Terror Ties Explode In Jersey Race

Protesters with flags and signs, one holding a megaphone.

A New Jersey Democrat’s decades-old connection to the “Blind Sheikh” just collided with the raw grief of a 1993 World Trade Center victim’s son, and it is forcing voters to ask what “terror ties” really mean when the ballot is in their hands.

Story Snapshot

Son of a 1993 World Trade Center bombing victim is publicly blasting Democratic House candidate Adam Hamawy’s past ties to terrorist cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman.^[1]
Hamawy met the “Blind Sheikh,” traveled with him, and later testified as a defense witness in his terrorism trial, a relationship his critics say went far beyond casual contact.^[1]^[3]
Hamawy’s campaign calls the attacks “guilt-by-association,” stressing he was never charged with any crime and later served in the U.S. military as a combat surgeon.^[3]^[2]
The clash exposes a deeper question: when does past proximity to evil become a red line for public office, and when is it weaponized as partisan theater?^[1]^[3]

Victim’s son versus the Democratic nominee

Michael Macko, whose father died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, says he is “disappointed” and “shocked” that Democrats in a New Jersey district just elevated Adam Hamawy, a man he sees as tied to the radical cleric linked to his father’s murder.^[1] Macko, a lifelong Democrat, is not reading off Republican talking points; he is speaking as a son who watched a terror mastermind radicalize the men who killed his dad.^[1]^[4] That personal weight gives his criticism moral punch conservatives instinctively recognize.

Reports describe Hamawy as having met Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh,” during a New Jersey middle school forum in 1991, then spending time traveling with him as an interpreter in the early 1990s.^[1]^[5] Macko points to court testimony indicating Hamawy accompanied Abdel-Rahman to mosques and gathering spots later tied to World Trade Center bombing suspects, places federal documents described as part of the jihadist ecosystem.^[1] In Macko’s view, that pattern looks less like naïve student contact and more like direct immersion in a terrorist’s orbit.

What Hamawy actually did with the Blind Sheikh

News accounts and political coverage agree on certain hard facts: Hamawy served as a witness for the defense at Abdel-Rahman’s federal terror trial, where the cleric was convicted for a broader “urban terrorism” plot against U.S. landmarks.^[3]^[5] Fox News quotes Macko saying Hamawy acknowledged that Abdel-Rahman was “preaching jihad against America” even as he kept traveling and helping him.^[1] Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy later said Hamawy’s testimony, once cross-examined, actually ended up helping the government’s case by reinforcing the larger jihad conspiracy.^[3]

Another detail gripping critics is an alleged fax that Hamawy reportedly sent for Abdel-Rahman in 1993, the year of the bombing.^[1] The Fox account references testimony that he transmitted the document while acting in his interpreter role, during the same timeframe in which the bombing was being planned.^[1] Without the underlying exhibit and transcript pages, it is hard to say whether that fax was a smoking gun or trivial paperwork, which is exactly why conservatives keep demanding the full record rather than curated snippets.^[1]

The Bosnia chapter and the al-Qaeda front group

After his time with Abdel-Rahman, Hamawy traveled to Bosnia in 1994 as an intern with the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity that federal authorities later shut down as an al-Qaeda front.^[3]^[4] Jewish Insider reports that he worked there briefly during the Bosnian war, years before the United States formally designated the group.^[4] Supporters frame this as a young medical student doing humanitarian work in a conflict zone; critics see a pattern of drifting toward organizations that keep ending up on terrorism case charts.^[3]^[4]

What complicates the “secret jihadist” narrative is that Hamawy then built a mainstream American life. He became a plastic surgeon, served as a U.S. Army combat surgeon in Iraq, and treated wounded service members.^[2]^[3] Politico notes he has also been a vocal critic of Israel and worked as a trauma surgeon in Gaza, positions that play well on the progressive left but ring alarm bells for many conservatives already wary of his 1990s associations.^[3] That mixed record makes him difficult to paint in simple black-and-white terms, even as his earlier choices raise serious questions.

Guilt by association or disqualifying judgment?

Hamawy’s campaign insists this is all partisan character assassination, arguing that he was never charged, never accused of criminal wrongdoing, and that his presence at Abdel-Rahman’s trial was as a defense witness providing limited testimony, not as a co-conspirator.^[3]^[2] They emphasize his later military service and explicitly say he condemns Abdel-Rahman’s violent rhetoric, actions, and all terrorism.^[1]^[3] That line resonates with Americans who believe people can make youthful mistakes in who they trust or work with and still redeem themselves through later service.

Republicans call for investigation into NJ Dem nominee Adam Hamawy over past ties to "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1993 WTC bombing. Hamawy testified for defense at trial, never charged with… #Politics #NewJersey #NJPolitics #Election2024 https://t.co/EIjTnBiLFx

— @GlobalRightWatch (@AutonomusRepost) June 4, 2026

From a conservative, common-sense standpoint, the core issue is judgment, not technical criminal liability. No one is claiming Hamawy planted the bomb. The question is why an ambitious young man chose to translate, travel with, and publicly defend a cleric who was, by every available account, preaching violent jihad against the country he now wants to help govern.^[1]^[3]^[5] When someone repeatedly gravitates toward radicals and only offers full-throated condemnation decades later, voters are justified in wondering whether that represents growth, spin, or opportunism.