Just weeks after TheBlaze's exclusive report that claimed the U.S. State Department was "actively considering" transferring Omar Abdel-Rahman, or the "Blind Sheikh" to Egypt, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi publicly called on the U.S. to allow the convicted terrorist to serve out the rest of his sentence at home in Egypt, state media reported on Thursday, according to AFP.
"I will do everything in my power to secure freedom for... detainees, including Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman," Morsi said.
"What I want is to intervene for humanitarian reasons, not to interfere in a court ruling," Morsi reportedly told members of the Egyptian community in New York while he was in the U.S. for the UN General Assembly.
The Blind Sheikh was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, plotting to bomb other New York sites and plotting to assassinate former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"We want his family to be allowed to visit him and to serve his sentence in Egypt as part of a prisoner swap between Egypt and the United States," Morsi said, according to the official MENA news agency.
Morsi, of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, said that "recent incidents around the US embassy in Cairo have delayed efforts in this regard," MENA reported.
The Egyptian leader was clearly referencing the angry protest on 9/11 where radical Islamists stormed the U.S. embassy and tore apart an American flag and replaced it with a black Islamic flag while chanting things like "Death to America." Officials still claim this particular protest was over an anti-Muslim film that mocked Islam and the prophet Muhammad and was not directed at the United States or the Obama administration.
"On June 29, on the eve of his inauguration, Morsi told a rally in Cairo that he would work to free Abdul Rahman, commonly referred to as 'the blind sheikh," AFP reports.
Remember, this is the same Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt that the Obama administration wants to send $450 million to, and eventually a total of $1 billion.
From TheBlaze's exclusive report:
The U.S. State Department is actively considering negotiations with the Egyptian government for the transfer of custody of Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh," for humanitarian and health reasons, a source close to the the Obama administration told TheBlaze.
That seems to line up directly with what Morsi is now calling for. As previously mentioned, Morsi told Egyptians in New York, "What I want is to intervene for humanitarian reasons."
The State Department, Justice Department and the White House have all denied that they are considering transferring or releasing the Blind Sheikh.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said earlier this month that there is no plan to "release" the Blind Sheikh and that, to her knowledge, no "senior" Egyptians had made the request "recently." Well, now she has the Egyptian president telling the U.S. to transfer him this week. Maybe that will get the federal government's attention.
The Blind Sheikh is the former leader of the radical “Islamic Group” in Egypt, which now holds 13 seats in the Egyptian Parliament. The Obama administration recently hosted a member of the designated terrorist organization at the White House named Hani Nour Eldin. Eldin met with senior State Department and Obama administration officials and reportedly urged the National Security Council to consider Rahman's release from U.S. custody.
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