{"id":1958,"date":"2007-10-11T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/10\/terrorist-mastermind-now-a-christian.html"},"modified":"2007-10-11T14:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T14:14:00","slug":"terrorist-mastermind-now-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/10\/terrorist-mastermind-now-a-christian.html","title":{"rendered":"Terrorist mastermind now a Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stranger things have happened, I suppose … but this little scoop<\/a> is definitely one to induce a lot of head-scratching: <\/p>\n

<\/a> Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, claims he converted from Islam to Christianity, Scott Pelley reports in a story that brings viewers inside the secretive Supermax prison where he is being held. <\/p>\n

Pelley also reports that some 900 forced feedings were performed on other al Qaeda terrorists who went on repeated hunger strikes to protest conditions at the Colorado top-security federal prison. <\/p>\n

Pelley’s report will be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT. <\/p>\n

The prison in Florence, Colo., which the government calls ADX-Florence for Administrative Maximum, houses the nation’s toughest and most infamous criminals, such as Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, would-be 9\/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and shoe bomber Richard Reid. “60 Minutes” obtained exclusive footage of prisoners inside the facility, where special-case prisoners are allowed only a phone call a month, spend 23 hours a day in their 12-by-7 cells and can get mail only from people approved by the prison. <\/p>\n

Robert Hood, its warden from 2002 to 2005, says Yousef was a special case. He never left his cell because he did not want to face the indignity of a strip search required for recreation. “He has that Charlie Manson look,” Hood says of Yousef. “He has some charisma about him. He’s in [prison] uniform, but you know that there’s a powerful person you’re looking at,” Hood says. Told that Yousef has begun leaving his cell and now claims to be a Christian, Hood tells Pelley, “He’s playing a game with someone. If he’s doing that, he’s doing it for the reaction … He is the real deal.” As a Muslim, Yousef prayed almost every hour, Hood says. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally, I’d be skeptical of someone like Yousef making so radical a conversion. <\/p>\n

But you never know how God will work on the human heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stranger things have happened, I suppose … but this little scoop is definitely one to induce a lot of head-scratching: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, claims he converted from Islam to Christianity, Scott Pelley reports in a story that brings viewers inside the secretive Supermax prison…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nTerrorist mastermind now a Christian? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/10\/terrorist-mastermind-now-a-christian.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Terrorist mastermind now a Christian? 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