Brecknock, John

Brecknock, John, English tenor; b. Long Eaton, Nov. 29, 1937. He studied with Frederic Sharp and Dennis Dowling at the Birmingham School of Music. In 1967 he made his debut as Alfred in Die Fledermaus at the Sadler's Wells Opera in London, and continued to sing with fine success; also appeared at the Glynde-bourne Festival (1971) and at London's Covent Garden (debut as Fenton, 1974). On March 23, 1977, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Tamino. He also appeared in various European operatic centers. Although best known for such roles as Mozart's Belmonte and Ottavio, Rossini's Count Almaviva and Comte Ory, and Verdi's Duke of Mantua, he also sang in contemporary roles.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

Germans injured in Slovenia bus accident

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenian authorities say at least 6 people were injured when a bus from Germany carrying mostly teenagers swerved off the road and overturned.

Police say the accident happened early Monday on the highway connecting the capital Ljubljana and the town of Kranj. They say it remains unclear why the bus slid off the road.

Doctors say that altogether 29 passengers were brought to the hospital in Ljubljana after the accident. They say three teenagers and three adults remain hospitalized, while others suffered minor injuries.

The bus was carrying 41 passengers — mostly teenagers — who were traveling from Germany to Croatia.

Christian Philipp Müller

BASEL

Christian Philipp M�ller

MUSEUM F�R GEGENWARTSKUNST

This first major retrospective of Swiss artist Christian Philipp M�ller brought together central works of the last twenty years of the artist's steadily context-specific practice, and also featured a new site-specific project, "Basics," 2007, produced specially for the exhibition. The representative selection of older works was presented in thematically arranged groupings and constituted a synopsis of M�ller's main topics and projects, Gr�tte Grenze (Green Border), 1993, his work for the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, for instance, is a rubric of its own: Disguised as a tourist, M�ller illegally crossed the borders of Austria eight times; be documented his journeys with photographs, historical engravings of the landscape he'd traversed, and a table made of varieties of wood common in Austria.

Under the category "Modernismus" (Modernism) were assembled works that exemplify M�ller's examinations of different modernist Utopias, their promises and failures. His investigations end up in complex dialectics, such as in the work Vergessenc Zukunft (Forgotten Future), 1992-a project originally undertaken for the Kunstvercin in Munich. The work, only partially reinstalled in Basel, uses documents and images to examine three examples of late-modernist utopianism: Le Corbusier's visionary Philips Pavilion for the World Exhibition in 1958, the Po�me �lectronique that Edgar Var�se composed for this pavilion, and Nicolas Sch�ffer's project Die kybernetische Stadt (Cybernetic City), 1979, with its urban concept of aesthetic and sexual hygiene. M�ller juxtaposed them with Veit Harlan's homophobic movie Anders ah du und ich (Different from You and Me, 1957)-represented by a cinema display case showing advertisements and film stills. He also produced a new trailer for the film, a video montage of scenes that had been censored in the '50s. With this juxtaposition. M�ller draws out the ambivalence of the Utopian ideologies of the time as they fluctuated between euphoria and repression.

The room-filling work Ein Ralanceakt (A Balancing Act), 1997, fell into the category "Performativit�t" (Performance). The installation iin.hides a twenty-foot-long balancing pole-part oak, part brass- and a video, which begins with amusing attempts by M�ller to walk across a tightrope, under the tutelage of a professional. The video ends witli his performance at Documenta 10 in 1997, on the square in front of the Museum Fridericiamnn, in which he walked between Joseph Beuys's tree relic from 7,000 Eichen (7,000 Oaks), 1982, created for Documenta 7, and Walter de Maria's Vcrtikaler Erdkilatneter (Vertical Earth Kilometer), 1977; M�ller sees these two works as representative of the two poles of twentieth-century art: social art and autonomous art. The video shows M�ller crossing the tightrope-but it's merely stretched out on the ground. Brilliantly, the artist created a spectacle that also serves as a criticism of the "media circus" of the art world.

With "Basics," M�ller makes reference to the museum building's history; in the nineteenth century, it was home to a paper factory. For the installation, he has arranged a waterwheel, a wicker laundry basket containing cotton rags, samples of local tap water in glasses and carafes, and handmade sheets of paper placed behind light boxes; further, the installation shows the original of his certification as a typesetter, acquired in 1977, before he went to art school. More broadly, the work alludes to Basel itself as a place where the craft of bookmaking has been practiced since the early Middle Ages. M�ller thus positions his site-specific research within the context of his own development, which began with the now-obsolete trade of typesetting. In this way, lie goes beyond autobiography to shed light on institutional and historical context in all its complexity.

-Val�rie Knoll

Translated from German by Wendy Gosselin.

English Football Results

LONDON (AP) — Results Tuesday in English football (home teams listed first):

Premier League

Blackburn 1, Bolton 2

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2, Norwich 2

Pathologist still has copy of lost Shepard autopsy

As Albany County officials investigate the possibility that the Matthew Shepard autopsy report may be missing, the pathologist who conducted the 1998 autopsy says he still has a copy of the original record.

Dr. Patrick Allen said he has kept records of all of his work, including the Shepard autopsy, which is among many that seem to be missing from the Albany County coroner's office.

Coroner Tom Furgeson has claimed records were missing when he took over in 2007. Julie Heggie, who served as coroner from 1990 to 2006, has said she handed over autopsy reports to the county attorney when she left office.

Albany County Sheriff James Pond said this week that he's working with Furgeson on a "fact-finding inquiry" to determine whether any records are missing. The inquiry includes a review of the types of records that should be maintained in the office, he said.

Shepard was a gay UW student whose beating death in Laramie garnered national attention. The two men convicted in the case are serving life sentences in prison for the murder.

Allen, the coroner and medical examiner for Larimer County, Colo., said he regularly performs autopsies for Wyoming agencies on a contract basis because Wyoming doesn't have any certified forensic pathologists.

"When we perform autopsies for other jurisdictions, I would keep copies of the autopsies that I do," Allen said. "And I did Matthew Shepard. And I have the records on that."

Heggie said she turned over the Shepard autopsy report to county prosecutors when the criminal case was being investigated. She said her office "meticulously" followed "the letter of the law."

"Per legal and accepted practice in the State of Wyoming, all materials gathered for investigation and cause of death pronouncement were secured by my office," Heggie said in a statement released by her attorney.

County Attorney Richard Bohling, who wasn't in office at the time of the Shepard case, has declined to comment on the possibility of missing records.

Furgeson said he received only a small box of records covering the previous 16 years when he became county coroner in January 2007. He said the office is required to keep documentation of its work. He said it would be unacceptable for another county office, such as the attorney or clerk, not to pass along records when a new administration takes over.

"The cases don't go away when the office changes hand," he said. "I've received dozens of requests for death investigation information for cases that preceded my taking office."

Furgeson said he has not requested another copy of the Shepard autopsy report from Allen, the pathologist in Colorado. Furgeson said he wants to determine whether records are missing before tracking down new copies.

"We're going have to probably deal with several different agencies to reconstruct our records," he said.

A REBIRTH on MEMORIAL DRIVE

Anyone who has taken a drive on Route 33 in Chicopee knows that the once-thriving Fairfield Mall is being reduced to piles of rubble.

Out of that wreckage, city planners hope, will rise a retail center to rival any in the region. But before the rebirth of the site can begin, tenants must sign on to join Home Depot in a development that will eventually feature about a half-dozen 'big-box' stores. And news on that front has been frustratingly slow.

Still, officials remain confident that Memorial Drive holds enough potential for major chains looking to expand that a wave of progress is right around the corner. And with those hopes rides the future of Route 33 as a retail destination.

"We've heard a lot of interesting rumors, like Wal-Mart and Target, but no one has called to actually make any inquiries, at least of the Planning Department," said Katherine Brown, Chicopee's planning director. City officials anxious to see Chicopee's retail sector get a major boost, not to mention residents now forced to leave town for every major retailer outside of Ames, are still waiting for those rumors to become reality. A stumbling economy last year might have thrown a wrench into some chains' expansion plans, but once Home Depot opens up and the property is cleared of unsightly demolition debris, that tide could begin to turn.

A Waiting Game

Only two things are known with some certainty about the makeup of the new development. The Home Depot, finalized as a tenant more than a year ago, is already being built on the site. And city officials anticipate an application to modify the building to accommodate a Subway sandwich shop.

That move will provide a link to the Fairfield Mall's past. After all other tenants had vacated the concourse, Subway and Luca's Pizza were the only two that remained for several months. When Luca's relocated, Subway was the lone tenant, chased out only by the advancing demolition. As for other major big-box tenants, only the site's property manager, PreitRubin Inc. in Philadelphia, knows of any commitments, and it isn't telling.

City planners had expected some idea last fall, but the fourth quarter of 2001 didn't exactly turn into the best time for retail expansion. In fact, with the Sept. 11 attacks coming on the heels of a protracted economic slowdown, retailers were more concentrated on staying alive through discounts and other promotions than on expansion into new markets, Brown said.

"With the economy the way it has been - very up and down - a lot of corporations haven't been expanding, and retailers that had been expanding kind of backed off sites they didn't already have a financial interest in," she said.

City officials still maintain that the old mall site can be a thriving retail center in the vein of a Holyoke Crossing, which boasts six major retailers, including Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, and Petco. While the Fairfield Mall had a sad ending, it thrived in its early years, officials said, and the site could flourish again.

Opened in 1974, the mall boasted two anchors - Caldor and Bradlee's - for most of its existence, not to mention a solid mix of smaller stores in its main concourse. It was still a thriving shopping destination a decade ago, but by the mid-'90s, the landscape began to change. Several stores left the property, and Caldor dealt a major blow when that chain shut down its operations.

The anchor site didn't draw much attention from other retailers, and the mall's struggles began to snowball, leading to declining interest among shoppers and, as a direct result, more defections.

"I think the Fairfield Mall as it existed was slowly dying," said Jeanne Kidwell. Chicopee's community development director. "Nationwide, these types of malls either die, or they're reinvented. I think the best thing that could happen is Home Depot coming in and giving it new life."

Small Steps

By September 2000, when plans were announced for the mall's reinvention, it had only a 50% occupancy rate. At the time, the plan was to transform the mall in the next 12 to 15 months into what retailers call a "power center" - not a mall, but a collection of high-profile retail outlets with one or more anchors, a role Home Depot will fill. However, 20 months after that announcement, the shell of a 100,000-square-foot Home Depot is indeed rising from the asphalt, but the rest of the property is still a landscape of debris from the half-completed demolition, and no further retail commitments have been announced.

"As far as I know - and the developer hasn't shared anything with us - we haven't had any nibbles for any of the other locations yet," Brown said. She added that once Home Depot opens in August, it could generate interest in the other sites. "I hope to see some movement on the rest of it in a year or so." Robin Piree, associate development director of Preit-Rubin, who has been working closely with city planners, declined to comment on the progress being made to draw tenants to the property. The reluctance to comment at this point doesn't surprise Brown, who said there may be some sensitivity due to the city's oft-stated concern over when the developer plans to complete the demolition work.

"We had hoped they would get going on the complete demolition," she said. "It's certainly not very appealing when you drive by. I feel, for the future marketing of the remainder of the property, once that building is down, and the rear of the property is more apparent from the street, it will be more attractive to tenants."

Just getting to this point has been a struggle, Kidwell said, because the mail property had three owners: American Real Estate Holding Corp. owned the Caldor site, with 83,000 square feet of building area on 9.7 acres of land; Fairfield Mall Limited Partnership owned the property occupied by Chicopee Savings Bank, East Coast Marketplace, and the mail connector, totaling 563,593 square feet of building space on 25.8 acres; and Chicopee Holding Corp. owned the property occupied by Bradlee's and Pizza Hut, totaling 118,000 square feet on 15.5 acres.

"I think that we were stuck for a long time because the mall had three different owners, and it was difficult to get something done to elevate it to the next level of retail development," Kidwell added. Since the mall closed, the Fairfield Mall Limited Partnership, whose properties are managed by Preit-Rubin, purchased the Caldor parcel and will sell it to Home Depot when the building is completed. But the Bradlee's site is still under different ownership from the rest of the property, lending even more uncertainty to plans, Brown said.

A Retail Rebirth?

Certainty is what city officials are lookg for. When they compare the retail environment on Memorial Drive with Holyoke Crossing, Riverdale Road in West Springfield, and Boston Road in Springfield, they see opportunities the city has not yet taken advantage of - but could, if the reborn Fairfield Mail site meets expectations.

"I know many people ran hardly wait for the Home Depot to open, and there are probably an equal number of people not so interested in home improvement but want to see some different types of retail available to them," Brown said. "We have a great business climate with a huge investment in industry over the past 10 years, and we're growing jobs, but on the retail side, we don't have a good variety of shopping available to us. Ames is the only place you can go to buy, say, a pot and a washcloth and a T-shirt. We'd like to see more stores available to the citizens here in town."

Kidwell said Memorial Drive could be on a verge of a renaissance, with the Fairfield Mall project coming on the heels of MassMutual's purchase and development of the old Charles River Hospital West, the Hampton Inn hotel project nearby, and the Arbors retirement community, which opened earlier this month. "We've been fortunate," she said. "There have been a number of key developments or, in the case of Home Depot, redevelopment projects that have breathed new life into the city."

Chicopee officials will be more happy, and more relieved, once they have a better idea who Home Depot's neighbors will be. For now, it's a waiting game - but one that holds tremendous potential for a city craving a true retail destination of its own.

Muslim Cleric's Legal Strategy Is Uncertain; Lawyer Asks if Sheik Can Leave U.S., but One Adviser Says He Prefers to Fight Deportation

The lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who islinked to several figures charged in New York terrorism cases and whohas been fighting off a U.S. deportation order, yesterday asked theJustice Department if it would allow the cleric to leave forAfghanistan.

The move is an abrupt about-face in Abdel Rahman's two-year-longattempt to stave off deportation. But the 55-year-old cleric, nowheld at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., thinks he is waging "afight that he may not win," said Barbara Nelson, his immigrationlawyer, who conveyed Abdel Rahman's request yesterday to the officeof Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the southern district of NewYork.

Nelson said she was communicating with the sheik through a closeassociate of his. But another adviser to the sheik, Mohammad T.Mehdi, general secretary of the National Council of Islamic Affairs,met with Abdel Rahman in prison yesterday and said the sheik prefersfurther legal appeals of the pending deportation order against him.

Whether Afghanistan would accept Abdel Rahman and under whatconditions were not clear. Last month, Afghan Prime MinisterGulbuddin Hekmatyar reportedly said he would allow Abdel Rahman intohis country if he were deported by the United States. Later, however,Hekmatyar said that he had no intention of offending Egypt, whichsupported the Afghan rebel war against Soviet occupation in the 1980sand is seeking Abdel Rahman's extradition to face charges of incitingviolence in 1989 anti-government riots.

But the Associated Press reported that Hekmatyar said yesterdaythat he would accept Abdel Rahman, whom he called the "leader of theIslamic nation," into Afghanistan.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy here had no comment. Some ofAbdel Rahman's supporters have expressed fear that he would facedeath if extradited to Egypt, where he is spiritual leader of theIslamic Group, an extremist organization whose members are believedby some to have increased violence in that country.

This weekend, an Egyptian man demanding Abdel Rahman's freedomhijacked a KLM Airlines jet with 138 people on board and forced it toland in Dusseldorf, Germany, where police stormed aboard and arrestedthe hijacker.

A State Department official would not comment on the status of anyarrangements being made with another country to receive Abdel Rahman."The problem with this is it's getting a little ahead of the game,"the official said.

White said in a statement that "there are many questions that needto be resolved before we can consider this proposal" by the sheik.

Abdel Rahman, who was tried and acquitted on charges of givingspiritual sanction for the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat in 1981, came to the United States for brief visits in the late1980s. He began living here after his July 1990 entry on a visaissued in Khartoum, Sudan.

In obtaining the visa, Abdel Rahman slipped through a "look-out"list of suspected terrorists. State Department officials have saidthe granting of the visa was a mistake.

The cleric faces deportation for allegedly lying when he wasissued a permanent resident "green card" in April 1991. On Monday, afederal justice denied his appeal of the deportation order but agreedto a stay of 10 business days before the order is carried out.

Abdel Rahman, who resided most recently in Jersey City, has notbeen been charged in the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing or thethwarted plot to blow up the United Nations, two tunnels and otherNew York City locations on July 4.

But Abdel Rahman's sermons denouncing the United States, Egypt andother "infidels" have made him popular among several of the Muslimextremists charged in the New York bomb cases.

Many of the suspects prayed with Abdel Rahman at mosques in NewYork and New Jersey. Some worked for Abdel Rahman as drivers ortranslators, and others were involved in his effort to recruitvolunteers to fight for the U.S.-backed Muslim rebels in Afghanistanin the 1980s.

Recently, leaked transcripts of conversations recorded by agovernment informer have raised questions about how much Abdel Rahmanknew about the New York bomb plot and when he knew it.

Nelson said the sheik has not decided if he wants to leave theUnited States, but he wants to know if he has the option. And ifAfghanistan is ruled out, Nelson said, Abdel Rahman may consideranother country.

"He's aware that U.S. public opinion is substantially againsthim," Nelson said. "He doesn't think that he's ever going to get afair shake through the court system in the U.S."

Muslim Cleric's Legal Strategy Is Uncertain; Lawyer Asks if Sheik Can Leave U.S., but One Adviser Says He Prefers to Fight Deportation

The lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who islinked to several figures charged in New York terrorism cases and whohas been fighting off a U.S. deportation order, yesterday asked theJustice Department if it would allow the cleric to leave forAfghanistan.

The move is an abrupt about-face in Abdel Rahman's two-year-longattempt to stave off deportation. But the 55-year-old cleric, nowheld at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., thinks he is waging "afight that he may not win," said Barbara Nelson, his immigrationlawyer, who conveyed Abdel Rahman's request yesterday to the officeof Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the southern district of NewYork.

Nelson said she was communicating with the sheik through a closeassociate of his. But another adviser to the sheik, Mohammad T.Mehdi, general secretary of the National Council of Islamic Affairs,met with Abdel Rahman in prison yesterday and said the sheik prefersfurther legal appeals of the pending deportation order against him.

Whether Afghanistan would accept Abdel Rahman and under whatconditions were not clear. Last month, Afghan Prime MinisterGulbuddin Hekmatyar reportedly said he would allow Abdel Rahman intohis country if he were deported by the United States. Later, however,Hekmatyar said that he had no intention of offending Egypt, whichsupported the Afghan rebel war against Soviet occupation in the 1980sand is seeking Abdel Rahman's extradition to face charges of incitingviolence in 1989 anti-government riots.

But the Associated Press reported that Hekmatyar said yesterdaythat he would accept Abdel Rahman, whom he called the "leader of theIslamic nation," into Afghanistan.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy here had no comment. Some ofAbdel Rahman's supporters have expressed fear that he would facedeath if extradited to Egypt, where he is spiritual leader of theIslamic Group, an extremist organization whose members are believedby some to have increased violence in that country.

This weekend, an Egyptian man demanding Abdel Rahman's freedomhijacked a KLM Airlines jet with 138 people on board and forced it toland in Dusseldorf, Germany, where police stormed aboard and arrestedthe hijacker.

A State Department official would not comment on the status of anyarrangements being made with another country to receive Abdel Rahman."The problem with this is it's getting a little ahead of the game,"the official said.

White said in a statement that "there are many questions that needto be resolved before we can consider this proposal" by the sheik.

Abdel Rahman, who was tried and acquitted on charges of givingspiritual sanction for the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat in 1981, came to the United States for brief visits in the late1980s. He began living here after his July 1990 entry on a visaissued in Khartoum, Sudan.

In obtaining the visa, Abdel Rahman slipped through a "look-out"list of suspected terrorists. State Department officials have saidthe granting of the visa was a mistake.

The cleric faces deportation for allegedly lying when he wasissued a permanent resident "green card" in April 1991. On Monday, afederal justice denied his appeal of the deportation order but agreedto a stay of 10 business days before the order is carried out.

Abdel Rahman, who resided most recently in Jersey City, has notbeen been charged in the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing or thethwarted plot to blow up the United Nations, two tunnels and otherNew York City locations on July 4.

But Abdel Rahman's sermons denouncing the United States, Egypt andother "infidels" have made him popular among several of the Muslimextremists charged in the New York bomb cases.

Many of the suspects prayed with Abdel Rahman at mosques in NewYork and New Jersey. Some worked for Abdel Rahman as drivers ortranslators, and others were involved in his effort to recruitvolunteers to fight for the U.S.-backed Muslim rebels in Afghanistanin the 1980s.

Recently, leaked transcripts of conversations recorded by agovernment informer have raised questions about how much Abdel Rahmanknew about the New York bomb plot and when he knew it.

Nelson said the sheik has not decided if he wants to leave theUnited States, but he wants to know if he has the option. And ifAfghanistan is ruled out, Nelson said, Abdel Rahman may consideranother country.

"He's aware that U.S. public opinion is substantially againsthim," Nelson said. "He doesn't think that he's ever going to get afair shake through the court system in the U.S."

Muslim Cleric's Legal Strategy Is Uncertain; Lawyer Asks if Sheik Can Leave U.S., but One Adviser Says He Prefers to Fight Deportation

The lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who islinked to several figures charged in New York terrorism cases and whohas been fighting off a U.S. deportation order, yesterday asked theJustice Department if it would allow the cleric to leave forAfghanistan.

The move is an abrupt about-face in Abdel Rahman's two-year-longattempt to stave off deportation. But the 55-year-old cleric, nowheld at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., thinks he is waging "afight that he may not win," said Barbara Nelson, his immigrationlawyer, who conveyed Abdel Rahman's request yesterday to the officeof Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the southern district of NewYork.

Nelson said she was communicating with the sheik through a closeassociate of his. But another adviser to the sheik, Mohammad T.Mehdi, general secretary of the National Council of Islamic Affairs,met with Abdel Rahman in prison yesterday and said the sheik prefersfurther legal appeals of the pending deportation order against him.

Whether Afghanistan would accept Abdel Rahman and under whatconditions were not clear. Last month, Afghan Prime MinisterGulbuddin Hekmatyar reportedly said he would allow Abdel Rahman intohis country if he were deported by the United States. Later, however,Hekmatyar said that he had no intention of offending Egypt, whichsupported the Afghan rebel war against Soviet occupation in the 1980sand is seeking Abdel Rahman's extradition to face charges of incitingviolence in 1989 anti-government riots.

But the Associated Press reported that Hekmatyar said yesterdaythat he would accept Abdel Rahman, whom he called the "leader of theIslamic nation," into Afghanistan.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy here had no comment. Some ofAbdel Rahman's supporters have expressed fear that he would facedeath if extradited to Egypt, where he is spiritual leader of theIslamic Group, an extremist organization whose members are believedby some to have increased violence in that country.

This weekend, an Egyptian man demanding Abdel Rahman's freedomhijacked a KLM Airlines jet with 138 people on board and forced it toland in Dusseldorf, Germany, where police stormed aboard and arrestedthe hijacker.

A State Department official would not comment on the status of anyarrangements being made with another country to receive Abdel Rahman."The problem with this is it's getting a little ahead of the game,"the official said.

White said in a statement that "there are many questions that needto be resolved before we can consider this proposal" by the sheik.

Abdel Rahman, who was tried and acquitted on charges of givingspiritual sanction for the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat in 1981, came to the United States for brief visits in the late1980s. He began living here after his July 1990 entry on a visaissued in Khartoum, Sudan.

In obtaining the visa, Abdel Rahman slipped through a "look-out"list of suspected terrorists. State Department officials have saidthe granting of the visa was a mistake.

The cleric faces deportation for allegedly lying when he wasissued a permanent resident "green card" in April 1991. On Monday, afederal justice denied his appeal of the deportation order but agreedto a stay of 10 business days before the order is carried out.

Abdel Rahman, who resided most recently in Jersey City, has notbeen been charged in the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing or thethwarted plot to blow up the United Nations, two tunnels and otherNew York City locations on July 4.

But Abdel Rahman's sermons denouncing the United States, Egypt andother "infidels" have made him popular among several of the Muslimextremists charged in the New York bomb cases.

Many of the suspects prayed with Abdel Rahman at mosques in NewYork and New Jersey. Some worked for Abdel Rahman as drivers ortranslators, and others were involved in his effort to recruitvolunteers to fight for the U.S.-backed Muslim rebels in Afghanistanin the 1980s.

Recently, leaked transcripts of conversations recorded by agovernment informer have raised questions about how much Abdel Rahmanknew about the New York bomb plot and when he knew it.

Nelson said the sheik has not decided if he wants to leave theUnited States, but he wants to know if he has the option. And ifAfghanistan is ruled out, Nelson said, Abdel Rahman may consideranother country.

"He's aware that U.S. public opinion is substantially againsthim," Nelson said. "He doesn't think that he's ever going to get afair shake through the court system in the U.S."

Muslim Cleric's Legal Strategy Is Uncertain; Lawyer Asks if Sheik Can Leave U.S., but One Adviser Says He Prefers to Fight Deportation

The lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who islinked to several figures charged in New York terrorism cases and whohas been fighting off a U.S. deportation order, yesterday asked theJustice Department if it would allow the cleric to leave forAfghanistan.

The move is an abrupt about-face in Abdel Rahman's two-year-longattempt to stave off deportation. But the 55-year-old cleric, nowheld at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., thinks he is waging "afight that he may not win," said Barbara Nelson, his immigrationlawyer, who conveyed Abdel Rahman's request yesterday to the officeof Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the southern district of NewYork.

Nelson said she was communicating with the sheik through a closeassociate of his. But another adviser to the sheik, Mohammad T.Mehdi, general secretary of the National Council of Islamic Affairs,met with Abdel Rahman in prison yesterday and said the sheik prefersfurther legal appeals of the pending deportation order against him.

Whether Afghanistan would accept Abdel Rahman and under whatconditions were not clear. Last month, Afghan Prime MinisterGulbuddin Hekmatyar reportedly said he would allow Abdel Rahman intohis country if he were deported by the United States. Later, however,Hekmatyar said that he had no intention of offending Egypt, whichsupported the Afghan rebel war against Soviet occupation in the 1980sand is seeking Abdel Rahman's extradition to face charges of incitingviolence in 1989 anti-government riots.

But the Associated Press reported that Hekmatyar said yesterdaythat he would accept Abdel Rahman, whom he called the "leader of theIslamic nation," into Afghanistan.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy here had no comment. Some ofAbdel Rahman's supporters have expressed fear that he would facedeath if extradited to Egypt, where he is spiritual leader of theIslamic Group, an extremist organization whose members are believedby some to have increased violence in that country.

This weekend, an Egyptian man demanding Abdel Rahman's freedomhijacked a KLM Airlines jet with 138 people on board and forced it toland in Dusseldorf, Germany, where police stormed aboard and arrestedthe hijacker.

A State Department official would not comment on the status of anyarrangements being made with another country to receive Abdel Rahman."The problem with this is it's getting a little ahead of the game,"the official said.

White said in a statement that "there are many questions that needto be resolved before we can consider this proposal" by the sheik.

Abdel Rahman, who was tried and acquitted on charges of givingspiritual sanction for the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat in 1981, came to the United States for brief visits in the late1980s. He began living here after his July 1990 entry on a visaissued in Khartoum, Sudan.

In obtaining the visa, Abdel Rahman slipped through a "look-out"list of suspected terrorists. State Department officials have saidthe granting of the visa was a mistake.

The cleric faces deportation for allegedly lying when he wasissued a permanent resident "green card" in April 1991. On Monday, afederal justice denied his appeal of the deportation order but agreedto a stay of 10 business days before the order is carried out.

Abdel Rahman, who resided most recently in Jersey City, has notbeen been charged in the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing or thethwarted plot to blow up the United Nations, two tunnels and otherNew York City locations on July 4.

But Abdel Rahman's sermons denouncing the United States, Egypt andother "infidels" have made him popular among several of the Muslimextremists charged in the New York bomb cases.

Many of the suspects prayed with Abdel Rahman at mosques in NewYork and New Jersey. Some worked for Abdel Rahman as drivers ortranslators, and others were involved in his effort to recruitvolunteers to fight for the U.S.-backed Muslim rebels in Afghanistanin the 1980s.

Recently, leaked transcripts of conversations recorded by agovernment informer have raised questions about how much Abdel Rahmanknew about the New York bomb plot and when he knew it.

Nelson said the sheik has not decided if he wants to leave theUnited States, but he wants to know if he has the option. And ifAfghanistan is ruled out, Nelson said, Abdel Rahman may consideranother country.

"He's aware that U.S. public opinion is substantially againsthim," Nelson said. "He doesn't think that he's ever going to get afair shake through the court system in the U.S."

Muslim Cleric's Legal Strategy Is Uncertain; Lawyer Asks if Sheik Can Leave U.S., but One Adviser Says He Prefers to Fight Deportation

The lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who islinked to several figures charged in New York terrorism cases and whohas been fighting off a U.S. deportation order, yesterday asked theJustice Department if it would allow the cleric to leave forAfghanistan.

The move is an abrupt about-face in Abdel Rahman's two-year-longattempt to stave off deportation. But the 55-year-old cleric, nowheld at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., thinks he is waging "afight that he may not win," said Barbara Nelson, his immigrationlawyer, who conveyed Abdel Rahman's request yesterday to the officeof Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney for the southern district of NewYork.

Nelson said she was communicating with the sheik through a closeassociate of his. But another adviser to the sheik, Mohammad T.Mehdi, general secretary of the National Council of Islamic Affairs,met with Abdel Rahman in prison yesterday and said the sheik prefersfurther legal appeals of the pending deportation order against him.

Whether Afghanistan would accept Abdel Rahman and under whatconditions were not clear. Last month, Afghan Prime MinisterGulbuddin Hekmatyar reportedly said he would allow Abdel Rahman intohis country if he were deported by the United States. Later, however,Hekmatyar said that he had no intention of offending Egypt, whichsupported the Afghan rebel war against Soviet occupation in the 1980sand is seeking Abdel Rahman's extradition to face charges of incitingviolence in 1989 anti-government riots.

But the Associated Press reported that Hekmatyar said yesterdaythat he would accept Abdel Rahman, whom he called the "leader of theIslamic nation," into Afghanistan.

Officials at the Egyptian Embassy here had no comment. Some ofAbdel Rahman's supporters have expressed fear that he would facedeath if extradited to Egypt, where he is spiritual leader of theIslamic Group, an extremist organization whose members are believedby some to have increased violence in that country.

This weekend, an Egyptian man demanding Abdel Rahman's freedomhijacked a KLM Airlines jet with 138 people on board and forced it toland in Dusseldorf, Germany, where police stormed aboard and arrestedthe hijacker.

A State Department official would not comment on the status of anyarrangements being made with another country to receive Abdel Rahman."The problem with this is it's getting a little ahead of the game,"the official said.

White said in a statement that "there are many questions that needto be resolved before we can consider this proposal" by the sheik.

Abdel Rahman, who was tried and acquitted on charges of givingspiritual sanction for the assassination of Egyptian President AnwarSadat in 1981, came to the United States for brief visits in the late1980s. He began living here after his July 1990 entry on a visaissued in Khartoum, Sudan.

In obtaining the visa, Abdel Rahman slipped through a "look-out"list of suspected terrorists. State Department officials have saidthe granting of the visa was a mistake.

The cleric faces deportation for allegedly lying when he wasissued a permanent resident "green card" in April 1991. On Monday, afederal justice denied his appeal of the deportation order but agreedto a stay of 10 business days before the order is carried out.

Abdel Rahman, who resided most recently in Jersey City, has notbeen been charged in the Feb. 26 World Trade Center bombing or thethwarted plot to blow up the United Nations, two tunnels and otherNew York City locations on July 4.

But Abdel Rahman's sermons denouncing the United States, Egypt andother "infidels" have made him popular among several of the Muslimextremists charged in the New York bomb cases.

Many of the suspects prayed with Abdel Rahman at mosques in NewYork and New Jersey. Some worked for Abdel Rahman as drivers ortranslators, and others were involved in his effort to recruitvolunteers to fight for the U.S.-backed Muslim rebels in Afghanistanin the 1980s.

Recently, leaked transcripts of conversations recorded by agovernment informer have raised questions about how much Abdel Rahmanknew about the New York bomb plot and when he knew it.

Nelson said the sheik has not decided if he wants to leave theUnited States, but he wants to know if he has the option. And ifAfghanistan is ruled out, Nelson said, Abdel Rahman may consideranother country.

"He's aware that U.S. public opinion is substantially againsthim," Nelson said. "He doesn't think that he's ever going to get afair shake through the court system in the U.S."