The blind sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, is seriously ill — such that, as AP reports, the FBI has issued a heightened-alert warning, fearing retaliatory attacks against the U.S. Similar reports have sprung up from time to time over the years, and he has always rallied. But I’m told the reports that he is failing are more serious this time.
Al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman Zawahiri — Abdel Rahman’s fellow Egyptian and sometimes rival (they run sometimes competing, sometimes collaborating jihad organizations) — has urged: “I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.”
The beat goes on.