Story highlights Cleric told a judge in 1996 his case was part of "the American war against Islam"

He was also convicted in plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

(CNN) Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, has died, a prison spokesman said Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78, said Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

The February 1993 attack on the Manhattan landmark left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others. Abdel-Rahman was linked to the attack after other suspects were found to have frequented the New Jersey mosque where he preached.

Rahman denied involvement in the earlier attack in which a bomb exploded in a parking garage under 2 World Trade Center.

Read More</s>BUTNER, NC. – Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, has died, a prison spokesman said Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78, said Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

The February 1993 attack on the Manhattan landmark left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others. Abdel-Rahman was linked to the attack after other suspects were found to have frequented the New Jersey mosque where he preached.

The bombing would presage the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center eight years later.

Rahman denied involvement in the earlier attack in which a bomb exploded in a parking garage under 2 World Trade Center.

In August 1993, he was indicted for involvement in a broader terrorist plot that included the World Trade Center bombing.

He was convicted in October 1995 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.</s>Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, has died, a prison spokesman said Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78, said Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Developing story - more to come</s>Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the radical muslim cleric with ties to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, died at 5:40 a.m., Saturday, at a federal prison complex in Butner, North Carolina.

According to Kenneth McKoy, the facility's acting executive assistant, Abdel-Rahman was 78 years old and died after a long struggle with coronary artery disease and diabetes.

Born in Egypt, Abdel-Rahman, also known as "the blind sheik," came to the U.S. in the early 1990s. Preaching in New York and New Jersey, he spread his radical vision of Islam, decried U.S. support for Israel, and built a network of devoted followers.

While Abdel-Rahman was never convicted of playing a direct role in the February 1993 truck bombing of the Trade Center that killed six people and injured more than 1,000, he had connections to those who did and, when he was arrested, had been actively plotting a wave of terrorist attacks against New York City targets.

In 1995, Abdel-Rahman and nine of his followers were convicted of conspiring to wage "a war of urban terrorism against the United States," according to the indictment, planning attacks on New York landmarks, including the George Washington Bridge, United Nations' headquarters and the Lincoln Tunnel.</s>Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, has died, a prison spokesman said Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78, said Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

The February 1993 attack on the Manhattan landmark left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others. Abdel-Rahman was linked to the attack after other suspects were found to have frequented the New Jersey mosque where he preached.

The bombing would presage the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center eight years later.

Rahman denied involvement in the earlier attack in which a bomb exploded in a parking garage under 2 World Trade Center.

In August 1993, he was indicted for involvement in a broader terrorist plot that included the World Trade Center bombing.

He was convicted in October 1995 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Before he was sentenced the following year, Abdel-Rahman delivered a long, ardent speech in Arabic.

“This case is nothing but an extension of the American war against Islam,” he told the judge through an interpreter.

Nine co-conspirators also were sentenced in the case, which centered on a scheme to bomb the United Nations, FBI headquarters in Manhattan, two tunnels in New York and a bridge connecting New Jersey with Manhattan — all in one day.

Abdel-Rahman also was convicted in a plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

During a nine-month trial, his defense attorney argued the cleric was a spiritual leader being prosecuted for his speech.</s>The mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has died in the federal prison in Butner, officials said.</s>WASHINGTON, D.C.: Blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian-born cleric linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, died Saturday of natural causes in a US prison facility, the Justice Department said. He was 78 years old.

Abdel Rahman was serving a life sentence on several terrorism-related charges at a Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. His death came after a long battle with diabetes and coronary artery disease, the Bureau of Prisons said.

The sheikh was seen as a jihadist spiritual leader even after his conviction in 1995 for conspiring to bomb New York landmarks, including the United Nations, and assassinate the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel Rahman, who sported a long, gray beard and signature sunglasses, led the militant Gamaa Islamiya group in Egypt before emigrating to the United States.

He preached a radical brand of Islam and was seen as having inspired the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center, which left six people dead and wounded around 1,000.

His son Mohamed Omar was informed of the death and told AFP the family had contacted the US and Egyptian authorities to repatriate the late cleric’s body.

Abdel Rahman had been imprisoned in North Carolina since 2007. He was hospitalized in late 2006 in the state of Missouri after he began to spit blood and was given a blood transfusion.</s>Abdel-Rahman, 78, died of natural causes at 9:40 a.m. (1440 GMT) at a medical center at a federal prison compound in Butner, North Carolina, according to Greg Norton, a spokesman.

North Carolina: Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Muslim cleric known as "the blind sheikh" who was convicted of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and of planning a broader "war of urban terrorism" in the United States, died on Saturday in a North Carolina prison, authorities said.

Abdel-Rahman, 78, died of natural causes at 9:40 a.m. (1440 GMT) at a medical center at a federal prison compound in Butner, North Carolina, according to Greg Norton, a spokesman.

The cleric, who had diabetes and coronary artery disease, had been incarcerated at the complex for nearly 10 years, Norton said.

Earlier, the cleric's son Ammar said his family had received a phone call in Eygpt from a U.S. representative saying his father had died.

The Egyptian-born Abdel-Rahman remained a spiritual leader for radical Muslims even after more than 20 years in prison.

With his long gray beard, sunglasses and red and white clerical cap, the charismatic Abdel-Rahman was the face of radical Islam in the 1980s and 1990s. He preached a fiery brand of Islam that called for the death of people and governments he disapproved of and the installation of an Islamic government in Egypt. His following was tied to fundamentalist killings and bomb attacks around the world.

"Abdel-Rahman was at the vortex of some of the bloodiest and most consequential terrorist incidents of the 1990s - incidents that would establish the patterns of global terrorism that continue to bedevil us today,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington.

“He was a tireless and enthusiastic in projecting his message of violence and hatred,” said Hoffman, who served on the U.S. government’s commission that reviewed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington and over Pennsylvania.

Abdel-Rahman, who was born in a village along the Nile on May 3, 1938, lost his eyesight due to childhood diabetes and grew up studying a Braille version of the Koran.

As an adult he became associated with the fundamentalist Islamic Group and was imprisoned and accused of issuing a fatwa leading to the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, against whom he had railed for years. The sheikh said he was hung upside-down from the ceiling, beaten with sticks and given electric shocks while held but he was eventually acquitted and went into self-imposed exile in 1990.

He managed to get to New York after the U.S. Embassy in Sudan granted him a tourist visa in 1990 - despite the fact that he was on the State Department's list of people with ties to terror groups.

U.S. authorities blamed a computer error for the visa, but the mistake was compounded in 1991 when Abdel-Rahman was given a green card and permanent U.S. resident status. The New York Times reported the CIA had approved the visa application for Abdel-Rahman, who had supported the anti-Soviet mujahedin in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Abdel-Rahman preached his radical message and lived in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and nearby Jersey City, New Jersey, building a strong following among fundamentalist Muslims. Even in exile, he remained a force in the Middle East, where followers listened to cassette tapes and radio broadcasts of his sermons decrying the Egyptian government and Israel.

While in the United States Abdel-Rahman and his disciples would be linked to the 1990 slaying in New York of militant Rabbi Meir Kahane, the 1992 killing of an anti-fundamentalist writer in Egypt and attacks on foreign tourists in Egypt.

U.S. authorities took action in 1992 by revoking Abdel-Rahman's green card on the grounds that he had lied about a bad check charge in Egypt and about having two wives when he entered the country. He was facing the possibility of deportation when a truck bomb went off in the basement parking garage of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 in an attack that made Americans realize that they were not immune to international terrorism.

Four months later Abdel-Rahman was arrested and went on trial with several followers in 1995, accused of plotting a day of terror for the United States - assassinations and synchronized bombings of the U.N. headquarters, a major federal government facility in Manhattan and tunnels and a bridge linking New York City and New Jersey.

The indictment said Abdel-Rahman and his followers planned to "levy a war of urban terrorism against the United States" as part of a jihad - or holy war - to stop U.S. support for Israel and change its overall Middle East policy.

The defendants were not directly charged with the 1993 World Trade Center attack but were convicted of conspiring with those who did carry out the bombing.

Abdel-Rahman's convictions also included plotting to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a visit to the United States in 1993, a Jewish New York state legislator and a Jewish New York State Supreme Court justice.

Much of the case against Abdel-Rahman and his followers was based on video and audio recordings made with the help of a bodyguard for the sheikh who became an FBI informant. A video also showed four defendants mixing fertilizer and diesel fuel for bombs.

After a nine-month trial, the sheikh and nine followers were found guilty in October 1995 on 48 of 50 charges.

He did not testify at his trial but at a sentencing hearing Abdel-Rahman gave a passionate speech of more than 90 minutes through a translator, proclaiming his innocence and denouncing the United States as an enemy of his faith.

"I have not committed any crime except telling people about Islam," he said.

Abdel-Rahman was still an important figure in radical Islam even after years in prison. A year before his al Qaeda followers pulled off the most destructive assault on U.S. soil, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Osama bin Laden had pledged a jihad to free Abdel-Rahman from prison. When Mohammed Mursi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, began his short-lived presidency of Egypt in 2012, he said winning the sheikh's freedom would be a priority and the jihadists who attacked an Algerian oilfield and took hostages in 2013 also demanded his release.

In 2006 one of Abdel-Rahman's lawyers, Lynne F. Stewart, was sentenced to 28 months in prison for helping smuggle messages from the cleric to his followers in Egypt.</s>Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted of the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, has died in prison in the United States, his son Ammar told Reuters on Saturday.

Ammar said his family had received a phone call from a US representative saying his father had died.

Abdel-Rahman, commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a former leader of the Egyptian Islamist militant group al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya.

Besides the 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre, he was alleged to have planned to blow up other prominent New York buildings, including the UN headquarters.</s>BUTNER, N.C. (AP) — Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik convicted of plotting terror attacks in the United States in the 1990s, has died. He was 78.

Kenneth McKoy of the Federal Correction Complex in Butner, North Carolina, said Rahman died at 5:40 a.m. after suffering from diabetes and coronary artery disease. Abdul-Rahman had been at the complex for seven years.

Rahman was a key spiritual leader for a generation of Islamic militants and became a symbol for radicals during a decade in American prisons.

Abdel-Rahman, blind since infancy from diabetes, was the leader of one of Egypt’s most feared militant groups, the Gamaa Islamiya, which led a campaign of violence aimed at bringing down ex-President Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Rahman fled Egypt to the U.S. in 1990 and began teaching in a New Jersey mosque. A circle of his followers were convicted in the Feb. 26, 1993 truck bombing of New York’s World Trade Center that killed six people — eight years before al-Qaida’s suicide plane hijackers brought the towers down.

Later in 1993, Abdel-Rahman was arrested for conspiracy to carry out a string of bombings against the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and other New York landmarks.
Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, dies in his federal prison cell in Butner, North Carolina.