The fire hazard is “almost nonexistent,” the report stated, in conduits or underfloor raceways. Fire protection is needed, the report continued, under trench header ducts that are part of the cellular steel floor support to prevent the heating of wiring insulation to its ignition point and igniting carpeting over or next to floor plates and outlets on the floor above. The fluted steel floor forms in the Twin Towers have a 5-foot-wide sprayed fiber fire protection under the trench headers. Hazardous conditions The report described as “the worst and most hazardous condition” the installation of wires and cables with combustible insulation in plenums because this introduces combustibles into the air conditioning and necessitates openings to serve the floor above that do not have fittings or fire stopping equivalent to the fire resistance of the floor. Telephone cables, the report warned, “can carry fire through a wall even when conventional fire stopping is provided.” The mass of cables for communications equipment in many offices can “sustain a substantial fire,” the report added. Tested fire stopping at shafts and walls was recommended for wiring installations. Another hazard was seen in the telephone and communication equipment installed by private companies. The report warned that the equipment and wiring “contains considerable combustible plastics and could be a source of fire.” This equipment may be found in storage or other areas rather than in phone closets.
Typical 5,000 gal water storage tank, WTC 1 and WTC 2.
Low voltage not safe
New York City’s experience refutes the contention that phone and other communications wiring cannot create a hazard because of its low voltage and amperage, the report declared, adding that “a substantial number” of electrical origin fires have occurred in office building phone equipment. The report recommended that communications wiring and equipment should comply with the National Electrical Code, as must power wiring. Because finger-sensitive elevator call buttons “can be operated by heat, smoke, flames, and other conditions present during a fire,” the report urged that in unsprinklered buildings, smoke detectors be installed in elevator lobbies so that activation of a detector will send elevators directly to the ground floor. The report also called for the installation of “fireman switches” so that fire fighters can manually control elevators during a fire.
Another area the report considered was the building in which construction is still under way while it is partially occupied by permanent tenants. The presence of hazards that will not exist after the completion of construction— such as floor openings for the installation of equipment, temporary elevator doors, wall and floor openings that have not been fire stopped, removal of protective coatings from structural steel, and the presence of combustible materials and packaging—was noted in the report. Construction work, such as welding, cutting and soldering, can provide ignition sources along with careless smoking, the report asserted. The tenants should have a “totally enclosed fire-safe construction with no unprotected openings,” the report stated. Fire partitions around tenant space should be complete even if temporary fire stopping has to be provided, and fire stairs, elevators, alarms and standpipes “must be in service to the level of the highest tenant.”
The majestic interior of the World Trade Center and Mezzanine of the World Trade Center before 2001.
As for the World Trade Center, the report pointed out that its “good points outweigh the bad.” It noted that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the center, had made recommendations to tenants about limiting the combustibility of furnishings brought into the buildings. “If the tenants would support these recommendations, the chance of a serious fire would be small,” the report declared. The vertical protection between windows and at the junction of the floor slab and exterior wall was characterized as “good.” The 4-inch concrete floors, poured on fluted steel forms, butt the spandrel steel girders, preventing any vertical flue. Plaster protects the interior face of the exterior steel columns, eliminating vertical flues at this point also. Vermiculite plaster was sprayed on the spandrel girders to provide vertical fire separation between windows. Also approved were the noncombustible building components and the use of thermal insulation.
Another good feature the report cited is the capability to vent smoke from a floor and to pressurize the core. When a fire occurs, the supply air fans for the air-conditioning system are shut down and the return air fans discharge smoke to the outside. At the same time, fresh air supply to the core area is continued, but the vents are closed. This action pressurizes the core area, which includes both the stairs and the elevator shafts, and keeps smoke from entering the exit corridors in the core area. This system, the report stated, worked well during the fire in the Saunders offices. Automatic sprinklers were installed in basements, shops and special hazard areas during construction of the Twin Towers. Under New York City local law 5, high-rises’ large floor areas must be divided by one-hour fire partitions so that no single compartment is larger than 7500 square feet unless the entire floor is sprinklered. Compliance with this law, passed after the start of construction of the Twin Towers, is being carried out. Sprinklers are being installed for tenants who do not want their floors compartmentized. Among other pluses for the Twin Towers, the report cited the once-amonth Sunday fire drills in which New York City fire companies participate along with Port Authority policemen on duty at the building, some of whom have an initial fire fighting assignment. The Twin Towers also have fire safety directors, floor wardens and fire command centers in compliance with local law 5. The report concluded that “what is true of the Twin Towers is true of many, if not all, high-rise office buildings.”
Destruction caused by a bomb which exploded on February 26th 1993 in the North Tower’s underground garage. SS was called to assist the New York Police Department and the FBI in the investigation, and helped to identify the Middle Eastern radical responsible for the attack. Although Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda had ties to the bombing, the connections would not become clear until 1996. Source: © Associated Press / Richard Drew.
February 26th, 1993 bombing..
The first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred on February 26th, 1993, at 12:17 p.m. A Ryder truck filled with 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of explosives (planted by Ramzi Yousef) detonated in the North Tower’s underground garage. The blast opened a 100ft (30 m) hole through five sublevels with the greatest damage occurring on levels B1 and B2 and significant structural damage on level B3. Six people were killed and 1,042 others were injured in the attacks, some from smoke inhalation. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and four other individuals were later convicted for their involvement in the bombing, while Yousef and Eyad Ismoil were convicted for carrying out the bombing. According to a presiding judge, the conspirators' chief aim at the time of the attack was to destabilize the North Tower and send it crashing into the South Tower, toppling both landmarks.
A DSS Agent operates an explosives detector inside a crater left by the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
On February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in a parking garage of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. This event was the first indication for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) that terrorism was evolving from a regional phenomenon outside of the United States to a transnational phenomenon.
Following the bombing, floors that were blown out needed to be repaired to restore the structural support they provided to columns. The slurry wall was in peril following the bombing and the loss of the floor slabs that provided lateral support against pressure from Hudson River water on the other side. The refrigeration plant on sublevel B5, which provided air conditioning to the entire World Trade Center complex, was heavily damaged. After the bombing, the Port Authority installed photoluminescent pathway markings in the stairwells. The fire alarm system for the entire complex needed to be replaced because critical wiring and signaling in the original system were destroyed. A memorial to the victims of the bombing, a reflecting pool, was installed with the names of those who were killed in the blast. It was later destroyed following the September 11 attacks. The names of the victims of the 1993 bombing are included in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Emergency services and personnel fill New Yorks' West Street following an underground explosion that rocked the North Tower of the WTC site.. Feb 26th 1993
In July 1993, the Department of State offered a $2 million reward through the Rewards for Justice program for information leading to the arrest of Yousef. By this time, Yousef had disappeared underground; U.S. law enforcement officials believed that Yousef had escaped to Pakistan, but they had little reliable information about his location. However, DSS Special Agents did much of the work that led to his capture in Pakistan. In February 1995, nearly two years after the WTC attack, a man presented himself at the residence of a U.S. diplomat in Karachi, and claimed to have information about Yousef’s location. DSS agents in Pakistan confirmed that the man was a legitimate source: he was a former contact for Yousef. Based on his information, DSS agents Bill Miller and Jeff Riner alerted Pakistani officials and prepared to raid Yousef ’s hotel room. On February 7, 1995, a team of Pakistani law enforcement officers and DSS agents, including Miller, stormed into Yousef ’s room, waking him from a nap, and arrested him. The next day, Pakistani officials turned Yousef over to FBI agents, who flew him to New York City for arraignment. The informant received a $2 million reward, and on March 11, Yousef was indicted for the 1993 WTC bombing.
Terrorist Bomber Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Yousef, the driver of the explosives-laden truck in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. DSS agents, through a Pakistani source, located Yousef; DS Agents Bill Miller and Jeff Riner worked with Pakistani law enforcement to apprehend Yousef. Yousef was turned over to the FBI, and brought to the United States for trial. Source: © Associated Press.
Following a tip-off from Istaique Parker, on 7th February 1995, Agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Special Agents of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service raided room #16 in the Su-Casa Guest House in Islamabad, Pakistan, and captured Yousef before he could move to Peshawar. Parker was paid $2 million under the Rewards for Justice Program for the information leading to Yousef's capture. During the raid, agents found Delta and United Airlines flight schedules and bomb components in children's toys. Yousef had chemical burns on his fingers. Yousef was sent to a federal prison in New York City and held there until his trial. On the 5th of September 1996, Yousef and two co-conspirators were convicted for their role in the Bojinka plot and were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Duffy to life in prison without parole. On 12 November 1997, Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing, and on 8 January 1998, Judge Duffy found Yousef guilty of plotting a "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the World Trade Center and sentenced Yousef to life plus 240 years in prison for both bombings. He also recommended that Yousef's entire sentence be served in solitary confinement.
FILE - In this Feb. 26, 1993 file photo, two New York City police officers help an injured women away from the scene of the World Trade Center truck bomb attack. It was a terror attack that foreshadowed Sept. 11: the deadly World Trade Center bombing that happened 29 years ago Monday. (AP Photo/Joe Tabacca, File)
During the 1998 trial, Yousef said:
You keep talking also about collective punishment and killing innocent people to force governments to change their policies; you call this terrorism when someone would kill innocent people or civilians in order to force the government to change its policies. Well, when you were the first one who invented this terrorism.
You were the first one who killed innocent people, and you are the first one who introduced this type of terrorism to the history of mankind when you dropped an atomic bomb which killed tens of thousands of women and children in Japan and when you killed over a hundred thousand people, most of them civilians, in Tokyo with fire bombings. You killed them by burning them to death. And you killed civilians in Vietnam with chemicals as with the so-called Orange agent. You killed civilians and innocent people, not soldiers, innocent people every single war you went. You went to wars more than any other country in this century, and then you have the nerve to talk about killing innocent people.
And now you have invented new ways to kill innocent people. You have so-called economic embargo which kills nobody other than children and elderly people, and which other than Iraq you have been placing the economic embargo on Cuba and other countries for over 35 years. ... The Government in its summations and opening statement said that I was a terrorist. Yes, I am a terrorist and I am proud of it. And I support terrorism so long as it was against the United States Government and against Israel, because you are more than terrorists; you are the one who invented terrorism and using it every day. You are liars, butchers, and hypocrites.
Kevin Thomas Duffy, U.S. Judge in Terrorism Cases, Passes away at the age of 87..
Duffy responded:
Ramzi Yousef, you claim to be an Islamic militant. Of all the persons killed or harmed in some way by the World Trade Center bomb, you cannot name one who was against you or your cause. You did not care, just so long as you left dead bodies and people hurt.
Ramzi Yousef, you are not fit to uphold Islam. Your God is death. Your God is not Allah ...
You weren't seeking conversions. The only thing you wanted to do was to cause death. Your God is not Allah. You worship death and destruction. What you do, you do not for Allah; you do it only to satisfy your own twisted sense of ego.
You would have others believe that you are a soldier, but the attacks on civilization for which you stand convicted here were sneak attacks which sought to kill and maim totally innocent people ...
You, Ramzi Yousef, came to this country pretending to be an Islamic fundamentalist, but you cared little or nothing for Islam or the faith of the Muslims. Rather, you adored not Allah, but the evil that you yourself have become. And I must say that as an apostle of evil, you have been most effective.
Yousef is held at the high-security Supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado.. The handcuffs Ramzi Yousef wore when he was captured in Pakistan are displayed at the FBI Museum in Washington, D.C. His Federal Prisoner number is: 03911-000. In 1997, Osama bin Laden said during an interview that he did not know Yousef, but claimed to know Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is the mastermind behind the September 11th, 2001 attacks and Yousef's uncle. According to the 9/11 Commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said under interrogation that "Yousef was not a member of al-Qaeda and that Yousef never met bin Laden." Some authors, however, have made note of a stronger link between Yousef and bin Laden.
The seven men convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York CityFBI.GOV
Ramzi Yousef sent a letter to The New York Times after the bombing that expressed his motive:
We are, the fifth battalion in the Liberation Army, declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel, the state of terrorism, and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region.
Our Demands Are:
1 – Stop all military, economical, and political aid to Israel.
2 - All diplomatic relations with Israel must stop.
3 - Not to interfere with any of the Middle East countries interior affairs.
If our demands are not met, all of our functional groups in the army will continue to execute our missions against the military and civilian targets in and out the United States. For your own information, our army has more than hundred and fifty suicidal soldiers ready to go ahead. The terrorism that Israel practices (which is supported by America) must be faced with a similar one. The dictatorship and terrorism (also supported by America) that some countries are practicing against their own people must also be faced with terrorism.
The American people must know, that their civilians who got killed are not better than those who are getting killed by the American weapons and support.
The American people are responsible for the actions of their government and they must question all of the crimes that their government is committing against other people. Or they — Americans — will be the targets of our operations that could diminish them.
After returning to Pakistan in February 1993, Yousef went into hiding. That summer, he allegedly took up a contract to assassinate the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, which was initiated by members of Sipah-e-Sahaba. The plot failed when Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad were interrupted by police outside Bhutto's residence. Yousef decided to abort the bombing and it blew up as he was trying to recover the device. He escaped and went into hiding during the investigation. After the Iranian shrine bombing, Yousef soon began planning the Bojinka plot. It included plans to assassinate Pope John Paul II while he visited the Philippines, and to plant bombs inside several United and Delta Air Lines flights out of Bangkok. On this plot, he allegedly worked with his maternal uncle,Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Rescuers help victims of the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center.
MARTY LEDERHANDLER, AP
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
In this Feb. 26, 1993, file photo, a New York City police officer leads a woman to safety following a bomb blast at the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
On 11th December 1994, Yousef conducted a trial run of the plan by boarding Philippine Airlines Flight 434 from Manila to Tokyo, Japan, with a stopover in Cebu. His identity for the flight was that of an Italian man named Armaldo Forlani. As an accomplished forger, he was able to make a counterfeit Italian passport for himself with that identity. The cabin crew for this leg of the flight later told investigators that Yousef changed seats several times during the relatively short flight, with his last seat change coming after a return from the lavatory. Yousef assembled a bomb in the lavatory, set the timer to detonate four hours later, and placed it in the life vest pouch under seat 26K on the right-hand side of the fuselage. The domestic flight attendant Maria Delacruz had noticed that Yousef kept switching seats during the course of the Manila to Cebu flight, but did not warn the new cabin crew boarding at Cebu of his behavior. Yousef and 25 other passengers left the plane at Cebu, where 256 passengers and a new cabin crew boarded for the trip to Tokyo. Many passengers were Japanese people, some were coworkers traveling as part of a tour group. Airport congestion delayed the departure of Flight 434 from Cebu for 38 minutes. All of the passengers had boarded by 8:30 a.m., with the bomb having been planted around two hours earlier. PAL 434 was cleared for takeoff at 8:38 a.m.
A fragment of the 1993 bombing memorial which was sadly destroyed in the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks..
THE ORIGINAL MEMORIAL TO THE SIX VICTIMS OF THE 1993 BOMBING WAS DESTROYED ON 9/11. THE VICTIMS' NAMES ARE NOW INSCRIBED ON THE 9/11 MEMORIAL AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE. (FILE PHOTO)
At 11:43 am, about an hour and a half from Tokyo, the bomb exploded while Flight 434 cruised on autopilot 33,000 feet (10,000 m) above the Japanese island of Minami-Daitō (near Okinawa Island and approximately 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Tokyo). The explosion dismembered 24-year-old Haruki Ikegami (池上 春樹, Ikegami Haruki), a Japanese businessman occupying the seat where the bomb was placed. Ten passengers sitting in the seats in front of and behind Ikegami were also injured while one needed urgent medical care. The explosion tore out a two square-foot (0.2 m2) portion of the cabin floor into the cargo hold but leaving the fuselage of the plane intact. The airplane was spared from a deadly fiery explosion as the seat where the bomb was planted, 26K, was two rows away from the central fuel tank. The rapid expansion of energy from the bomb caused the plane to expand vertically slightly, damaging cables to the steering and aileron controls. The bomb's orientation caused the energy to be mostly absorbed by Ikegami; he was killed but the other passengers and the plane were not catastrophically damaged.
Japanese island of Minami-Daitō
Philippine airlines flight 434
The cockpit crew improvised to manipulate the plane's speed and direction by varying the engines' throttle settings. Captain Eduardo Reyes made an emergency landing at Okinawa's Naha Airport, saving 272 passengers and 20 crew. The aircraft became a crime scene under Japanese law; bomb fragments found in and around the blast zone, as well as the lower half of Ikegami's body, provided clues pointing investigators back to Manila. Yousef then returned to Manila, where he began preparing at least a dozen bombs, each with more explosive materials. Weeks before his planned attacks, a fire started in his Manila apartment, forcing him to flee the room, leaving everything behind. The fire made the apartment staff suspicious, and soon police, led by Aida Fariscal, raided the apartment and uncovered the plot. A Philippine National Police raid in another Manila apartment revealed related evidence that Abdul Murad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Yousef had drawn up plans for flying an airplane into CIA headquarters. The information was passed on to the Federal Aviation Administration, who warned individual airlines.
Despite the international manhunt, Yousef escaped from Manila to Pakistan. On 31 January 1995, he flew from Pakistan to Thailand and met with an associate Istaique Parker. Yousef told Parker to check two suitcases filled with bombs, one on a Delta Air Lines flight and another on a United Airlines flight. Both bombs were timed to blow up over populated areas of the U.S. Parker spent much of the day at the airport, but was reportedly too scared to approach the airlines with the suitcases. Finally, Parker returned to Yousef's hotel and lied that employees at the airline cargo sections were asking for passports and fingerprints, making it too risky to go ahead with the plan. Yousef, wanting to get the bombs on a plane bound for the U.S., called a friend with diplomatic immunity in Qatar who was willing to take the suitcases to London and check them on a flight to the U.S. The plan was that they would explode mid-flight and destroy the plane. Yousef planned to use the friend's diplomatic immunity to ensure the suitcases would be loaded on the plane. According to Simon Reeve's book The New Jackals, the name of this friend has not been revealed, but his father is said to be a very senior politician and leading member of the establishment in Qatar (at the time, Yousef's maternal uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was living in Qatar as the guest of a Qatari cabinet official). However, there was a problem and the suitcases were not checked in. Yousef and Parker returned to Pakistan on 2 February 1995.
Simon Reeve (British TV presenter)
Simon Alan Reeve (born 21 July 1972) is a British author and television presenter, currently based in London. He makes travel documentaries in little-known areas of the world and has written books on international terrorism, modern history and his adventures. He has presented the BBC television series Tropic of Cancer, Equator and Tropic of Capricorn. Reeve is the New York Times' best-selling author of The New Jackals (1998), One Day in September (2000) and Tropic of Capricorn (2007). He has received a One World Broadcasting Trust Award and the 2012 Ness Award from the Royal Geographical Society.
Reeve was born in Hammersmith and brought up in west London, attending a local comprehensive school. He rarely went abroad until he started work. After leaving school, he took a series of jobs, including working in a supermarket, a jewellery shop and a charity shop, before he started researching and writing in his spare time while working as a postboy at a British newspaper.
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Reeve began making travel documentaries for the BBC. Tom Hall, travel editor for Lonely Planet publications, has described Reeve's travel documentaries as "the best travel television programmes of the past five years" and many of his productions have received favourable newspaper reviews.
The New Jackals
While working as an investigative writer, Reeve began studying the 1993 World Trade Center bombing just days after the attack. His research formed the basis for a book, The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, published in the UK and USA in the late 1990s. The New Jackals was the first book on bin Laden. As he researched the book, Reeve traced and interviewed bin Laden supporters and senior FBI, CIA and Asian intelligence officials and also had clandestine meetings with spies and militants.
Classified information cited by Reeve detailed the existence, development and aims of the terrorist group al-Qaeda. The book warned that al-Qaeda was planning huge attacks on the West, and concluded that an apocalyptic terrorist strike by the group was almost inevitable. It has been a New York Times and international best-seller, and in the three months after the 9/11 attacks it was one of the top three best-selling books in the United States. The book has been translated into several languages.
After the September 11 attacks, Reeve became a regular commentator and reference source on the emerging terror threat. He has been quoted in The New York Times' warning that al-Qaeda was moving "far beyond being a terrorist organisation to being almost a state of mind. That's terribly significant because it gives the movement a scope and longevity it didn't have before 9/11."
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaikh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms, born March 1, 1964) is a Pakistani Islamist militant held by the United States at the Guantanano Bay, dentention camp under terrorism-related charges. He was named as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" in the 9/11 Commission Report.. Sheikh Mohammed was a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, leading al-Qaeda's propaganda operations from around 1999 until late 2001. Mohammed was captured on March 1, 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi by a combined operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Immediately after his capture, Mohammad was extraordinarily rendered to secret CIA prison sites in Afghanistan, then Poland, where he was interrogated by U.S. operatives. By December 2006, he had been transferred to military custody at Guantanano Bay detention camp..
The UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has urged the US to close Guantanamo Bay, saying the indefinite detention of many inmates there without charge or trial violates international law. Reported in 2013.. Nearly 170 inmates are currently being held at Guantanamo Bay
Of the 780 people detained there since January 2002 when the military prison first opened after the September 11th 2001 attacks on New York, and the Pentagon, 731 have been transferred elsewhere, 39 remain there, and 9 have died while being held in custody.. The camp was established by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration in 2002 during the War on Terror campaign following the 9/11 atrocities. The camp offers indefinite detention without trial and also torture..This led the operations of the camp to be considered a major breach of human rights by Amnesty International, and a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution by the Center for Constitutional Rights..
File: US Military Police guard Taliban and al Qaeda detainees in orange jumpsuits in January, 2002
(Getty Images)
American President George W. Bush addresses the nation on September 11th 2001..
Bush's successor, U.S. President Barack Obama, promised that he would close the camp, but met strong bipartisan opposition from the U.S. Congress, which passed laws to prohibit detainees from Guantanamo being imprisoned in the U.S. During President Obama's administration, the number of inmates was reduced from about 245 to 41. In January 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the detention camp open indefinitely. In May 2018, a prisoner was repatriated to Saudi Arabia during Trump's term. In early February 2021, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden declared his intention to shut down the facility before he leaves office. In July 2021, an additional detainee was released. In December 2021, the New York Times reported the Pentagon is building a second facility courtroom, in which the public will not be allowed to view the proceedings.
Mohammed traveled to the Philippines in 1994 to work with his nephew Ramzi Yousef on the Bojinka plot, a Manila-based plot to destroy 12 commercial airliners flying routes between the United States, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The 9/11 Commission Report says that "this marked the first time KSM took part in the actual planning of a terrorist operation."
Using airline timetables, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef devised a scheme whereby five men could, in a single day, board 12 flights—two each for three of the men, three each for the other two—assemble and deposit their bombs and exit the planes, leaving timers to ignite the bombs up to several days afterward. By the time the bombs exploded, the men would be far away and far from reasonable suspicion. The math was simple: 12 flights with at least 400 people per flight. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 deaths. It would be a day of glory for them, calamity for the Americans they supposed would fill the aircraft.
Bojinka plans included renting or buying a Cessna, packing it with explosives and crash landing it into CIA headquarters, with a backup plan to hijack the twelfth airliner in the air and use that instead. This information was reported in detail to the U.S. at the time.
By the time the Bojinka plot was discovered, Mohammed had returned to Qatar and his job as a project engineer at the country's Ministry of Electricity and Water. He traveled in 1995 to Sudan, Yemen, Malaysia, and Brazil to visit elements of the worldwide jihadist community, although no evidence connects him to specific terrorist actions in any of those locations. On his trip to Sudan, he attempted to meet with Osama bin Laden, who was at the time living there, aided by Sudanese political leader Hassan al-Turabi. After the U.S. asked the Qatari government to arrest Mohammed in January 1996, he fled to Afghanistan, where he renewed his alliance with Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Later that year, he formed a working relationship with Bin Laden, who had settled there.
Osama Bin Laden
Mohammed Atef
Osama Bin Laden disagreed with the idea to destroy the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles.
The Pentagon is the Virginia headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, located in a massive five-sided concrete and steel building that’s a potent symbol of America’s military strength. With more than 6 million square feet of floor space, the Pentagon ranks among the largest office buildings in the world. During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—60 years to the day after construction began on the Pentagon—a hijacked plane struck the building, killing 189 people and damaging roughly one-third of the building.
Mohamad Atta
Plan for September 11, 2001 attacks
The first hijack plan that Mohammed presented to the leadership of al-Qaeda called for several airplanes on both east and west coasts to be hijacked and flown into targets. His plan evolved from an earlier foiled plot known as the Bojinka plot. Bin Laden rejected some potential targets suggested by Mohammed, such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, as he wished to simplify the attacks.
In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to proceed to organize the plot. Meetings in early 1999 took place with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his military chief, Mohammed Atef. Bin Laden led the plot and provided financial support. He was also involved in selecting the participants, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker. Khalid Sheikh provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Atef directed the actions of the hijackers.
After Atta was chosen as the leader of the mission, "he met with Bin Laden to discuss the targets: the World Trade Center, which represented the U.S. economy; the Pentagon, a symbol of the U.S. military; and the U.S. Capitol, the perceived source of U.S. policy in support of Israel. The White House was also on the list, as Bin Laden considered it a political symbol and wanted to attack it as well." If any pilot could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane. According to testimony by Philip Zelikow, bin Laden was motivated by a desire to punish the US for supporting Israel and wanted to move up the attack date. Mohammed argued for ensuring the teams were prepared. [Bin Laden] allegedly told KSM it would be sufficient simply to down the planes and not hit specific targets. KSM stood his ground, arguing that the operation would not be successful unless the pilots were fully trained and the hijacking teams were larger.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh
In a 2002 interview with Al Jazerra journalist Yosri Fouda, Mohammed admitted that he and Ramzi bin al-Shibh were involved in the "Holy Tuesday operation". ("Holy Tuesday operation" was the terrorists' code name for the 9/11 attacks, and the attacks actually did take place on a Tuesday.) KSM, however, disputes this claim via his Personal Representative: "I never stated to the Al Jazeera reporter that I was the head of the al-Qaeda military committee."
In a April 2002 interview with Al Jazeera correspondent Yosri Fouda, KSM, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh described the preparations for 9/11 attacks and said that they first thought of "striking at a couple of nuclear facilities" in the U.S. but then "it was eventually decided to leave out nuclear targets for now."
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for The Wall Street Journal. He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan..Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey and raised in Encino, Los Angeles, to a Jewish family mixed European and West Asian origins; his father was of Polish Jewish descent and his mother was an Iraqi Jew from Baghdad. After attending Stanford University, Pearl embarked on a career of journalism. He was working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, based in Mumbai, India. Infamously, he was kidnapped when he went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid (known as the "shoe bomber") and al-Qaeda, Pearl was murdered by his captors.
Terrorist Shoe Bomber - Richard Reid
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl's abduction and murder in 2002, but his conviction was overturned by a Pakistani court in the summer of 2020. In March 2007, at a closed military hearing in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a member of al-Qaeda, claimed that he had personally beheaded Pearl. Researchers have also connected Al-Qaeda member Saif al-Adel with the kidnapping..
On January 23, 2002, on his way to what he thought was an interview with Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani at the Village Restaurant in downtown Karachi, Pearl was kidnapped near the Metropole Hotel at 7:00 p.m. by a militant group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty. The group claimed Pearl was a spy and—using a Hotmail e-mail address sent the United States a range of demands, including the freeing of all Pakistani terror detainees, and the release of a halted U.S. shipment of F-16 fighter jets to the Pakistani government.
The message read:
We give you one more day if America will not meet our demands we will kill Daniel. Then this cycle will continue and no American journalist could enter Pakistan.
Photos of Pearl handcuffed with a gun at his head and holding up a newspaper were attached. The group did not respond to public pleas for release of the journalist by his editor and his wife Mariane. United States intelligence forces tried to track down the kidnappers.
Nine days later, the terrorists beheaded Pearl. On May 16, his severed head and decomposed body were found cut into ten pieces, and buried, along with an identifying jacket, in a shallow grave at Gadap, about 30 miles (48 km) north of Karachi. When the police found Pearl's remains three months after his murder, Abdul Sattar Edhi, a Pakistani philanthropist, collected all of the body parts and took them to the morgue. He helped ensure that Pearl's remains were returned to the United States, where he was later interred in the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles..
WSJ Reporter Daniel Pearl Kidnapped in Pakistan - Pearl’s wife Mariane, who was five months pregnant at the time of the abduction, publicly condemned the "act of barbarism" carried out by "evil people".
Danny Pearl and Asra Nomani goofing off during a reporting trip of Pearl’s to Karachi in November 2001.
On February 21, 2002, a propaganda video was released titled The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl. The video shows Pearl's mutilated body, and lasts 3 minutes and 36 seconds.
During the video, Pearl said:
My name is Daniel Pearl. I'm a Jewish American from Encino, California, USA. I come from, uh, on my father's side the family is Zionist. My father's Jewish, my mother's Jewish, I'm Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We've made numerous family visits to Israel.
Pearl condemned American foreign policy in the video. His family stated that he did so under duress, describing him as "a proud American, and he abhorred extremist ideologies." They also said that he gave signals that indicated that he did not agree with what he was saying. Following these statements, Pearl's throat was slit, and his head was severed.
The video concluded with the captors demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. The perpetrators warned that, if their demands were not met, they would repeat such a beheading "again and again".
Shoe bomber Richard Reid pictured at one of America's toughest jails.. 10 October 2011
Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the "Shoe Bomber", is a British terrorist who attempted to detonate a shoe bomb on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young man in prison after years as a petty criminal. Later he became radicalized and went to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained and became a member of al-Qaeda. On 22 December 2001, Reid boarded American Airlines Flight 63 between Paris and Miami, wearing shoes packed with explosives, which he unsuccessfully tried to detonate. Passengers subdued him on the plane, which landed at Logan International Airport in Boston, the closest US airport. He was arrested, charged, and indicted. In 2002, Reid pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to eight federal criminal counts of terrorism, based on his attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft in flight. He was sentenced to three life terms plus 110 years in prison without parole and was transferred to ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison in Colorado.
The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as the ADX or “Supermax”, in Florence, Colorado. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera may find it more difficult to slip away from the “Supermax” prison in Colorado where he is likely headed. The facility,, has been dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” because of its remote location and harsh security measures.
JASON CONNOLLY/AFP/Getty Images)
If you commit a serious rule violation; if you seek protection or are considered too young for a general prison population; if you refuse to work; if you write or contribute to an article, literary work, or media report that runs counter to the institutional narrative; if you complain about, or in any other way anger, a prison official; or if you participate in a work strike, food strike, yard sit-down, or any other type of “group demonstration” (and these infractions will land you in solitary for a very long time), you can end up in a concrete cell the size of a closet. The facility is best known for housing inmates who have been deemed too dangerous, too high-profile, or too great a security risk for a maximum-security prison. For example, Joseph Romano was sentenced to life in federal prison for plotting to murder the judge and federal prosecutor who helped sentence him to 15 years in prison for masterminding a coin fraud operation. While in prison, he plotted to murder an undercover officer who had taken part in the investigation. When this came to light, Romano was transferred to USP ADX Florence.
The fortress-like super-prison, notoriously dubbed the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', where a clutch of terror convicts are also ending their days
The majority of current inmates, however, have been placed there because each has an extensive history in other prisons of committing violent crimes, including murder, against corrections officers and fellow inmates. These inmates are kept in administrative segregation. They are confined in a single-person cell for 23 hours a day and are removed under restraint (handcuffed, shackled, or both); their one hour out of their cell may occur at any time of the day or night. The hour outside of the cell is for exercise and a phone call if they have earned the privilege. Their diet is restricted to ensure that the food cannot be used to harm themselves or to create unhygienic conditions in their cell. Some cells have showers which further reduces the amount of handling of inmates that correctional officers have to perform.
The prison was built after the murder of two prison officers at a high security prison in Marion, Illinois. The perimeter of the 35-acre site is guarded by 12ft high razor wire fences, laser-beams, pressure pads and attack dogs. No-one has ever escaped. Inmates are kept in cells measuring 7ft by 12ft for 23 hours a day. The bed, desk and stool are immovable and cast from poured concrete. The cells also feature shower cubicals and a toilet. A black and white television provides classes, religious services and fifty channels of broadcasting. Each cell has a slit window with a view onto an inner courtyard and a patch of sky. Each inmate gets a copy of USA Today, with certain articles cut out. Inmates can play games of bingo alone in their cells. The winners get chocolate bars, or the right to have their picture taken and sent to their family. Wardens have previously told the European Convention on Human Rights that daily exercise is taken in pens measuring 12ft by 20ft, containing pull-up bars and footballs. Prisoners are allowed to talk to each other between pens, or through the ventilation grills in their cells. Indoor exercise is held alone in a windowless hall with a vaulted ceiling, likened to an empty swimming pool. Better behaved prisoners are granted extra privileges, with the best behaved given five hours of phone calls a month and the right to eat together out of their cells.
Philippe Petit
On the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit performed a high-wire walk between the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. For his unauthorized feat 1,312 feet (400 m) above the ground, he rigged a 440-pound (200 kg) cable and used a custom-made 30-foot-long (9.1 m), 55-pound (25 kg) balancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. Though Petit was charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, he was later freed in exchange for performing for children in Central Park..
Petit became known to New Yorkers in the early 1970s for his frequent tightrope-walking performances and magic shows in the city parks, especially Washington Square Park. Petit's most famous performance was in August 1974, conducted on a wire between the roofs of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, 400 metres (1,312 feet) above the ground. The towers were still under construction and had not yet been fully occupied. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and saluted watchers from a kneeling position. Office workers, construction crews and policemen cheered him on.
New York, Washington Square Park, fountain, people, USA
Washington Square Park
What was called the "artistic crime of the century" took Petit six years' planning. During this period, he learned everything he could about the buildings and their construction. In the same period, he began to perform high-wire walking at other famous places. Rigging his wire secretly, he performed as a combination of circus act and public display. In 1971, he performed his first such walk between the towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, while priests were being ordained inside the building. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge..
Highwire artist Philippe Petit walking between the steeples of Notre Dame in Paris in June 1971. Picture: Getty Images.
In planning for the Twin Towers walk, Petit had to learn how to accommodate issues such as the swaying of the high towers due to wind, which was part of their design; effects of wind and weather on the wire at that height, how to rig a 200 ft (61 m) steel cable across the 138 ft (42 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)), and how to gain entry with his collaborators, first to scope out the conditions and lastly, to stage the project. They had to bring heavy equipment to the rooftops. He traveled to New York on numerous occasions to make first-hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and one of his collaborators, New York-based photographer Jim Moore, rented a helicopter to take aerial photographs of the buildings. Two more collaborators, Jean-François and Jean-Louis, helped him practice in a field in France, and accompanied him to take part in the final rigging of the project, as well as to photograph it. Francis Brunn, a German juggler, provided financial support for the proposed project and its planning.
Philippe Petit's Crazy High-Wire Walk Between The Twin Towers
Ironically Notre Dame caught fire in 2019.. On 15 April 2019, just before 18:20 CEST, a fire broke out beneath the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris. By the time the structure fire was extinguished the building's spire had collapsed, most of its roof had been destroyed and its upper walls were severely damaged. Extensive damage to the interior was prevented by its stone vaulted ceiling, which largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed. Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety early in the emergency, but others suffered smoke damage, and some of the exterior art was damaged or destroyed. The cathedral's altar, two pipe organs, and three 13th-century rose windows suffered little or no damage. Three emergency workers were injured. The fire resulted in the contamination of the site and nearby areas of the city with toxic dust and lead. French president Emmanuel Macron said that the cathedral would be restored by 2024, and launched a fundraising campaign which brought in pledges of over €1 billion as of 22 April 2019. A complete restoration could require twenty years or more. On 25 December 2019, the cathedral did not host Christmas Mass for the first time since 1803.
A view of the stained glass rose window on the southern side of the Notre Dame Cathedral, on November 29, 2012, in Paris. The iconic rose windows are among Notre Dame's most recognizable features. The earliest window, which punctures the west facade of the cathedral, dates back to 1225. The north and south roses were created in 1250 and 1260, respectively. PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Petit and his crew gained entry into the towers several times and hid in upper floors and on the roofs of the unfinished buildings to study security measures. They also analyzed the construction and identified places to anchor the wire and cavalletti. Using his own observations, drawings, and Moore's photographs, Petit constructed a scale model of the towers to design the needed rigging for the wire walk. Working from the ID of an American who worked in the building, Petit made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the buildings. Prior to this, Petit had carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that some of his collaborators could pose as white-collar workers. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with Metropolis, a French architecture magazine, so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations.
Philippe Petit Looks Back on Historic Twin Towers Walk 49 Years Later
On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew had a lucky break and got a ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment. They stored it 19 steps below the roof. To pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow attached to a rope. They had to practice this many times to perfect their technique. They first shot across a fishing line, which was attached to larger ropes, and finally to the 450-pound (200 kg) steel cable. The team was delayed when the heavy cable sank too fast, and had to be pulled up manually for hours. Petit had already identified points at which to anchor two tiranti (guy lines) to other points to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum. Shortly after 7 am local time, Petit stepped out on the wire and started to perform. He was 1,350 feet (410 m) above the ground. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and knelt to salute watchers. Crowds gathered on the streets below. He said later that he could hear their murmuring and cheers. When New York Police Department and Port Authority of New York police officers learned of his stunt, they came up to the roofs of both buildings to try to persuade him to leave the wire. They threatened to pluck him off by helicopter. Petit got off when it started to rain.
Kasparov vs Anand, 1995
New York City
Although stripped of his title by FIDE for holding his 1993 match with Short outside the world chess body's auspices, Kasparov was nevertheless widely considered the legitimate World Champion. The Professional Chess Association (PCA) created by Kasparov held a series of a series of candidate matches to choose an opponent for him. Viswanathan Anand succeeded in becoming the champion's opponent.
The 1995 PCA world chess championships was played on the 107th floor of the South Tower.
Viswanathan Anand's rise in the chess world was meteoric. Born in India, he quickly emerged as his nation's greatest player. At age fifteen, he became the youngest Indian to win the International Master title. At the age of sixteen he was crowned India's National Champion. In 1987 he was the first Indian to win the World Junior Championship. In 1988, at the age of eighteen, he became the first official Grandmaster of India. Anand qualified for the PCA World Championship final by winning the candidates matches against Michael Adams and Gata Kamsky.
Garry Kasparov pondering a move on the 107th story of the World Trade Center 1995..
The 1995 PCA title match was played on the Observation Deck on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in New York City. The prize fund was 1,500,000 US$, with 2/3 for the winner. Ten percent of the fund would to go to the PCA. In case of a tied match, Kasparov would retain the PCA title, but the prize would be split. The match was to last 20 games instead of the traditional 24, each game played at 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, followed by 30 minutes to complete the game. There were to be no timeouts and no adjournments.
The match started with eight straight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match) until Anand drew first blood by winning game nine. This victory was not to be enjoyed for very long, as Kasparov then rebounded by dominantly winning four of the next five games.
After 18 games, with a final score of 10½ to 7½ Kasparov retained the PCA World Chess Champion title.
New York City Chess Set..
On February 20th, 1981, an Aerolineas Argentinas airliner was guided away by air traffic controllers after radar signals indicated it was on a collision course with the North Tower (1 WTC). The aircraft, which departed from José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and was scheduled to land at nearby JFK Airport, was flying at a much lower altitude than regulations recommended.
Slow leasing was a hallmark of the old World Trade Center complex. The Twin Towers suffered high vacancy rates for decades. The complex achieved full occupancy only in the 2000s. Following the Port Authority's approved plans to privatize the World Trade Center in the late 1990s, they sought to lease it to a private entity in 2001. Bids for the lease came from Vornado Reality Trust: a joint bid between Brookfield Properties Corporation and Boston Properties, and a joint bid by Silverstein Properties and the Westfield group. Privatizing the World Trade Center would add it to the city's tax rolls and provide funds for other Port Authority projects.
On February 15, 2001, the Port Authority announced that Vornado Realty Trust had won the World Trade Center lease, paying $3.25 billion for the 99-year lease. Vornado outbid Silverstein by $600 million though Silverstein upped his offer to $3.22 billion. However, Vornado insisted on last minute changes to the deal, including a shorter 39-year lease, which the Port Authority considered nonnegotiable. Vornado later withdrew and Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade Center was accepted on April 26, 2001, and closed on July 24, 2001.