“D’amato = Nazi.”

“Muslims Vote Too.”

“Nosair: Family Man,” read the handwritten signs held by the protestors. They were a crowd that ranged from thirty to about fifty everyday, and the object of their support was the defendant on trial in a courtroom in the New York State Supreme Court building in lower Manhattan.

We didn’t know it then, but the trial of El Sayed Nosair stemmed from what was considered the first Islamic extremist attack in New York, and would precede the others to come. Nosair was charged with shooting Rabbi Meir Kahane in a hotel conference room at a Lexington Avenue hotel in 1990. He would later be convicted of being part of the plot to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 and New York City landmarks, along with other accused Islamic radicals, who followed blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rachman.

Now, 18 years after the protesters were chanting “Free Nosair!,” there are predictions the coming trials of the 9/11 terror suspects will attract similar support from some misguided quarters.

A group from the 9/11NeverForget.us group gathered in lower Manhattan to announce a rally next week to protest the Obama administration decision to hold the trials of the five terror suspects in Federal court. They have already gathered more than 120,000 signatures on a petition against the trial that has been posted on their website. They can imagine the defendants using the proceedings as a platform for Al Qaeda propaganda, and for demonstrators protesting in support of the terror suspects, as this city has seen before.

Believe it or not, but in April of 2001, just five months before the gravest terror attack in our country’s history, demonstrators were shouting in favor of Usama Bin Laden on a New York Street. There were only about one dozen, but they stood in front of the United Nations chanting that there will be “more bin Ladens,” and they vowed the flag of Islam would one day fly over the White House.

After the attacks of September I tried to hunt down these pro-Al Qaeda demonstrators but the one I found, the supposed leader of the rally, refused to talk. He said the F.B.I. had already visited him, and as far I know we haven’t heard from him since.

In Washington, D.C. a group of 9/11 widows, a retired General and federal prosecutor announced their support of the civilian trials. They said the criminal justice system is the proper venue for what they brand, “common criminals,” and insist justice will be done.

9/11 widow Lorie Van Auken said that “we’ve waited eight years for American justice, not tortured revenge.” She wants “real justice for the deaths of our loved ones.”

Another widow, Monica Gabrielle, said “our federal system is fully equipped to deal with these men, we’ve done it before.”

Not only were Nosair and Rachman convicted along with
their co-defendants, but the civilian justice system in New York has sent Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, to prison for life. Other Al Qaeda members who took part in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa were also found guilty and given life sentences in federal prison.

But those who gathered at the foot of lower Manhattan, which included New York Congressman Peter King, ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, were unconvinced.

“When we grant a confessed war criminal access to platinum due process, so he can use to rally his fellow terrorists to kill more of our citizens and to target our military, that is Jihad,” declared Debra Burlingame, whose brother was one of the pilots of the American Airlines flight that slammed into the Pentagon. She has help found the advocacy group, “Families for a Safe and Strong America.”

Tim Brown, a firefighter who raced to the towers on that day,
emotionally said the trial gives the accused terrorists “a stage to mock our families and…a stage for 911, part 2.”

One person, Shannon Taylor, remembers it all from the last 18 years. He was standing near Kahane when he was shot. Now, nearly a generation after that killing, Taylor contemplated the newest case. He also expects the trial to become a platform for the defendants’ political views, and he anticipates they will have supporters demonstrating just like the ones he witnessed during Nosair’s trial.

“Do you think they are going to let their icons remain alone?” he asks.

The rally will be held on Saturday, December 5th at a location to be determined.