Discovering the interplay between the news media and acts of terrorism

– The 1993 Worl d Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. It was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people.[2][3] It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1042.

– “As part of the plot to strike at the United States, these international terrorists intended to disrupt the dynamics of daily life, commerce, and finance in one of the most heavily populated cities in the United States. The suspect and his associates had hoped to kill upwards of 35,000 innocent people.” [3] “The site of the blast became one of the largest crime scenes in NYPD history.” [3]
– It was reported that “The World Trade Center bombing will be remembered as the gravest attack of international terrorism to occur directly on American soil,” [3] which was true… until 9/11.
– “700 FBI agents worldwide ultimately joining in—quickly uncovered a key bit of evidence. In the rubble investigators uncovered a vehicle identification number on a piece of wreckage that seemed suspiciously obliterated. A search of our crime records returned a match: the number belonged to a rented van reported stolen the day before the attack. An Islamic fundamentalist named Mohammad Salameh had rented

The parking garage after the bomb went off.

the vehicle, we learned, and on March 4, an FBI SWAT team arrested him as he tried in vain to get his $400 deposit back.” [1]

In Context: a couple key points
– September 16, 1920: a horse-drawn wagon exploded by the JP Morgan & Co building. More than 30 died instantly. The attackers were never caught; their motive remains unknown. Anarchy?[2]
– January 4th, 1984: The New York Port Authority realizes that the WTC is vulnerable to attack, so it creates the Terrorist Intelligence Unit within the Police Department to gather information about terrorist groups. They gather that the WTC is targeted for a terrorist attack several times during the 1980’s. The NYPA later creates the Office of Special Planning (OSP) to assess security of facilities. The OSP continues research and finds vulnerability after vulnerability. The OSP gets shut down in 1987 for unknown reasons. In 1991, because of the Gulf War, the New York Port Authority hires private security company Burns and Roe Securacom to prepare a further risk of terrorism reports. Unlike previous investigators, Burns and Roe Securacom finds that the center’s shopping and pedestrian areas are the most likely targets. [6]
– January 17th, 1984: the four-page report “Terrorist Threat and Targeting Assessment: World Trade Center” identifies three main areas that are particularlyvulnerable to attack, including the submerged parking garage. Later reports call the WTC the “most attractive terrorist target.” [6]
– 1986: ’Blind Sheikh’ secretly met with Al Taqwa Bank Leader, Yousef Nada. Shortly after 9/11, a document called “The Project” written in 1982 will be found in Nada’s house. It outlines a secret Muslim Brotherhood plan to infiltrate and defeat Western countries. [6]
– November 5, 1990: The first Bin Laden-Related Terror Attack in US ocured. “Egyptian-American El Sayyid Nosair assassinates controversial right-wing Zionist leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane’s organization, the Jewish Defense League, was linked to dozens of bombings and is ranked by the FBI as the most lethal domestic militant group in the US at the time.” [6]
– 1992: Al-Qaeda bomber Ramzi Yousef plans the 1993 World Trade Center bombing at an Abu Sayyaf base in the Philippines. [6]
– April – June 23, 1993: “Militants plan a series of near simultaneous bombings in New York. Among the targets were prominent New York monuments: The Lincoln and Holland tunnels linking New York to New Jersey, the George Washington Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations, the last to be planted with the help of diplomats fromthe Sudanese mission, the Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza, and finally, one in the Diamond District along 47th Street, populated by mostly Jewish diamond dealers. On June 23, as terrorists mix chemicals for the bombs, FBI agents raid their warehouse and arrest twelve.” [5]
– On June 24, 1994, FBI agents stormed a warehouse in Queens and caught several members of a terrorist cell in the act of assembling bombs.[1] [5]

According to the 9/11 Commission report, this plot was not directly connected to al-Qaeda, save through both the conspirators and al-Quaeda being in contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed[8].

According to a letter sent to the New York Times shortly after the attack, along with testimony from the conspirators, the attack was in response to US s

One of the more famous images from the WTC '93 bombing.

upport of Israel, along with other US tampering in the Middle East.

Media Coverage (timeline):

March 28, 1993 – The New York Times receives a letter of explanation regarding the bombing of the WTC.
October 28, 1993 – CBS News (hosted by Dan Rather) exclusively reports that there is conclusive evidence to suggest that the FBI may have previously known about the attack. The informer, Emad A. Salem, had been secretly taping agents and handed over the transcripts to law enforcement as a result. This indicated the early beginnings of conspiracy theory, which would plague both this and the September 11 attacks in its aftermath.
October 2001 – In an interview with PBS, former CIA Director James Woolsey claims Iraqi involvement in the ’93 bombing, due to Ramzi Yousef’s connections and prior history with Iraqi intelligence. Eventually, CNN terrorism analyst Peter L. Bergen reported that, “by the mid-’90s, the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, the C.I.A., the N.S.C., and the State Department had all found no evidence implicating the Iraqi government in the first Trade Center attack.”
February 26, 2004 – In the midst of discussions for a 9/11 memorial, an interim memorial is discussed for the victims of 2/26 as well. “Lives and innocence were lost 11 years ago today, when the World Trade Center was attacked for the first time,” the NY Times wrote. “Then the survivors lost again”
October 27, 2005 – The Port Authority of New York is found negligent in “safeguarding the World Trade Center”
February 26, 2008 – The 15th Anniversary of the attacks. Enough time has passed so that now publications, like the New York Times, are actively discussing how the attack of 9/11 have overshadowed 2/26, and what can be done in remembrance for those victims. (The original memorial to the six who died was destroyed in 9/11.)


Sources:
[1] http://www.fbi.gov/page2/feb08/tradebom_022608.html
[2] http://macaulay.cuny.edu/student-projects/2005/neighborhoods/10/terrorism.htm
[3] http://www.adl.org/learn/jttf/wtcb_jttf.asp
[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/26/newsid_2516000/2516469.stm
[5] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4677978/
[6]http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&complete_911_timeline_alleged_al_qaeda_linked_attacks=firstwtcbombing; [Caram, 2001, pp. 4-5; New York County Supreme Court, 1/20/2004]
[7] http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980224c.htm
[8] http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Notes.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/01/nyregion/crisis-twin-towers-puzzle-lack-definitive-claim-for-attack-baffles-officials.html?scp=26&sq=WTC%20bombing%201993&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/28/nyregion/letter-explained-motive-in-bombing-officials-now-say.html?scp=27&sq=WTC%20bombing%201993&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/28/nyregion/tapes-depict-proposal-to-thwart-bomb-used-in-trade-center-blast.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/nyregion/interim-shrine-is-proposed-for-victims-of-1993-bombing.html?scp=55&sq=WTC%20bombing%201993&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/nyregion/27wtc.html

Mid-term Questions:
1) (t/f) Nobody suspected that anybody would the World Trade Center as an act of terrorism before the attack.
2) (t/f) All the main conspirators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were arrested by 2001.
3) (t/f) The conspirators’ main reason for attacking the US was the US’s support of Israel.

4) Which publication received the letter of explanation?
a. The Wall Street Journal
b. The New York Post
c. The New York Times
d. The Arizona Republic

5) Who was the informant who tried to alert the FBI to the attack?
a. Mohammad Salameh
b. Dan Rather
c. Emad A. Salem
d. Khalid Sheik Mohammed