World Trade Center Bombing 1993

Overview

• Date: February 26, 1993
• Location: Parking garage beneath the World Trade Center, New York City
• Time: 17 minutes past noon
• Impact:
  • Created nearly a 100-foot crater
  • Six fatalities
  • Over 1,000 injuries
  • Smoke and flames filled the building causing panic

Significance

• Marked the arrival of Middle Eastern terrorism on American soil

Investigation

• Lead Agency: FBI and New York Joint Terrorism Task Force
• Key Evidence:
  • Vehicle identification number found in rubble
  • Linked to a rented van reported stolen

Perpetrators

• Key Figures Arrested:
  • Mohammad Salameh
  • Nidal Ayyad
  • Mahmoud Abouhalima
  • Ahmed Ajaj
• Capture:
  • Salameh arrested on March 4 trying to reclaim a $400 deposit on the rented van
  • Additional arrests followed, including the discovery of bomb-making materials

Trial and Sentencing

• All four primary suspects were tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment

Additional Terrorist Plots

• Discovery:
  • Uncovered a second plot to bomb New York landmarks
  • Locations targeted included U.N. building, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and more
• Outcome:
  • On June 24, 1994, additional terrorists were arrested in Queens during bomb assembly

Mastermind and Subsequent Capture

• Mastermind: Ramzi Yousef
• Capture:
  • Captured in Pakistan in February 1995
  • Yousef and van driver, Eyad Ismoil, convicted

Other Conspirators

• At Large: Abdul Yasin

Legacy

• The attack was a precursor to the 9/11 attacks, with similar destructive intentions
• Associates:
  • Yousef was related to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a later planner of 9/11