TOWER TERROR (MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R003900260011-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2002
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: March 8, 1993
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

A murderous explosion in
the heart of New York City
raises the specter of
terrorism in America and
sets off a feverish hunt for
the bomber
Nowd I KP ~WNMRIKI 0~ Nm;rg I
AMERICANS WERE NOT ACCUSTOMED
to what so much of the world had
already grown weary of: the sud-
den, deafening explosion of a car
bomb, a hail of glass and debris, the
screams of innocent victims fol-
lowed by the wailing sirens of ambulances.
Terrorism seemed like something that hap-
pened somewhere else-and somewhere
else a safe distance over the horizon.
And then last week, in an instant, the
World Trade Center in New York City be-
came ground zero.
At 12:18 on a snowy Friday afternoon, a
massive explosion rocked the foundation of
the Twin Towers of the Trade Center in
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blew a 'crater
0- ft. by 100 ft.
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(55 m) hole in
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TIMF Graphic by Nigel Holmes. Source: A P
ings in the world and a magnet for 100,000
workers and visitors each day. The bomb
was positioned to wreak maximum dam-
age to the infrastructure of the building
and the commuter networks below. And
the landmark target near Wall Street
seemed chosen with a fine sense for the
symbols of the late 20th century. If the ex-
plosion, which killed five people and in-
jured more than 1,000, turns out to be the
work of terrorists, it will be a sharp re-
minder that the world is still a dangerous
place. And that the dangers can come
home.
Against that threat, the relevant intelli-
gence agencies mobilized quickly. The
news from New York sent the FBI and other
federal agencies to Code Red, their highest
 state of readiness. The FBI activated its
Joint Terrorist Task Force, and the CIA
turned up the heat at its Counterterrorist
Center in Langley, Virginia, a conglomer-
ate of psychiatrists, explosives experts and
hostage negotiators. Meanwhile, the Bu-
reau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the
agency responsible for investigating the
loss and theft of explosives, mobilized its
13-member National Response Team held
on 24-hour call in the New York area. They
were joined by bureau chemists from head-
quarters in Rockville, Maryland.
Until it is firmly concluded that a ter-
rorist was responsible, the New York City
police department is in charge, and it was
the N.Y.P.D. that took the lead in sifting
through the 19 telephoned claims of "cred-
it" that were received in the first 24 hours.
Though none came in before the blast-the
earliest followed it by an hour, well after
the first news reports-a few were intrigu-
ing. Many of the calls were made by people
claiming to be affiliated with Balkan
groups, including one made by a caller in
Europe who said he represented the Black
Hand, a Serbian extremist organization
last active about 10 years ago. According to
terrorism expert Xavier Raufer, Serbian
nationalists have threatened terrorist re-
prisals against West European countries
for interference in the region.
There were immediate suspicions that
Bill Clinton's decision . last week to air-
drop relief supplies over Bosnia-a step
that had seemed like a low-risk humani-
Scores of emergency vehicles, Including
many from nearby cities, sped to the
scene to help rescue the injured
tarian gesture-might have been an-
swered in thunder by the Serbs. Still, ille
Bosnian hypothesis was by no means the
only one. A caller from the West Coast
credited the Iranian Revolutionary Guard;
an anonymous tipster blamed Jewish ex-
tremist groups.
Because of their trouble getting to the
"blast seat" in the dangerously crumbling
underground garage, investigators could
not even confirm to their complete satisfac-
tion what had caused the explosion. But its
size and intense heat suggested a bomb, as
did traces of nitrate found at the edges of
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 F600'h1-suers help one of ttie
Injured; hundreds suffered
cuts and smoke inhalation
Deshane, 25, was on the 105th
floor when he felt the explo-
sion. "All the computers shut
down, then all the phones shut
down," he said. "Then all of a
sudden we saw smoke every-
where." He ran to hit the fire-
emergency button. "Nothing
happened." In a panic, some
people broke windows to admit
air, sending daggers of glass
raining onto the crowds below
and creating a chimney effect
that drew smoke upward even
more quickly.
Four of the dead were Port
Authority workers, whose of-
fices and locker rooms were lo-
cated on the lower levels that
sustained the worst damage.
More than 24 hours after the
blast, two other workers were
still missing. But the toll was
less severe than first feared.
Though some suffered major
injuries, most of the victims
the blast crater. Until they could determine
otherwise, informed experts assumed that
hundreds of pounds of high explosives had
been packed into a. car or van that was left
at a four-level underground parking ga-
rage. The garage is situated below the
Trade Center plaza and near a station of
the PATH commuter subway line that links
Manhattan and New Jersey.
The Trade Center is not a surprising
target. In the early 1970s CIA agents com-
piled a list of potentially vulnerable sites
that they believed might make high-value
terrorist strike points. Near the top of that
list, former deputy CIA director Bobby In-
man told TIME, was the World
Trade Center. "When the peo-
ple responsible for anticipat-
ing terrorist attacks began to
run scenarios on this kind of
thing, this was one of the
places." Why? "Because of the
number of victims who would
be involved," said Inman. The
information raises questions
about what kind of extra pre-
caution the Port Authority
might have taken in light of
the building's tantalizing
vulnerability.
The bomb blew out a crater
200 ft. by 100 ft. wide and five
stories deep. Floors collapsed
onto one another with an im-
pact that caused the ceiling of
the PATH station nearby to
come crashing down, shower-
ing chunks of concrete onto
commuters waiting on the
platform. In the same mo-
ment, the 110-story Twin Towers swayed
visibly as the force of the blast shuddered
upward. Lobby windows exploded onto
the plaza and marble slabs fell from the
walls. As fractured steam pipes launched
jets of hot mist into the air, the first vic-
tims stumbled out of the buildings, blood-
ied and in shock.
Fires quickly broke out, launching
thick, acrid smoke up hundreds of stair-
wells and elevator banks. In both towers
the electricity went out, including emer-
gency backup systems. Even on the high-
est floors, workers were stunned by the
speed at which smoke flew upward. David
were treated for smoke inhalation or mi-
nor burns.
In a meeting late Friday evening, the
state and federal agencies involved in the
case hammered out a protocol to govern
the inquiry. The first priority was to stabi-
lize the pillars that hold up the Vista Hotel
on the Trade Center plaza and which were
supported in turn by the garage floors that
were ripped away in the blast. Before in-
vestigators can safely enter the blast site,
workers must buttress the dangerous sag-
ging remnants of the garage and lay a web
of tubular steel beams across the crater
left by the bomb. It may be days before in-
POWERFUL TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION
WHEN INVESTIGATORS DIG THROUGH THREE FLOORS OF RUBBLE TO REACH THE "BLAST SEAT,"
they will begin to find the telltale traces-detonator fragments, chemical residue, heat indifa-_
tors-that point toward a specific explosive compound. Among the possibilities:
SEMTEX This yellowish plastic explosive, one-third more powerful than an equivalent
amount of TNT, has a texture like putty; it can be molded into almost any shape. It is also
easy to transport. "You can drop it, you can throw it against a wall, you can stomp on it. It
won't go off" without a detonator, says terrorism expert Robert Phillips. Composed in equal
parts of RDx and PETN, both high explosives, Semtex was manufactured in Czechoslovakia.,
In 1990, Prague officials vowed to enforce an export ban; by then 1,000 tons had been
shipped to Libya.
C-4 A relative of Semtex, this odorless, claylike high explosive is made in the U.S. and fa-
vored by NATO armies as well as by mining companies. Much like Semtex, C-4 converts to a
gaseous state at very high velocity, sending forth shock waves at 26,400 ft. per sec.
TNT About twice as powerful as common dynamites but lower in explosive velocity than the
plastics, trinitrotoluene is made of nitric acid, sulfuric acid and toluene. This toxic substance,
typically bundled in Y2-lb. and 1-lb. sticks, is commonly available in the U.S.
AMMONIUM NITRATE When used for benign purposes, this is known simply as fertilizer.
But when mixed with diesel fuel and set off, it has a detonation velocity of 3,600 ft. per sec.
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tons of debris for clues to the bomber.
,!' Then the hard work begins. Once they
enter the damaged area, investigators
will face the tedious process of finding
chemical traces and fragments of the ve-
hicle to help identify the type of bomb.
Most well-known terrorist groups have
their own "signatures"-characteristic
explosive compounds, detonators and
even device designs. If investigators find
enough clues, "they can detect who made
this particular bomb," says Professor
Robert Phillips, an expert in terrorism at
the University of Connecticut. "They're
able to detect even individual bomb-
makers' ways of doing things, of placing
wires, of placing fuses, how they put the
whole thing together. There aren't lots of
people in the world who do this well." At
the top of Phillips' suspect list are Middle
Eastern and Balkan terrorists. Says Phil-
lips: "The car bomb is very much the sig-
nature of these groups."
CCORDING TO INMAN, THE
sheer difficulty of constructing
A bombs of this nature almost
rules out an American-made
device. "There hasn't been a do-
mestic development of the kind
of skills that are needed for this,
as there has been in Northern
Ireland or the Middle East," says Inman.
Outside experts liken the task of iden-
tifying the Trade Center bomb to the in-
quiry into the bombing of Pan Am Flight
103, in which debris was scattered for
miles. Investigators in that case drew a
life-size diagram of the plane on a ware-
house floor, then set about reconstruct-
ing it piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle.
From that they could determine where in
the plane's body the blast occurred, be-
cause "the metal would be bent to follow
the contours of the vectors of the explo-
sion," says Phillips.
Though the FBI does not yet know
whether enough evidence is left to piece
together the car bomb it believes was
there, its experts plan to move large quan-
tities of debris to a secure location and ex-
amine it with microscopic care. They will
search for tiny remnants that don't really
belong at the scene-that are not, say, part
of a car's headlights or dashboard. Items
as small as a bit of wire can point to wheth-
er a timing device was used.
The whole area will also be examined
for chemical residue, which will help in
determining what kind of explosive was
used. In car bombings, bits of explosive
matter are often found in the nooks and
crannies of what is left of the auto's trunk
lid. Nitrate, traces of which were found in
the Trade Center crater, is the most basic
component of most explosive mixtures.
The next step is to find traces of chemi-
cals that maybe unique to a certain com-
pound, like potassium or ammonium,
WHO COULD HAVE DONE IT
THE BOMBING OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER COULD TURN OUT TO BE THE WORK OF
none other than a psychotic, mad-as-hell American-a live version of the Holly-
wood revenge fantasy. But many aspects of the bomb, including its placement and
force, carry the mark of more sophisticated hands. Experts who study terrorists
around the world have begun to speculate about several groups:
THE BALKAN FACTIONS Of the 19 callers who took responsibility for the bomb-
ing, at least one said he spoke for an organization calling itself the Serbian Libera-
tion Front. Another claimed to represent Croatian militants. Still another called in
the name of Bosnian Muslims. The possibility of a Balkan connection was made
more tantalizing by the fact that a bomb was defused on Friday near the U.S. em-
bassy in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
Most of the Balkan nationalities have a history of marrying politics with vio-
lence. It was the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in Saraje-
vo by a Serbian youth that set off World War I. And according to a French expert
on the Balkans, Xavier Raufer, the terrorist techniques that the Palestinians and
the Lebanese made notorious in the past two decades-bombings, kidnappings,
hijackings-were virtually invented by Balkan groups. "These guys make Abu
Nidal look like Mother Teresa," he says.
Militants seeking independence for Croatia have struck inside the U.S. in the
past. In December 1975 Croatian nationalists were suspected of planting a bomb
in a luggage locker at La Guardia Airport, killing 11 people and injuring 75. Less
than a year later, Croats hijacked a TWA jet traveling from New York City to Chi-
cago and eventually diverted it to Paris. As part of that operation, the group also
planted a bomb at Grand Central Terminal, which killed a police officer who
tried to defuse it. In June 1980 Croatian "freedom fighters" detonated a bomb in-
side the museum at the Statue of Liberty, but no one was injured. All told, Croats
committed more than 20 acts of terror in the U.S. from 1976 through 1980.
Croatia has achieved a shaky independence since then, albeit one marred by
episodes of urban shelling by Serb guerrillas. The Croats could conceivably have
been motivated to carry out the attack hoping the Serbs would be blamed. But the
Serbs have their own reason for staging the bombing-or for doing it and hoping
the Croats would be blamed. The announcement this week that the U.S. would
soon start sending relief flights over Bosnia made it just as plausible that the blast
might be a response by Serbs to a perceived tilt against their side. Six months ago,
Serbian nationalists threatened to bomb Western's Europe's nuclear facilities if
its governments intervened militarily in the former Yugoslavia.
The Bosnian Muslims too have reason to play a part in the Balkan blame
game. They have been known to bomb their own people in Bosnia, hoping the
Serbs and the Croats would be held responsible and Western allies would inter-
vene on their side. But they are also angry at the Clinton Administration for re-
fusing to lift an arms embargo despite earlier pledges to do so.
PALESTINIAN FACTIONS An extremist group called Hamas has been virulently
opposed to the current Middle East peace talks, and last week's bombing could
have been an attempt to torpedo the negotiations before they resume next
month. In addition, it was Hamas supporters who made up most of the 400 or so
Palestinians whom Israel expelled late last year and who now languish in the no-
man's-land between the Israeli and Lebanese lines.
IRAN, IRAQ, LIBYA February was the second anniversary of the U.S.-led ground
attack against Iraq; setting off a bomb at the center of America's largest city could
have been Iraq's way of marking the date. But since Clinton took office, Iraq has been
makingconciliatorynoises, as has another of the U.S.'s longtime enemies, Iran. How-
ever, there is no shortage of fundamentalist groups, including the Iranian-backed
Hizballah, that might seek to punish the nation they regard as "the Great Satan."
RUSSIAN NATIONALISTS Long-shot culprits to be sure, Russian nationalists
who want to install a reactionary, law-and-order regime in Moscow have blamed
much of their country's troubles-from corruption to economic chaos and
crime-on Western, and mainly U.S., influence. They have stepped up their at-
tacks on Boris Yeltsin in recent months, forcing him to distance himself from
free marketeers and from his Western-oriented diplomacy. But so far he has
survived their challenges. In frustration, his enemies might have sought expres-
sion on American soil.-Reported by William Mader/London and Thomas A. Sancton/Parts
TIME, MARCH 8, 1993 33
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 which would identify the explosive far
more precisely.
Experts will also try to determine the
velocity of the shock waves emanating
from the blast. "Different compounds ex-
plode at different speeds," says Brian Jen-
kins, senior managing director for Kroll
Associates, an international investigating
firm. "You can tell by examining the metal
that was torn apart. Was it a big explosion
that moved a lot of things, or was it a high-
velocity explosion that rent metal?" So-
phisticated plastic explosives tend to
shred metal and pulverize concrete, while
common substances like dynamite tend to
knock walls over and push vehicles
around. Once investigators identify the
substance, they will try to determine
whether it was a homemade explosive, one
made from commercially available materi-
al or a product of limited availability, like a
military-grade explosive. If the material is
common, the trail may be colder than if it
is a closely monitored substance.
NITIAL SPECULATION IN THIS CASE
centers upon plastic explosives like
Semtex, the lethal weapon of choice
for many terrorists because it is
safe to handle and undetectable by
sniffer dogs or X-ray inspection. A
small amount hidden in a portable
radio blew Pan Am Flight 103 out of
the sky in 1988. Semtex was produced in
quantity under the communist govern-
ment of Czechoslovakia; while the post-
communist Czech Republic has discontin-
ued production, large quantities remain in
the hands of terrorist gangs that obtained
them illicitly. Three years ago, Czechoslo-
vak President Vaclav Havel estimated that
"world terrorism has supplies of Semtex
to last 150 years."
Until last week, federal agents were
confident that terrorist groups contemplat-
ing action on American soil would have
considerable difficulty smuggling in
enough high explosives to manufacture a
sizable car bomb. Could they have obtained
them in the U.S.? Although high explosives
are widely used in the construction indus-
try, they are monitored. 7ptppIaftr
Police cordoned off the entrance to the
bombed-out garag , where the explosion
left a gaping chasm
close contacts with manufacturers and
dealers, while sales are tightly regulated by
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire-
arms. Though the Pentagon possesses its
own plastic explosive, a Semtex relative
called C-4, a would-be terrorist would have
to steal it from a military facility-a theft
that would probably be detected. Other ex-
plosives might be simpler to accumulate,
however, like ammonium nitrate, an ordi-
nary component of fertilizer that has been
a favorite of the Irish Republican Army.
Experts speculate that the bomb may
have consisted of several hundred pounds
of high explosives. The bomber may have
known that because the device would be
detonated in the reinforced enclosure of a
garage, it would deliver more bang for the
buck. An enclosed area can double the
"shock wave" value of an explosion.
"When you have a contained explosion,
the blast doesn't vent," says Phil Hough,
president of International Explosives Dis-
posal (USA). "Effectively the building be-
comes part of the bomb." Says Phillips:
"The garage was the perfect location be-
cause of both the damage to the upper
floors [with smoke] and structural dam-
age the bomb would cause at the base."
Once more is known about the meth-
ods and materials of the bomber, federal
agencies can compare them with the de-
tails of past bombings that are stored on
its computer data base. There is also a
massive job ahead of identifying and inter-
viewing witnesses who may have seen
something in the parking garage or the
building. And the FBI is intensifying sur-
veillance of possible terrorist groups and
foreign agents suspected of involvement
in the bombing. The bureau has also infil-
trated potential terrorist groups in this
country, as the CIA has done overseas.
Those contacts can now be used to gather
leads. "You're going to have to depend on
informants," says former CIA official Da-
vid Whipple. "And you almost always
Investigators will look at every possi-
ble motive, from Balkan nationalism to
employee dissatisfaction at the Trade Cen-
ter. "You can't take just one track, be-
cause you come to dead ends and you've
lost time," says an FBI official. "You have
to investigate multiple tracks at the same
time." Eventually, with luck, the pieces
start coming together. "Some of it is mis-
information, some of it is disinformation,"
says Jenkins, "and some small portion is
information. You have to sort all that out.
In the ideal situation, these paths begin to
converge. You get a chain of physical evi-
dence that takes you all the way from the
debris back to the perpetrator."
Will the perpetrator be carrying a flag?
Says former CIA Director Robert Gates:
"It's always been a possibility that, as eth-
nic conflicts spread, the losers might try to
exact some sort of price, to attract atten-
tion to their cause." But it was by no
means certain last week that the Trade
Center bombing was an act of political ter-
rorism. During the Gulf War, a bomb
found on a chemical storage tank in Vir-
ginia Instantly raised an alarm. The cul-
 hoped to make an insurance-fraud fire
look like the work of Iraqis.
Yet even before the answers were in
as to who had planted the bomb, a new
question-whether a season of terrorism
might begin in the U.S.-had been raised.
In the wake of the explosion, bomb
threats forced the evacuation of the Em-
pire State Building and Newark airport.
Both threats were false, but no one was
ready to dismiss the likelihood of another
assault. Around the country, airports and
other public facilities stepped up securi-
ty. The blast was a reminder of the vul-
nerability of most American office build-
ings, shopping malls, airports and
railway stations. Even the U.S. govern-
ment has let its guard down since the
mid-1980s, when American installations
were on constant alert and concrete bar-
riers were set up around many govern-
ment buildings in Washington.
"International terrorism in the '80s
was fundamentally fueled by the cold
war," says Phillips, "and you can almost
date the diminution of that terrorism with
Gorbachev's ascension to power." But the
end of communism has helped ignite the
fires of nationalism in regions like the Bal-
kans, emboldening other fanatical groups
to sow the kind of trouble once created by
Soviet and East bloc terrorists.
As the only remaining superpower, the
U.S. can find itself the target of resent-
ments of players on all sides who are seek-
ing American involvement or trying to
fend it off. Massive cItr bombs have be-
come familiar as political weapons in the
Middle East and Europe. But it would rep-
resent a quantum leap in terrorist capabil-
ities-and brazenness-to assemble one in
the U.S. Middle East terror networks, for
one, have never shown themselves to be
capable of that or interested in doing so,
preferring to concentrate their attacks on
Westerners in Europe, where they have
found it easier to operate.
Whoever the bomber was, he made an
indelible statement. On top of the deaths
and injuries, the bomb's damage to the
heart of New York City's financial district
will bring heavy costs. Repairs and resto-
ration alone will cost the Port Authority as
much as $100 million, according to one es-
timate. But the disruption to business will
be even worse, because the Port Authority
will have to close the giant complex for at
least several days for structural and safety
work. The towers, which represent about
10% of all the office space in Manhattan's
financial district, are so large that they
have two zip codes.
Perhaps the most unsettling possibili-
ty is that the hand behind the blast will
never reveal itself and never be discovered
by anyone else. Though two Libyan intelli-
gence agents were indicted in the downing
of Pan Am 103, they have never been
brought to trial, and no nation or group
ever came forward to take responsibility.
Just blocks from the World Trade Center,
the walls of the Morgan Guaranty Trust
Co. are still scarred from the effects of a
bomb that was hidden in a horse-drawn
wagon on Sept. 16,1920. When it exploded
into a lunchtime crowd, 40 people died
and 200 were injured. The mystery of the
blast was never cleared up. The investiga-
tors who have begun scratching through
the rubble of the Trade Center are deter-
mined that this flash of terror will not go
unsolved. -Reported by Edward Barnes,
Sophfronla Scott Gregory/New York and Mkhael
Duffy, Jay Peterzell/Washington
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