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| Injured prison guard urges harsh sentence for al-Qaeda leader |
| 2004-05-03 |
| A former federal prison guard wants to set the record straight about an assault by an alleged top aide to Osama bin Laden: He says the stabbing that left a sharpened comb stuck in his left eye was even more brutal that the government has revealed. Louis Pepe, 46, said he plans to speak at Mamdouh Mahmud Salim's sentencing set for Monday because he is outraged Salim could face as little as 18 to 21 years in prison for the attack that was carried out during an attempted prison break in 2000. "I hate to go, but I got to go," said Pepe, who was left with limited vision and brain damage. Pepe recalled that the last words he heard before he was stabbed in the attack by Salim and an accomplice, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, were: "Now I'm going to kill him." Salim still faces trial and a possible life sentence on conspiracy charges in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Mohamed is serving a life sentence after his conviction in the embassy bombings case, which included charges related to the stabbing. In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, Pepe sat in his wheelchair in a small room in the Queens house where he lives with his parents. A white cowboy hat signed by corrections officers he trained rested on a shelf above him. Pepe said the government and Salim have combined to sanitize what happened on Nov. 1, 2000, portraying the assault as quick and almost entirely Salim's doing after the guard failed to handcuff the inmates. Pepe said he will tell the judge how he properly handcuffed the inmates before they slipped free, blinded him with hot sauce, beat him repeatedly and even tried to rape him before stabbing him to get his keys in a bid to free other suspected terrorists. "Both of them did it, not just one," Pepe said excitedly, his right eye wide open and a piece of gauze resting in the socket where the left eye used to be. "They started, 'Bam, bam, bam, bam!'" he said, shouting as he thrust his fist and arm down repeatedly in a re-enactment. Pepe said the attack lasted an hour, rather than the 20 minutes that prison authorities maintain it took for help to arrive from less-isolated parts of Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center. Prison authorities say a videotaping system didn't function properly that day so it was impossible to verify how much time passed. Pepe's memory seems unimpaired, though the brain damage he suffered leaves him with speech difficulties and an inability to read. Pepe described how he resisted throughout the attack, even giving the inmates his house keys when they demanded his prison keys. He said the inmates scrawled the sign of the cross in his blood on his chest before they left him for dead. In the end, Pepe walked out of the cellblock, the sharpened comb still stuck in his eye. He said Sunday that he had warned the government before the attack not to let terrorism inmates bunk together or be issued sturdy plastic combs and condiments such as hot sauce and honey. "You gotta be careful," he said. "You never know what they're going to do." For more than two years, Pepe was hospitalized. He suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, along with pneumonia, a collapsed lung, seizures, infections, a blood clot and high fevers. He underwent brain surgery and spent three weeks in a coma. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 I saw an interview of this man on ABC last week. It looked as if his skull was partially crushed. That was the first I heard about it also, at a prison in Manhattan. Today's WSJ says the judge gave him 32 years. |
| Posted by: Sharon in NYC 2004-05-04 2:28:21 PM |
| #10 Defoliate his entire body one a week with lye. Then he won't need a comb ever again. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-04 3:02:55 AM |
| #9 Deliberate attacks on law enforcement officials by prisoners should carry the death penalty, because nothing less will deter this kind of atrocity. All those photos on Al-J of "abused" Iraqi prisoners are nothing compared to what the injuries of Louis Pepe must have looked like. |
| Posted by: Tresho 2004-05-03 8:40:46 PM |
| #8 FYI - According to this CNN Report: U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts in Manhattan federal court sentenced Mamdouh Mahmud Salim for attempted murder. Salim pleaded guilty two years ago to the November 1, 2000, stabbing of corrections officer Louis Pepe with a comb sharpened into a shank. Batts previously decided that Salim, 46, would face 17 to 22 years behind bars based on federal sentencing guidelines. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-05-03 7:39:04 PM |
| #7 Prison authorities say a videotaping system didn't function properly that day so it was impossible to verify how much time passed. How convienant...... Of course it was not reported.... dont want to offend the religion of peace.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-05-03 7:26:21 PM |
| #6 Hmmm... apparently not. Instead they removed the corpse's head. Brave jihadis. Brave, brave, warriors for Allah. Thank God they'll all rot in hell. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-03 7:07:30 PM |
| #5 He said the inmates scrawled the sign of the cross in his blood on his chest before they left him for dead. Wasn't this also done to the corpse of the Spanish policeman some brave jihadi violated? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-03 7:04:35 PM |
| #4 I wonder what excuse "Gentle" will come up with this time ? Salim and Mohamed were controlled by Zionists at the time of the atrocity ? |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-05-03 7:02:03 PM |
| #3 Check this photo out. Barbarians. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-05-03 6:54:00 PM |
| #2 I heard of it, but apparently the media didn't think the muslim attacking the Christian and scrawling the cross on his chest would go over too well. You see, the muslims belong to a religion of peace and tolerance.... |
| Posted by: Anonymous4721 2004-05-03 6:19:24 PM |
| #1 This is the first I have heard of the jailbreak. Evidently, it was undercovered or I wasn't paying attention. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-03 4:58:13 PM |