'Itade Center -BonabingRe
P.-/kek 'Clarity of Motive'
o Ryder employees, had arrived
ck up the vaii in a red GM sedan
accompanied by a companion.
@r offic'als said that roughly two
s after the explosion, Salameh
ared at the office and claimed
van had been stolen the night
re. He asked for his $400 dam-
deposit, but was told he must
file a police report.
dameh's name was already in the
s files. In 1990 he had demon-
:ed publicly on behalf of EI-Say-
@osair, an Islamic firebrand who
been charged with, arid acquitted
he 1991 slaying of Jewish De-
e League founder Meir Kahane.
meh had visited Nosair at the
prison in Attica, N.Y., where he
serving a sentence on lesser
ges.
ilameh gave investigators a par-
ar suspect to consider, and, as
)rtant, drew their attention to a
ip of activists who orbited
ugh the larger Islamic commu-
in New York and New Jersey
attended the Abu Bakr mosque
Brooklyn arid the Al-Salam
que in Jersey City. Rahman had
iched at both mosques.
he FBI had not previously con-
red these activists to be terror-
merely passionate militants. Yet
FBI had access to intelligence
@mation about them gathered as-
@@sult of at least three occur-
@es: the prosecution of Nosair;
emergence of Rahman as a pres-
2 in the New Jersey-New York
.nic community; and the 1991
-der of Mustafa Shalabi.
'he Nosair trial was a watershed
it among Middle Eastern niiii-
s in New York. Kahane, a hero to
.y Jewish radicals, was viewed as
inbol of Zionist oppression to Is-
ic radicals. During the trial, the
I groups staged dernonstrations,
nn nnnn-jte @idps nf thp i-c)iirt-
_s_e__20@L/0_1 SQ4PECTS___
1.1.7-WOR&
ix suspects have been charged in connection with the World Trade Center bombing. Four werejointly
S indicted in the bombing and remain in custody. One is being held on obstruction charges and the
sixth reportedly hasfled the country.

ment blames the Islamic Group for a		MOHAMMAD	NIDAL AYYAD, 25

series of bombings and murders		SAILAMEH, 25	Kuwaiti.
,

most especially the assassination of		
Jordanian.	
Maplewood, N.J.,

h
l
i
i

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in		Jersey City, N.J.,	neer
c
em
ca
eng
t
d
1981.		handyman	arres
e

Egyptian security forces are en-		
arrested March	arch 10.
M

gaged in a massive
nationwide		
4. Indicted in the	Indicted in the
,
crackdown aimed at fundamentalist		
bombing.	bombing.
militants, including members of the			
Islamic Group. The government has			
jailed 700 suspected extremists in			
response to a wave of violence that		BILAL ALKAISI, 26	IBRAHIM
has left nearly 150 people dead, at		Jordanian.	ELGABROWNY, 42

the hands of either police or extrem-		New York area	Held Iraqi pass-

ists.		
resident arrested	port, Brooklyn

Before he emigrated to the United		
March 25.	contractor ar-

States, Rahman was acquitted of in-		
Charged with	rested March 4.
Charged with
volvement in Sadat's death, but an		aiding and	obstruction and
FBI intelligence briefing during the		abetting the	possessing fraud.
Persian Gulf War persuaded at least		bombing.	ulent passports.
one senior official to believe that he			

posed a potentially serious threat		SOURCE: News services and staff reports	
from his new base in New Jersey.		
When Rahman arrived in the Unit-
ed States, Shalabi found him a res-	office, agents arrested him. In his	Ayyad's office phone. Agents learned

idence. Thereafter, they raised funds	ockets, they found the business card
P	that Salameh and Ayyad had a joint

for the Afghan resistance, but ulti-	
of
Nidal Ayyad, 25, a chemical engi-	account at a local bank. They discov-
mately had a falling out, according to	neer.	ered that on Feb. 15 Ayyad had
published statements by several as-	Eventually, the FBI executed at	rented from National Car Rental the
sociates. In March 1991, Shalabi was	least 10 search warrants in New Jer-	same type of car that Salameh ar-
found dead in his Brooklyn home,	sey.	rived in at the Ryder van rental of-
shot and knifed. There have been no	Agents found evidence connecting	fice. Moreover, "Salameh" was listed
arrests.	Salameh to a rental unit at the Space	as an additional driver on the rental
In addition, five months before the	Station Storage facility in Jersey	car. A witness from the Ryder office
trade center bombing, about 20	City. Employees identified Silameh	identified Ayyad as the same man
members of the two mosques who	as the man who rented a shed in No-	who accompanied Salameh when he
attended Nosair's trial or visited him	vember under the name "Kamal lbra-	rented the van.
at Attica were subpoenaed by a fed-	liam."	On March 10 agents descended on
eral grand jury, according to the	Upon searching this unit March 5,	Ayyad's first-floor apartment at 60
New York Times. Ahmed A. Satta, a	agents discovered several hundred	Boyden Ave., Maplewood, NJ. In-

postal worker, told the Times that	pounds of chemicals that, if properly	side, they found what a prosecutor
FBI agents grilled him about Nosair,	combined and triggered with a small	later described as a modified timing
Shalabi and Rahman.	explosive, could produce a powerful	mechanism that an explosives expert
To officials, then, the circumstan-	blast. They also discovered that the	described as a time delay firing sys-
tial clues being gathered by agents in	chemicals-hundreds of pounds of	tem. Ayyad was carrying an Amer-
New Jersey seemed to fit into a larg-	urea and nitric acid-were purchased	ican Express card in the name of Bilal
er context. For example, Salameh's	in November by "Kamal Ibrahani."	Alkiasi. At least one witness told the
New York state drAV#fl&v" Fqmd RelefitwOOON01 Mli)30IA4ROM196-Q(t7$,PsUM90OWQIQ15s9accom-
his residence as 57 Prospect Park,	FBI that the day before the bombing	panied Salameh to the storage shed
.1; W Rronklun-thp hnrnp of ThrqhiTn	thev saw a man thev believe was	"on several occisions."
MAHMUD
ABOUHALIMA, 33
Egyptian. Wood-
bridge, N.J., cab
driver arrested in
Egypt and brought
to the U.S. March
24. Indicted in
the bombing.
RAMZ1 AHMED
YOUSEF,25
Jersey City, N.J.,
resident who
reportedly fled the
country. Indicted
in the bombing.
-Compiled by Barbara I Saffir
THE WASHINGTON POST
purported involvement with the Af-
ghan resistance. Associates said
Abouhalima traveled to Pakistan for
military training and that he was a
follower of Rahman and sometimes
served as his driver. Rahman has diq-
puted this claim and publicly de-
nounced the bombing.)
Aside from these characterizations
of Abouhalima-which will likely be
contested in court-there has been
no public disclosure of what direct
evidence, if any, connects him to the
bombing. He was eventually returned
to New York. U.S. officials have re-
fused to discuss their knowledge of
m
the arrest or treat ent of Abou-
halima.
For weeks, the trade center bomb-
ing was an incomplete act of terrorr
ism because it lacked a political me,,4,-
sage. But on March 28 the New York
Times published a letter it received
four days after the bombing. Thli
Times quoted a law en@forcement
ci;rl 4inra xro@z "inrnnfrn@