Shakedown by Jamaica's radical sheik

Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal, a self-proclaimed reformed radical, wanted CNN to pay him for an interview.

Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal, a self-proclaimed reformed radical, wanted CNN to pay him for an interview.He has influenced convicted terrorists such as Richard Reid, the so-called shoe-bomber. His sermons were found in the apartment of suicide bombers who struck London, England, in 2005. Even one of the 9/11 plotters is said to have been a follower of Sheik Abdullah El-Faisal.Now in Jamaica, El-Faisal is less than a two-hour flight from the United States. No airline will allow him on board; he is widely thought to be on U.S. and UK no-fly lists. But history suggests El-Faisal might not need to travel to be influential among jihadists bent on violence against the U.S. and other Western nations

The authorities on the Caribbean island keep tabs on him. Jamaica's Muslim leadership has banned him from preaching in established mosques, just in case his radical rhetoric stirs a Jamaican jihad. That's why we came here, at El-Faisal's invitation, to find out his plans.Little did we know his plans included raising money from a most unusual source -- CNN.
Trail of terror

Sheik Abdullah El-Faisal grew up in Jamaica as a Christian, but he converted to Islam at 16, he says, after visiting the South American nation of Guyana.He then went on to study Islam in Saudi Arabia before moving to London. That's where his career as a firebrand preacher took off among English-speaking, radical Islamists. In the 1990s, his sermons at the Brixton Mosque in south London, a hotbed of radical preaching, were often taped and shared among converts to Islam. Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted for his role in the September 11 attacks, and Richard Reid attended the mosque at the time.El-Faisal's message included calls for killing Americans, Jews, Hindus and nonbelievers (anyone who doesn't believe in Mohammed and Islam). British counterterrorism officials began to take note of the preacher known as "The Jamaican."They uncovered tape recordings in which El-Faisal encouraged Muslims to take up jihad, with titles including "No Peace with the Jews," "Declaration of War" and "Them v. Us."British authorities say they found one of El-Faisal's taped sermons in the apartment of Germaine Lindsay, a fellow Jamaican and one of the suicide bombers who attacked London's subway system in 2005. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student charged with trying to blow up an airliner as it was approaching Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day, mentioned El-Faisal in a blog he wrote while in London.

British prosecutors decided El-Faisal's sermons went beyond rhetoric