The would-be terrorists in Yemen made a sardonic choice when they sent two package bombs to Chicago last week: they addressed the parcels to two historical figures notorious in Middle Eastern lore for the persecution of Muslims.
One of the addressees, Diego Deza, was known for his cruelty in performing his duties as Grand Inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition, succeeding the infamous Tomás de Torquemada in the job.
Reynald Krak, to whom the second package was addressed, is another name for Reynald of Châtillon — a French knight of the Second Crusade who wantonly killed Muslim pilgrims and was later beheaded by Saladin, the Kurdish warrior famous for his defeat of Western invaders in the 12th century.
That the packages were addressed to two people who have been dead for hundreds of years is one reason investigators on three continents have concluded that the parcel bombs — printer cartridges packed with explosives sent by FedEx and United Parcel Service — were probably designed to blow up before they reached Chicago.
As Yemen faced increased pressure to move against Al Qaeda, prosecutors in Sana, the Yemeni capital, on Tuesday charged and immediately began a criminal trial in absentia for Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric now in hiding and operating as a recruiter and propagandist for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Radical cleric liked disco
Mr. Awlaki, 39, has not yet been tied directly to the bomb plot, but American intelligence officials believe he is playing an increasingly important role in the terrorist group’s operations.
The chief prosecutor, Ali Al-Sanea’a, called Mr. Awlaki “yesterday a regular visitor of bars and discothèques in America” but now “the catalyst for shedding the blood of foreigners and security forces,” according to a statement.
He said Mr. Awlaki was a leader of Al Qaeda and “a figure prone to evil, devoid of any conscience, religion or law.”
Mr. Awlaki was charged along with his cousin Othman al-Awlaki, who is also at large, and Hesham Mohammed Asem, who was present in court, with “forming an armed group to carry out criminal acts targeting foreigners” as part of Al Qaeda.
Mr. Asem, 19, a security guard, is accused of shooting to death a French engineer on Oct. 6 in the Sana headquarters of the Austrian oil company OMV.
President Obama spoke by phone Tuesday with Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, about the plot, air cargo security and the countries’ campaign against Al Qaeda.
American officials have praised Mr. Saleh for stepping up pressure on the group in the past year, even as the United States has carried out at least four missile strikes against suspected Qaeda camps.
An administration official said Tuesday that the government had broadened the screening of “high risk” cargo bound for the United States after a “dry run” of suspicious material sent from Yemen to Chicago in September.
Officials said the episode had given clues about a possible terrorist tactic of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but it is unclear whether the enhanced screening made in September had aided investigators in finding the two parcel bombs sent from Yemen to addresses in Chicago.
As a result, the official said, the formula for determining what constitutes “high risk” cargo was expanded to include a broader set of parcels.
Beheaded by Saladin
Whoever is behind the package has at least a cursory understanding of history.
According to scholars of the Crusades, Reynald of Châtillon went to the Middle East in the first half of the 12th century, steadily gaining prominence through two strategic marriages and a reputation for wanton killing of Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
“He’s well known in Muslim folklore as a bogyman,” said Alfred J. Andrea, a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont and president of the World History Association.
Shortly after his defeat at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, Reynald was beheaded by the conquering Saladin, and his head was brandished victoriously around the streets of Damascus.
Born 300 years later, Diego Deza used sadistic interrogation methods on Muslims and Jewish converts to Christianity who he suspected were secretly practicing their original faith.
Brian Fishman, who studies terrorism at the New America Foundation, said the choice of historic enemies as addressees for the parcel bombs was a sort of inside joke that reflects the Qaeda ideologists’ view of history.
“The jihadis draw a straight line from the Prophet Muhammad through the Crusades, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the American invasion of Iraq, to the present day,” Mr. Fishman said. “The narrative is that non-Muslims are always on the attack, always trying to take Muslim lands. The jihadis like the narrative because it justifies violence, since they claim that they’re only defending Islam.”
If the names on the packages ran a slight risk of detection, there was an element of taunting in the addresses, Mr. Fishman said, as there may have been in the picture of Chicago’s skyline in the latest edition of Inspire, the English-language magazine of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
That recalled Osama bin Laden’s decision to pose in 1998 in front of a map of East Africa, where Qaeda operatives were about to attack two American Embassies, he said.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
This article, "In Parcel Bomb Plot, 2 Dark Inside Jokes," originally appeared in The New York Times.