Omar Abdel-Rahman
The plot was espoused by a blind sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was a radical Muslim cleric in New York City, to be carried out by some of his followers. Rahman was the spiritual leader of the al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a radical Egyptian Islamic group that had links to al-Qaeda. One of Rahman's followers, El Sayyid Nosair, had assassinated Meir Kahane in 1990 and was linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.