1993 World Trade Center bombing

On February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and some others carried out a terrorist attack using a van bomb below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. They wanted the North Tower to fall onto the South Tower, which would have brought both big buildings down and hurt many people. But the plan did not work as they hoped. The bombing killed six people and hurt more than a thousand others. About 50,000 people had to leave the buildings that day.

The attack was planned by a group of terrorists that included Yousef, Ahmed Ajaj, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammed A. Salameh, Eyad Ismoil, Nidal Ayyad, and Abdul Rahman Yasin. In March 1994, four men were found guilty of carrying out the bombing. In November 1997, two more people were found guilty, including Ramzi Yousef, who organized the attack.

An important witness in the trial was Emad Salem, who worked with the FBI. Salem said that the bomb was made with help from the FBI. He recorded many phone calls with his handlers from the FBI.

Planning and organization

Ramzi Yousef arrived in the United States in September 1992 from Pakistan with a friend, using false papers. One of his friends was caught at the airport because his passport looked fake, and bomb-making materials were found in his bag. Yousef managed to enter by claiming he needed protection and was allowed to stay while his case was reviewed.

Yousef settled in New Jersey and started planning a big explosion. He got help from others and began preparing a very powerful bomb to damage the World Trade Center in New York City. Yousef wanted the explosion to cause one tower to fall onto the other, hoping to harm many people as a way to protest U.S. support for Israel. Before the attack, he sent letters to newspapers making demands, including stopping U.S. help to Israel and ending diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Israel. He warned that more attacks could happen if his demands were not met.

Attack

On Friday, February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and a friend drove a van into the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. They parked on an underground level and set off a large bomb. The explosion created a big hole in the garage and filled the buildings with smoke, making it hard for people to escape. Many people were hurt during the evacuation.

Six people sadly lost their lives, and over a thousand others were injured. The blast also knocked out power, causing problems with radio and television broadcasts in the city for several days. Yousef had hoped the explosion would cause the buildings to collapse, but this did not happen. He escaped after the attack.

Victims

Six people sadly lost their lives in the bombing. They were John DiGiovanni, Robert "Bob" Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, Bill Macko, Wilfredo Mercado, and Monica Rodríguez Smith. Each of them was going about their normal day at work when the explosion happened.

Memorials

Memorial fountain

A special memorial fountain was made to honor those who were lost. It stood above where the bomb went off and had the names of the six people who were killed. The fountain was sadly destroyed during the events of September 11, 2001. A small piece of it, with the name “John D” from John DiGiovanni, was used in a new temporary memorial.

Post-9/11 memorials

At the 9/11 Memorial, the people who died in the 1993 bombing are remembered at the North Pool, on Panel N-73. The fragment of the old memorial fountain is shown inside the museum among other items from that time.

The Postcards memorial in Staten Island includes the name of Stephen Knapp, the only person from that area who died in the bombing.

Criminal cases

Investigations

After a big explosion at a building, police and experts from the ATF, FBI, and the NYPD rushed to help. They worked hard to find out what happened. They looked through the broken parts and found clues that led them to a van that had been rented by one of the people involved. This helped them start to learn more about who was responsible.

The arrest of one person led police to find others who were part of the plan. Some were taken into custody, and more information was gathered that helped solve the case.

Trial and sentencing

A few years later, four people were found guilty for their roles in the explosion. They were given long sentences in prison. Over time, their sentences were changed a little, which might let them leave prison much later in their lives.

Aftermath

The South Tower reopened for people to use on March 18, 1993, and the North Tower opened again on April 1, 1993. Fixing both buildings cost about $250 million. New security rules were added, like checking identification tags for cars and drivers, using surveillance cameras, and putting up barriers to stop vehicles.

Even though one famous restaurant called Windows on the World wasn’t damaged, it had to close because parts of its building were affected. It cost $25 million to fix, and the restaurant reopened in June 1996.

Special agents from the Diplomatic Security Service helped find and arrest the person responsible for the bombing. They worked with others to catch him.

After the bombing, safety rules were improved to help people leave the buildings safely during emergencies. These rules helped during the attacks on September 11, 2001, which destroyed the towers.

Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, the bombing in 1993 has sometimes been called “forgotten.” Even though people had worried about more attacks after the 1993 bombing, the 2001 attacks were not expected by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement.

Legal responsibility

Some people who were hurt in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, including families of those who were killed, took legal action against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In 2005, a court decided that the Port Authority was mostly responsible for what happened, more so than the people who carried out the attack.

Later, the Port Authority asked higher courts to change this decision, but in 2008, an appeals court agreed with the original ruling. Because New York law says that if someone is found to be more than half at fault, they can be held fully responsible for paying damages, the Port Authority faced big financial consequences. In 2011, the highest state court decided the Port Authority could not be held legally responsible for negligence connected to the bombing.