linked - Investigating the Terror

the sincerity of the approach by the IG member they maintained contact with
the group and had a second meeting with a young lawyer from the IG. Much
of the same information was offered again, with an admission from the
lawyer that their approach to the US was due to a change in thinking within
the group. Keen not to let the Mubarek government image of the IG as a
wild terrorist group be taken as gospel, they had volunteered this information
to US official as a sort of overture.
What this suggests is that even with the Afghan war winding down, some
within the US establishment saw the mujahideen as having a purpose beyond
the localised harassment of the Soviets. The fact that during this period the
Bilnd Sheikh, the ideological leader of the IG, travelled to the US on multiple
occasions and a year after these meetings moved their permanently suggests
he was considered to still be useful. The fact that his visas for these trips
were arranged by the CIA all but confirms that.
State Department Cable revoking the Blind Sheikh’s visas, December 1990
Several months after the Blind Sheikh arrived in New York to take up
permanent residence his right of residence was rescinded by the State
Department. This cable from December 1990 shows that in late November of
that year all his visas were summarily revoked, though no explanation is given
as to why. It may or may not have had something to do with the
assassination of rabbi Meir Kahane (himself a former FBI informant) in early
November, by El Sayyid Nosair, one of Rahman’s followers.
This had almost no effect on the Blind Sheikh whatsoever, who continued to
live in New York, preaching his radical sermons and inspiring people to acts of
violence, for over two years. He was arrested in June 1993, having faced no
deportation proceedings of any kind in the intervening period. Given that his
presence in the US was assisted by the CIA, one has to wonder at whether
the State Department were simply covering their backs with the gesture of
revoking his visas, as they clearly had no real intention to remove him from
the country.
State Department memos on appropriateness of visas issued to the Blind
Sheikh, July 1993
After the Blind Sheikh’s arrest the State Department’s Office of the Inspector
General conducted a brief inquiry into whether the decision to grant him the
visas in the first place was correct. In particular the 1990 visa that granted
him a right of residency in the US was a matter of some concern.
Despite a lengthy investigation State Dept official Mary Ryan wrote that, ‘It is
not possible to answer definitively whether or not visas, (particularly the one
issued in 1990) should have been issued or denied based on the evidence and