The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

Abstract

Chapter 3 addresses the events following February 1993, when Islamist militants set off a car bomb in the underground garage of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The bombing was carried out by a local cell of extremists based in Brooklyn, led by “the Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman. The bombing was a co-production between two Egyptian terrorist groups and Bin Laden. The Brooklyn cell was assisted by operatives on Bin Laden’s payroll. Bin Laden’s operations in the United States grew out of a network made up mainly of Egyptian and North African militants living locally. The network was established in the 1980s to raise money for jihad and to recruit Westerners to fight for the mujahideen against the Soviet-supported regime in Afghanistan. The U.S. authorities swiftly rounded up members of the Brooklyn cell but were slow to recognize the significance of their connections to global terrorist networks, and to Bin Laden. The chapter charts the broader international connections of the Brooklyn militants and places the 1993 bombing in the context of the development of Al Qaeda.