Saturday, May 13, 2017

1993 World Trade Center Bombing

Ahmed Ajaj is one of the men found guilty of the bombing that had occurred at the world trade center. He first arrived at the US in 1991 under the false pretense of having escaped torture back home in Israel by the Israeli government for being involved in a peaceful protest. This was the story submitted to his petition for political asylum but when the time came for the hearing Ajaj left the country in 1992 under a different name and heading towards a camp by the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, before he could enter into said camp he had to travel to Saudi Arabia and obtain a letter asking the leader to provide Ajaj with explosives and weapons training. During this time Ajaj contacted Yousef and together plotted places to attack within the US using their amassed knowledge of explosives. 

 After they learned and plotted a lot they planned to enter the US illegally and on August 31, 1992, they boarded a plane from Peshawar to Karachi. On this plane, they sat separate from each other but once they were on route to New York city they checked in at different times and Yousef was dressed in colorful nice silk clothes and Ajaj in a suit and tie in first class so that they would seem as just regular passengers. Once on the ground, however, a INS Inspector found Ajaj's passport to be suspicious and in fact, it was, along with the other passports he had. The inspector searched his bag and found two notebooks handwritten notes on explosives, six printed bomb-making manuals with blue covers; two instructional videotapes on making explosives; anti-American and anti-Israeli materials; and documentsrelating to false identities. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

 Yousef was arrested for having entered the country without a Visa after he decided to use an Iraqi passport and claim to seek asylum. He swore to the inspectors that he was traveling alone and so he wasn't connected to Ajaj and was let go.

 After months of planning and preparing the plan was set. On Friday, February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder van into Lower Manhattan and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. Twelve minutes later the bomb exploded and it killed six people and injuring others. The plan had failed as the tower didn't fall and crash into the other killing thousands but an attack was an attack. Currently, all the men who have been connected to the bombings are serving out their sentences in jail
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http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/05/us/1993-world-trade-center-bombing-fast-facts/
https://fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980224c.htm
http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-1993-world-trade-center-bombing

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 14, 2017 at 4:53 PM

    This is really interesting, especially because while we hear/see the devastation that terrorists attacks cause, we never hear about what lead up to these attacks and the stories behind them, so great job on that. I think that this attack shows, as Mr. Stewart has said, that domestic terrorism was very real before 9/11 and that terrorism was prevalent around the world in the United States. If the bomb attack was successful, would Bill Clinton have taken us into the War on Terror as Bush did or do you think that was a unique factor of the Bush presidency?

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  2. AnonymousMay 15, 2017 at 5:15 PM

    Very informative post! I find it interesting that the huge increase in security and general fear of terrorism that was seen after 9/11 was not seen after this incident. It was most likely because this attack was not nearly as devastating as the one in 2001, but it makes me wonder what would be different if America had realized that they needed to take more preventative measures against terrorism after this incident as opposed to 9/11.

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