authorities. Mahmoud Abdel Shafi, an Egyptian lawyer who represents Islamic militants, remembers that Abouhalima occasionally came to him in 1980, at age 20, to get help for friends who had been arrested. "There was a crackdown on Muslim youths who were trying to remain steadfast in their faith," says Shafi. "Mahmud was not planting bombs. He was concerned about what was happening. He simply took it upon himself to try to help those...
...year later, Abouhalima quit school and left Egypt. "I think that to him, immigration meant an escape from persecution," says Shafi. "The internal- security forces were watching him. Usually that means you will be detained and imprisoned and the door will start to close. He thought it was time...