Oh by the way- 15 years ago YESTERDAY

[underpants]

(not that anyone mentions it anymore)


In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (February 26, 1993) a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500-lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-fuel oil device was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into Tower Two, bringing both towers down and killing up to 250,000 people.<1><2> It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042.

The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from al-Qaeda member Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.

The bomb exploded in the underground garage at 12:17 P.M., generating a pressure estimated over one GPa and opening a 30-meter-wide hole through four sublevels of concrete. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 ft/s (4.5 km/s).

Connection to Mujahideen and US training
The perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing used a manual written by the CIA for the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives. Sheik Abdel Rahman was allowed to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets.<5> The early foundations of al-Qaida were built in part on relationships and weaponry that came from the substantial U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.<6> The role of the U.S. in arming, training, and supporting the radical Islamic Mujahideen of Afghanistan in the 1980s has been called the model for state-sponsored terrorism.<7> The attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the USS Cole, and the attacks of 11 September all have been linked to individuals and groups that at one time were armed and trained by the United States and/or its allies.<8>

Aftermath and arrests
Agents and bomb technicians of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) responded to the scene of the blast. An ATF bomb technician subsequently found the axle in the bomb crater with the VIN of the Ryder truck that was used to contain the explosives. Further investigation by ATF found that the vehicle had been rented by a Palestinian named Mohammad Salameh. Yousef's friends reported the van was stolen in an attempt to slow investigators down.

On March 4, 1993 authorities announced the capture of Salameh. In a sweep the same day, Salameh's arrest led to the apartment of Abdul Rahman Yasin in Jersey City, New Jersey, which Yasin was sharing with his mother, in the same building as Ramzi Yousef's apartment. Yasin was taken to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, and was then released. The next day, he flew back to Iraq, via Amman, Jordan. Yasin was later indicted for the attack, and in 2001 he was placed on the initial list of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, on which he remains a fugitive today. He disappeared prior to 2003's U.S. coalition invasion in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In March 1994, Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj were each convicted for the World Trade Center bombing. In May 1994, they were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The capture of Salameh and Yasin led authorities to Ramzi Yousef's apartment, where they found bomb-making materials and a business card from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. Khalifa was arrested in relation to the crime on December 14, 1994, and was deported to Jordan by the INS on May 5, 1995. He was acquitted by a Jordanian court and lived as a free man in Saudi Arabia until his death in 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_bombing

[Stuart G]

1. I recall that I knew they were trying to knock down the entire building..

because the explosives were planted in such a way that the building would come down. (at least that is what they thought) I also recall that that would probably be impossible cause I recall being taught in college that New YOrk is built on the continental shelf that protrudes at surface level in Manhattan. Therefore, the steel structure is built directly on the continent itself, and I am sure that they built so it wouldn't fall down. ..........no matter what. (and it didn't fall down)...
..So later on, they decided to try to melt it down, which guess what.. that worked.......

[alphafemale]

2. 15 years ago.

And I don't recall Bill Clinton blaming Bush1 for the attack, even though he'd only been President about about 9 weeks. But Bush was President for 9 months before the second WTC attack. Who does he blame? After taking terrorist surveillance completely off the priority list?

[underpants]

3. Thanks for the heads up and no they never did. This happen FIVE weeks into his term

Jan 20- Feb. 26th

Of course the Bushies, Condi in particular, used "only 8 months" as an actual excuse and of course no one in the media ever called them on it. They are using it again with "only 3" were waterboarded which is clearly illegal and always has been.

[alphafemale]

5. You are right. It was 5 weeks.

Plus, Bush1 had invaded Somalia in December. And, as I recall, he had kicked that Waco snowball down the hill before Bill took office too.

I hate to think what Bush2 will spitefully, gleefully sabotage in his last two months.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Indeed. If not for the BBC, I would not have noted the date.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2927732&mesg_id=2927732