James Bovard: 30 Years Ago, the FBI Might Have Had Its Biggest Bomb: The World Trade Center Attack
On Sunday, 30 years ago, the largest terrorist attack in American history was committed. Below the World Trade Center, a bomb of 1,200 pounds exploded New York City
It was pure luck that the explosion didn’t topple the whole skyscraper and kill thousands.
The anniversary was solemnly observed by politicians, but no mention was made by dignitaries about the FBI’s role.
Rabbi Meir Kahane, a New Yorker, was assassinated on Nov. 5, 1990. Kahane’s views on expulsion of all Arabs in Israel and the Territories were supported, and his political party was removed from the Knesset. “inciting racism” “endangering security.”
El Sayyid Nosair 36, an Egyptian immigrant from Egypt, shot Kahane. He is part of an anti Israeli cabal made up of New York-area Muslims. The 47 boxes of documents, paramilitary manuals and maps of buildings that Nosair owned were found when police searched his residence (including the World Trade Center).
No one in the New York FBI office could read Arabic, so those documents — later labeled “a road map” to the 1993 bombing — were left in storage for more than two years.
A congressional report from 2002 noted that the NYPD had been reorganized. “resisted attempts to label the Kahane assassination a ‘conspiracy’ despite the apparent links to a broader network of radicals” Because it “wanted the appearance of speedy justice and a quick resolution to a volatile situation.” Osama bin Laden is said to have funded Nosair’s legal defense.
The trial began in late 1991 and included riots outside of the courthouse, death threats, and chants. “Death to the Jews.” Emad Salem, a former Egyptian military officer and 43-year-old, was placed in the middle the Muslim protesters by the FBI.
Salem was insinuated and became the bodyguard of Sheik Abdul Rahman, a radical Muslim clergyman. Nosair was found not guilty of murder by a New York jury despite all the evidence.
Salem warned the FBI several times in 1992 that radical Muslims planned to bomb New York City. FBI supervisors were convinced that Salem was making up tall stories and accepting bogus payments.
A massive van bomb that was packed with explosives exploded under the World Trade Center’s parking garage. It killed six people and injured more than a thousand others. A tower could have been collapsed if the van had been parked closer to one of its pillars.
The FBI “cracked the case” When a knucklehead plotter He demanded a full refund of his $400 deposit on the Ryder van rental that was used in the bombing.
Time observed the FBI “looked supremely capable in speedily rounding up suspects in the World Trade Center bombing.” FBI Director William Sessions declared, “Based on what was known to us at the time, we have no reason to believe we could have prevented the bombing of the World Trade Center.”
Nonsense.
The FBI quickly hired Salem again after the bombing. They promised $1 million for additional evidence. Salem was skeptical of the FBI’s ability to pay, so he secretly recorded conversations between FBI agents and Salem.
The case was preparing for trial in August 1993. News broke that Salem had recorded tapes of over 100 hours of his conversations and meetings with FBI agents. These tapes showed the FBI as a co-conspirator in the plotting terrorist attacks.
A call to an FBI agent shortly following the bombing, Salem complained, “We was start already building the bomb . . . by supervising, supervision from the bureau [FBI] and the DA [district attorney], and we was all informed about it. And we know that the bomb start to be built. By who? By your confidential informant. What a wonderful great case. And then” The FBI supervisor “put his head in the sand and said, ‘Oh no, no, that’s not true, he is a son of a bitch.'”
Another taped callSalem cried to an FBI agent. “You were informed. Everything is ready. The day and the time. Boom. Lock them up and that’s that. That’s why I feel so bad.”
On AnotherSalem contacted an FBI agent. “Do you deny your supervisor is the main reason of bombing the World Trade Center?” Salem’s charges were not denied by the agent. Salem was told by Nancy Floyd, an FBI agent, that her supervisors had bungled the case. “I felt that the people on the squad, that they didn’t have a clue. . . . That the supervisors didn’t know what was going on. That they hadn’t taken the time to learn the history.”
Salem offered to replace the explosives with harmless powder, thus preventing any disaster. He was turned down by the FBI.
Salem complained to an FBI agent that an FBI supervisor had told him to stop. “requested to make me to testify [in public] and if he didn’t push for that, we’ll be going building the bomb with a phony powder and grabbing the people who was involved in it. But . . . we didn’t do that.”
Salem was considered credible by the feds so they paid him $1 million for 1995 testimony. This was to convict Muslim conspirators and prevent them from carrying out more attacks on New York City landmarks.
Louis Freeh, FBI Director in 1997, promised Congress that he would. “double the ‘shoe leather'” Counterterrorism investigations. Walking was not an alternative to thinking. The FBI failed again to connect dots between terrorist plotters in America before the 9/11 attacks.
In 2002, an FBI agent complained that the bureau’s ethos was that “real men don’t type. The only thing a real agent needs is a notebook, a pen and gun, and with those three things you can conquer the world. . . . The computer revolution just passed us by.”
Gross negligence by the FBI “contributed to the United States becoming, in effect, a sanctuary for radical terrorists,” A congressional investigation was conducted in 2002.
The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing serves as a reminder of how Americans will not hear about FBI fiascos until after the damage has been done.
The FBI has not been held accountable by Congress or federal courts. Media continue to kowtow to G-men who leak juicy information.
James Bovard is an author of 10 books. He is also a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors.
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