Sheik Pleads Not Guilty to Terrorist Acts : Crime: The State Department warns American tourists to be careful after the Muslim cleric’s followers abroad issue a written threat.

Their hands manacled behind them, radical Muslim Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and 14 of his followers stood in a heavily guarded courtroom Thursday and pleaded not guilty to conspiring “to levy a war of urban terrorism against the United States.”

As the suspects in the alleged bombing plot made their court appearance, State Department officials in Washington noted threats from Abdul Rahman’s followers abroad and warned American tourists to be “conscious of their own security and safety” as they travel.

The department’s warning was in response to a statement signed by three radical groups in Egypt that said: “We will take revenge on all U.S. interests and citizens, either in Egypt or outside, if any harm occurs to Sheik Omar.”

The blind cleric, wearing his trademark red-and-white headdress, dark glasses and light blue prison clothing, sat through much of the court proceeding with his head bowed, listening to an Arabic translation through headphones. Abdul Rahman’s attorney, Harry Batchelder, quoted his client as saying: “The struggle begins.”

Most of the defendants had appeared in court earlier this summer to say they were not guilty of trying to bomb U.N. headquarters and two New York commuter tunnels.

But Wednesday’s indictment marked the first time Abdul Rahman had been charged. In addition, the new charges accused him and the others of being members of a ring that also planned the World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 in February.

State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said he knew of no “specific, credible” threat from followers of Abdul Rahman, who has lived in the United States since 1990. But the threat is serious enough, he said, that diplomatic posts abroad also are being asked “to review their security procedures and determine if any changes are needed.”

The crowded courtroom was ringed by more than 40 federal marshals, and dozens of New York police officers were stationed outside the courthouse behind barricades. Officials said they were concerned other members of the terrorist cell may be at large.

“Whether or not we’ve identified the major players, obviously there’s a concern that there may be others out there that we don’t know about,” federal prosecutor Matthew Fishbein said.

“These are violent people who have demonstrated they successfully completed bombings and planned others,” he said.

To speed their arraignment, U.S. District Judge Michael B. Mukasey chose not to ask all 15 defendants to state a plea. Rather, he asked if anyone pleaded other than not guilty, and, hearing only silence, entered pleas for all.

Mukasey pledged to seek a prompt and fair trial for everyone but said the defendants might have to be divided into groups and two trials might be held because of their large number.

The judge also told prosecutors and defense attorneys that he wanted to hasten the process by which the government is required to turn over certain evidence to the defendants before trial. That evidence includes all relevant tapes of conversations recorded by Emad Ali Salem, a onetime bodyguard to Abdul Rahman who gathered much of the conspiracy evidence as an FBI informant.

Salem, who is in protective federal custody, wore a hidden microphone to record hundreds of hours of conversations with the sheik and other defendants, government sources have said.

Defense lawyer Ronald Kuby told Mukasey that the evidence will show that “this conspiracy was a government conspiracy” that Salem helped to set up. Kuby also accused the government “of specific violations in leaking selected portions of the transcripts” of Salem’s tapes to the press.

Abdul Rahman, regarded by many defendants as their spiritual leader, has been fighting efforts to deport him on grounds that he made false statements to ease his entry into the United States three years ago. He has been confined to a prison hospital in Otisville, N.Y., since July 2. Justice Department officials said Abdul Rahman, who suffers from diabetes, posed a threat if he remained at large.

Batchelder told reporters that the 55-year-old sheik was feeling well despite his confinement.

Another defendant who appeared in the case for the first time Thursday was El Sayyid A. Nosair, who has been serving a long sentence in New York’s Attica State Prison on weapons charges related to the 1990 assassination of militant Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Although he was acquitted of state murder charges in 1991, Nosair was charged in the latest indictment with “violence by racketeering” in connection with Kahane’s death, indicating that federal prosecutors have new evidence of his involvement in that offense.

The indictment alleged that Kahane’s killing was part of the “war of urban terrorism” waged by Abdul Rahman, Nosair and others in the ring. Additionally, the defendants were accused of planning to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during his visit to the United States in April.

Egypt is still pressing for Abdul Rahman’s return on charges that he instigated anti-government riots there in 1989. But McCurry told a briefing that the sheik will have to “face justice here first.”

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story from Washington.