Terror thug Ahmed Ghailani kept in isolation at Manhattan lockup
BY James Gordon Meek and Larry McshaneNY Daily News
June 10, 2009
The newest inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center won't rub elbows with crooked financier Bernard Madoff or the accused Somali pirate.
Ahmed Ghailani, transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the Manhattan lockup, will be kept isolated from fellow inmates in an area restricted to national security detainees, federal sources told the Daily News.
Officials declined to discuss security specifics for Ghailani, brought north in the early-morning hours Tuesday aboard a U.S. marshals jet.
MCC spokesman Scott Sussman said authorities were prepared for their new arrival.
"The Metropolitan Correctional Center and its staff are equipped to handle the needs of inmates at every security level," he said.
Prison security is a particular issue because a co-conspirator in the 1998 embassy bombings brutally stabbed an MCC guard with a sharpened comb in 2000.
Critics said the danger extended beyond the prison walls, threatening the lower Manhattan neighborhood once dwarfed by the World Trade Center.
"We're already the No. 1 terrorist target," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.). "This just makes us more of a target. It's an unnecessary risk to impose on New York."