The Maktab al-Khidamat was established in 1984 by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam in Peshawar, Pakistan to raise funds for the Arab mujahadeen during the Soviet–Afghan War, and later to recruit participants in al Qaeda.
Ali Mohamed, a sergeant at Fort Bragg, provided United States Army manuals and other assistance to individuals at the al-Farouq Mosque, and some members, including Mahmoud Abouhalima and Nosair, practiced at the Calverton Shooting Range on Long Island, many of the group wearing shirts reading "Help Each Other in Goodness and Piety ... A Muslim to a Muslim is a Brick Wall" with a map of Afghanistan emblazoned in the middle.
Nosair shot Kahane on November 5, 1990, shortly after 9:00 p.m., following a speech to a Jewish group at in midtown Manhattan's Marriott East Side Hotel.
Nosair attempted to flee the scene and commandeer a taxi, but he was shot by Carlos Acosta, a police officer for the United States Postal Inspection Service.
[7] In a verdict described by law professor Jeffrey B. Abramson as "bizarre",[9] a jury in December 1991 acquitted Nosair of Kahane's murder but convicted him of assaulting Acosta and possessing an illegal firearm.
[10] The judge in the trial, Justice Alvin Schlesinger, said that the jury's acquittal of Nosair on the murder charge was "against the overwhelming weight of evidence and was devoid of common sense and logic".
It was reported that prior to his arrest, Omar Abdel-Rahman (the "Blind Sheikh") and his followers had conducted detailed surveillance of the facility, and they had also discussed plans to rescue Nosair from prison by launching a truck bomb attack combined with an armed assault.
[12] Nosair was still serving time in state prison when he was convicted as part of the federal trial of the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman.
The men, Bilal al-Kaisi (also known as Bilal Elqisi), a Jordanian, and Mohammed A. Salameh, a Palestinian, have never been charged for their part in the slaying, but both were linked to al Qaeda and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, [18] Salameh was convicted of his part in the terrorist conspiracy, but Al Kaisi was convicted of a minor immigration violation and released.