11" -:>- /p 1e 17 'itacle Center 9P .P-.iek 'Clarity of Motive' o Ryder employees, had arrived ck up the vail in a red GM sedan accompanied by a companion. ,r officials said that roughly two s after the explosion, Salameh ared at the office and claimed van had been stolen the night ce. 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, and acquitted he 1991 slaying of Jewish De- ~ 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 and the AI-Salam que in Jersey City. Rahman had iched at both mo sques. 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- ~ in the New Jersey-New York mic community; and the 1991 der of Mustafa Shalabi. 'he Nosair trial was a watershed it among Middle Eastern mili- s in New York. Kahane, a hero to iy Jewish radicals, was viewed as 'inbol of Zionist oppression to Is- ic radicals. During the trial, the I groups staged demonstrations, on ()nnnqIfP qidpq of thp rnin-t- SUSPECTS ix suspects have been chargedin connection wit%'Jt)reVo'rJM"J~rdye Centerbombing. Fourwerejointly S indicted in the bombing and remain in custody. One is being held on obstruction charges and the sixth reportedly hasfled the country. I14AHMUD ABOUHALIMA, 33 Egyptian. Wood- bridge, N.J., cab driver arrested in Egypt and brought to the U.S. March 24. Indicted in the bombing, MOHAMMAD NIDAL AWAD, 25 ment blames the Islamic SALAMEH, 25 Kuwaiti. Group for a series of bombings Maplewood, N.J., and murders, Jordanian most especially the . assassination of J. chemical engineer N ~Ii. Jersey City Egyptian President . arrested Anwar Sadat in , , 1981 handyman . March 10. Egyptian security arrested March forces are en- Indic d n the 4. Indicted in the gaged in a massive, bom~lng~ nationwide crackdown aimed at bombing. fundamentalist militants, including members of the Islamic Group. The government has jailed 700 suspected 26 IBRAHIM extremists in BILAL ALKAISI response to a wave , 42 of violence that Jordanian ELGABROWNY has left nearly 150 . , people dead, at New York area Held Iraqi pass- the hands of either resident arrested port. Brooklyn police or extrem- ists. contractor ar- Before he emigrated March 25. rested March 4 to the United . States, Rahman was Charged wi h Charged with acquitted of in- volvement in Sadat's aiding and obstruction and death, but an FBI intelligence abetting the possessing fraud- briefing during the Persian Gulf War bombing. ulent passports. persuaded at least one senior official to believe that he posed a potentially SOURCE: News services serious threat and staff reports from his new base in New Jersey. When Rahman arrived office Ay'yad's office phone in the Unit- In Agents learned his agents arrested him ed States, Shalabi . . found him a res- , that Salameh and Ayyad idence. Thereafter, pockets, had a joint they raised funds they found the business card of account at a local for the Afghan resistance,Nidal bank. They discov- but ulti- Ayyad, 25, a chemical engi- neer. ered that on Feb. mately had a falling 15 Ayyad had out, according to Eventually, rented from National published statementsthe Car Rental the by several as- FBI executed at sociates. In March least same type of car that 1991, Shalabi was 10 Salameh ar- search warrants in New Jer- found dead in his sey. rived in at the Ryder Brooklyn home, van rental of- shot and knifed. Agents fice. Moreover, "Salameh" There have been found was listed no evidence connecting arrests. Salameh as an additional driver to on the rental a rental unit at the Space In addition, five Station car. A witness from months before the Storage the Ryder office facility in Jersey trade center bombing,City. identified Ayyad as about 20 Employees the same man identified Salameh members of the two as who accompanied Salameh mosques who the when he man who rented a shed in No- attended Nosair's vember rented the van. trial or visited under him the name "Kamal lbra- at Attica were subpoenaedham." On March 10 agents by a fed- descended on eral grand jury, Upon Ayyad's first-floor according to the searching apartment at 60 this unit March 5, New York Times. Ahmedagents Boyden Ave., Maplewood, A. Satta, a discovered NJ. In- several hundred postal worker, told pounds side, they found what the Times that of a prosecutor chemicals that, if properly FBI agents grilled combined later described as him about Nosair, and a modified timing triggered with a small Shalabi and Rahman. explosive, mechanism that an could explosives expert produce a powerful To officials, then, blast. described as a time the circumstan- They delay firing sys- also discovered that the tial clues being,gatheredchemicals-hundreds tem. Ayyad was carrying by agents in of an Amer- pounds of New Jersey seemed urea ican Express card to fit into a larg- and in the name of Bilal nitric acid -were purchased er context. For example,in Alkiasi. At least Salameh's November one witness told by the "Kamal Ibraharn." New Y t&d1S~,,A"J -6Wt~ 0eJa%gfP1tg-1~0fi1n6 3 R p ) l 0 N7 9 hi " 4 ffl MA s re t 1 0 S la r e t h p a n I e a .1; W RrnnkIvn-i-hP thev "on st-veral orrasinns." hnmt- nf lhrnhiTn saw a man thev believe was RAMZI AHMED YOUSEF,25 Jersey City, N.J., resident who reportedly fled the country. Indicted in the bombing. -Compiled by Barbara J. 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 19- served as his driver. Rahman has di 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 the arrest or treatment of Abou- halima. For weeks, the trade center bomb, ing was an incomplete act of terror., ism because it lacked a political me~,- sage. But on March 28 the New Yort Times published a letter it received four days after the bombing. ThJ_ Times quoted a law enforcement -kri cnirl fh~ro ivqc "inrt)ntrr%_