The conviction and lengthy prison terms handed to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine other men are a flagrant violation of democratic rights that deserves the condemnation of all working people. It was the legal sanctioning of a pure frame-up cooked up by the FBI largely through a government agent provocateur with a record of lying even under oath in court.
Though the defendants were charged with a massive plot to bomb buildings, bridges, and tunnels in the New York area, there was very little physical evidence to substantiate the accusations. For Abdel Rahman and some of the others, the "evidence" against them was a couple of phone calls or the fact that they knew each other. Throughout the trial, the prosecution and big-business press campaigned to smear the defendants as "Islamic fanatics," in an attempt to dehumanize and convict them ahead of any verdict.
From the beginning, the government's case was based almost entirely on the word and the entrapment operation of an FBI stool pigeon. Emad Salem, a former Egyptian intelligence agent who admitted in court that he has lied to almost everyone he ever met, had a resume that included snitching for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in exchange for citizenship. He was paid $1 million for his services in this case, and now receives $2,700 per month in the FBI's witness relocation program.
Salem actually set up the operation, renting a warehouse where explosives were supposedly prepared. Several witnesses testified Salem duped them into thinking they would be going to Bosnia to fight with Muslim forces there.
These convictions are part and parcel of imperialism's holy crusade against toilers who are Muslim or who come from parts of the world predominantly Muslim. They are a piece with Washington's most recent tack in its campaign to crush the workers state in Yugoslavia, where U.S. generals are also raising the specter of plots by "Islamic fundamentalists" to justify their latest war moves.
As part of their anti-Muslim "antiterrorism" campaign, U.S. officials dredged up a little-used sedition law that allows the government to jail someone based solely on their associations and intent, whether or not any crime was ever committed.
The last time Washington tried to use a seditious conspiracy charge was against a group of Puerto Rican nationalists in Chicago in 1987. Such laws can and will be particularly used against trade unionists, Black rights activists, and other working-class organizations and fighters.
In his State of the Union speech, Clinton renewed his demand for so-called antiterrorism legislation. The president's proposal includes: giving the president broad powers to declare an organization "terrorist"; trying noncitizens accused of "terrorism" in a special court in secret session; holding the accused in preventive detention without bail; allowing the use of illegally obtained evidence; expanding the use of police wiretaps; and permitting convictions on the basis of secret evidence.
The New York sedition trial, as well as the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York and the federal building in Oklahoma City, are the main pegs Clinton has used to push this.
Any such measures will be used against the entire working class. That's why working people should oppose Clinton's anti-Muslim campaign and demand, "Free Abdel Rahman and the other defendants now!"