Apr. 10, 2013
Stewart was convicted in 2005 of helping terrorist Rahman – the bloodstained Blind Sheik – smuggle coded messages of Islamic violence to outside followers in violation of an explicit pledge to abide by her client’s court-ordered isolation.
Rahman, Stewart’s “political client,” had called on Muslims to “destroy” the West, “burn their companies, eliminate their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, kill them on the sea, air or land.” He issued bloody fatwas against U.S. “infidels” that inspired the 1993 WTC bombing, the 1997 massacre of Western tourists in Luxor, Egypt, and the 9/11 attacks.
Defying a judge’s communications ban, Stewart ferreted messages to the Blind Sheik from fellow jihadist Rifa'l Ahman Tara urging him to support a new wave of Islamic violence in Egypt – and then smuggled out a coded order to his followers lifting a ceasefire between his terrorist group and the Egyptian government. Stewart personally delivered one of the messages to a Reuters reporter.
The Middle East Quarterly also described how Stewart created “covering noises” for the Blind Sheik’s translator to evade the communications ban: “On some surveillance videos, Stewart could be seen shaking a water jar or tapping on the table while (the translator) and the sheikh exchanged communications that were then later disseminated to the sheikh’s followers…”
After receiving a paltry initial sentence of 28 months for abetting terrorism, the disbarred civil rights attorney was re-sentenced to 10 years in the slammer. A federal panel of judges excoriated her for her sickening arrogance. “From the moment she committed the first act for which she was convicted, through her trial, sentencing and appeals,” Judge Robert Sack of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, “Stewart has persisted in exhibiting what seems to be a stark inability to understand the seriousness of her crimes.”