The 1990s saw perhaps the most diverse group of perpetrators of the worst, including Latin American leftists, classical Irish Republican Army (IRA) separatists, radical and religious-based Palestinians, right-wing bands, dispossessed Third Worlders with no clearly articulated ideology, radical Islamists, oddball cults, separatist Chechens, and the rise of what became the most well-known terrorist group of the new millennium— al Qaeda.
The decade saw the use on a mass scale of chemical weapons by a terrorist group against the Tokyo subways. Aum Shin Rikyo explored the use of a host of nontraditional weapons—biological, chemical, and nuclear— and by example established that causing widespread deaths and injuries via this type of weapon was now a viable part of a terrorist arsenal.
The fledgling al Qaeda established a reputation for willingness to attack major targets, be they supposedly hardened embassies or symbols of Western wealth, and to continue to do so until they succeeded. Transient initial failures to set off bombs and create mass casualties just meant a return to the drawing board and recruitment of a new batch of willing bombers. Al Qaeda’s operations in the 1990s showed tremendous patience for planning, logistics, fund-raising, recruitment, and surveillance of targets, often taking years of attention to detail.
The decade also saw a more difficult challenge to the defense forces— the rise of the suicide bomber. Although known in the West mostly as a Middle Eastern phenomenon with initial attacks against Israelis and down the road against Westerners, the technique was used throughout the world, most notably by Sri Lanka Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, whose rolls of suicide bombers included women, heretofore not known for taking their lives in no-return operations.
March 17, 1992
Buenos Aires Israeli Embassy Bombing
Overview: The 1994 bombing of the Argentine–Israel Mutual Aid Society (AIMA) in Buenos Aires and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy illustrated the global reach of jihadis. Concerns about the South America triborder area—home to a large Lebanese expatriate population—serving as a safe haven and jumping-off point for Palestinian terrorists appeared justified when these two attacks occurred. Their investigation was headed by a determined judge, although progress was slight in the intervening years.
Incident: On March 17, 1992, at 2:47 P.M., a Ford Fairlane with 100 kilograms of explosives detonated at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people and injuring 252. Windows were shattered within a five-block radius. Many of the injured, including several children in a school yard across the street, were hit by flying glass from a school, a museum, an apartment house, a church, a senior citizens’ center, and other embassies and buildings. Only a corner of the three-story building remained standing. At least 20 cars were gutted. Gas mains were ruptured, forcing government officials to cut power to the area for fear of sparking another explosion.
The blast killed 10 Israelis, including 2 diplomats and the wives of 2 others. The rest were Argentines and one Uruguayan passerby.
Argentine president Carlos Menem blamed “a suicide commando” and attributed the bombing to an Argentine Islamic convert. He had also suggested involvement by individuals who staged a failed coup on December 3, 1990.
On March 19, 1992, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) claimed credit, saying that this was Operation Child Martyr Husayn—the son of Sayyid ‘Abbas al-Musawi, the prince of the Islamic resistance martyrs. The statement, heard on Ba’labaak Voice of the Oppressed, attributed the attack to Abu Yasir, an Argentine who converted to Islam. On March 23, 1992, the IJO in Beirut reaffirmed that it was responsible. Accompanying the Arabic typewritten statement was a video showing the embassy building before the suicide operation. IJO said that it was retaliating for Israel commandos killing Hizballah leader Musawi.
On March 25, 1992, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Brasilia denied involvement, as had a Palestinian spokesman in Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires magazine Noticias claimed that the Chui Palestine colony in Rio Grande do Sul, 600 kilometers from Argentina, may have served as a stopover for the terrorists. The magazine noted that PLO representative Ahmad Subhi visited the colony the previous week.
On March 20, 1992, Juan Carlos Montero, a spokesman for the Uruguayan interior ministry, said that Annette Klump was in Uruguay until four or five days before the bombing. She might have crossed over into Argentina via the bridge linking Fray Bentos, Uruguay, with Puerto Unzua, Argentina, 300 kilometers northwest of Montevideo. Her sister, Andrea Martina Klump, 34, is believed to be an explosives expert for the German Red Army Faction. Andrea was wanted in Germany for a 1989 bombing that killed a German banker. The German government had offered a $47,000 reward for her capture. The next day, Annette and the Argentine interior ministry denied involvement of the women.
On March 21, 1992, the federal police antiterrorist brigade raided a downtown apartment in Bulnes Street 260 and arrested four men for possible involvement. Chief Justice Ricardo Levene, Jr. ordered the release of four Pakistani citizens on March 23, 1992. The Pakistanis had testified before Court Secretary Alfredo Bisordi. A taxi driver, an eyewitness to the case, was unable to identify them in the police lineup. Their release order was suspended after chemical tests on their clothing indicated the presence of suspicious substances. The four were released on March 28, 1992, for lack of evidence, although charges had not been dropped. Mohammed Azam, Mohammed Nawaz, Mohammed Nawaz Chaudhary, and Azhar Igbal appeared shaken as they climbed into a Fiat Duna outside the courthouse with attorneys Federico Figueroa and Jorge Kent.
Police were still searching for the Pakistani owner of the apartment. He was abroad, although his Argentine wife was in town. Police were also looking for the former valet of Pakistani ambassador Raja Trivid Roy. The valet was reported to have driven by the embassy on a motorcycle at a high speed minutes before the blast. Some of his documents were found in the raided apartment.
Federal Police and Secretariat for State Intelligence officials said that an individual carrying a false Brazilian passport purchased the pickup truck used to trigger the explosionby.
The next day, United Press International (UPI) reported the arrest of five men and a woman in a city 300 kilometers north of Buenos Aires.
Teams removing rubble discovered that the embassy’s armory was intact. They extracted 15 Uzi submachine guns, 10 handguns, and 1,000 bullets, all of which matched a list provided by the ambassador. This disproved the view that there were explosives inside the armory. Meanwhile, rescuers gave up on finding more survivors; the raps heard the previous day were not heard again.
Observers searched for reasons why the attack took place on Argentine soil. Some noted that Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, estimated at 300,000, along with 1 million people of Arab descent. Argentina also participated in Operation Desert Storm.
On March 27, 1992, Tel Aviv’s Yedi’ot Aharonot claimed that the Iranian Embassy had assisted the Hizballah terrorists. On March 31, 1992, Hizballah secretary general Hasan Nasrallah denied that his group was involved. The previous day, Sheikh Husayn al-Musawi, head of the Islamic Amal Movement, also denied Hizballah involvement.
On March 29, 1992, Noticias Argentinas reported that police in several countries were searching for a former Argentine military man and a Brazilian citizen for their involvement. They were on a list of 10 suspects still at large. Eight fugitives were of Arab descent. The Argentine had reportedly traveled to the Middle East several times in the last two years. The Brazilian was identified as Elias Ribeiro da Luz, who on February 21, 1992, had purchased the station wagon that carried the explosives at a Villa Luro dealership for $3,000.
On March 31, 1992, Border Guards experts told the Supreme Court that the bomb was made of nitrogen triiodide, one of the most powerful explosives known, which is manufactured only in France. This report contradicted that made by the Federal Police, which said the bomb was made of pentrite.
The same day, retired Maj. Arnaldo Luis Bruno denied press repo
rts linking him to the blast.
On May 2, 1992, Ecuadoran police detained seven suspected Middle Eastern terrorists in Quito in connection with the blast. Six Iranian citizens, including two women, and a seventh man who used an Italian passport but was believed to be Iraqi, were identified by Interpol as Hizballah terrorists. Their passports were issued to Iranian citizens Mohammad Reza, Maryan Remesani, Siamac Adjitchac, Maryan Morak, Saragot Sardi, Abumason Sali, and Italian citizen Bertan Valentino. Noticias Argentinas later reported that they intended to go to Canada via the United States.
The seven boarded a Lufthansa flight in Frankfurt, Germany, earlier in the week. Interpol officials in Germany alerted counterparts in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, where the flight stopped. The seven bought tickets to Quito but attempted to deplane in Bogota, Colombia. A heavily armed police contingent forced them back on the flight. They were arrested upon deplaning in Quito. Interpol said that Islamic extremists were targeting the Israeli ambassador in Bogota and an Israeli-owned business in Cali. On May 9, 1992, the Crime Investigation Division in Quito said that the group was not involved in the bombing but would be deported to Iran through Bogota and Caracas anyway. The Iranians said that on the date of the attack, they were in Iran and had left Iran due to restrictions on freedom in that country. As no country had outstanding charges against them, they were released on May 12, 1992, and given 17 hours to leave the country.
On May 6, 1992, the Border Police ruled out the suicide commando theory, saying that no human remains were found in the car. The police said that the bomb contained between 55 and 60 kilograms of exogenous explosives and plasticizers, and that the perpetrator escaped along Arroyo Street toward Suipacha Street. Police also said that the bomb was in the left side of the bed of a pickup truck. The terrorist evaded the embassy’s two cameras and walked along Arroyo, Suipacha, and Juncal Streets.
On June 4, 1992, at Marbella, Spain, police arrested Mundhir al-Kassar, a Syrian believed to have financed the attack and who was also linked to drug deals and arms trafficking. He was held by Judge Garzon in Spain. A Mendoza investigating judge was preparing an extradition request. Police searches uncovered arms, jewels, and cars with false registration plates. The next day, three other people were arrested in Marbella in the alKassar case. Searches of homes in Madrid, Malaga, and Marbella yielded arms, passports, and false vehicle registration plates. Al-Kassar had obtained Argentine citizenship through questionable procedures. Al-Kassar’s brother, Ghassan, had been expelled from Argentina to Spain on May 20, 1992, for having a false Brazilian passport.
On May 1, 1993, EFE News reported that the terrorists were trained in countries bordering Argentina, including Paraguay.
On May 4, 1993, police in Asuncion, Paraguay, reported that they had no information that the Lebanese Shi’ites involved in the attack had trained in Paraguay.
On July 27, 1995, Argentina federal judge Roberto Marquevich released six Lebanese and a Brazilian who had been extradited from Paraguay on July 23, 1994, in connection with the discovery of an arsenal near Buenos Aires. The judge said there was no connection between the group and the cache discovered in 1994 in the possession of former Argentine intelligence agent Alejandro Sucksdorf. Three of the seven admitted to proHizballah sentiments, but denied involvement in the embassy bombing or the July 18, 1994, bombing of an Argentina–Israeli facility. The suspects were identified as Sergio Rodrigo Salem, Luis Alberto Nader, Johannie Moraes Baalbaki, Mohammed Hassan Alayan, Fadi Abdul Karim Chekair, Roberto Riveiro (or Ribiero) Ruiz, and Brazilian citizen Valdirene Vieira Ferguglia.
On May 19, 1998, the Argentine government expelled seven Iranian Embassy officials and detained another eight Iranian civilians in Buenos Aires for interrogation. Absolhassem Mesbahi, an Iranian defector, had claimed that former Iranian cultural attaché Mohsen Rabbani was the bombing planner.
On December 5, 1998, Argentina issued an arrest warrant for Imad Mughniyeh, a Hizballah leader, believed to have ordered the bombing. Mughniyeh was killed on February 12, 2008 by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.
The bombing remains an open case.
February 26, 1993
World Trade Center Bombing
Overview: New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC) was a symbol for many terrorists of American economic might, and by extension, its cultural and political reach. Jihadi terrorists saw its potential destruction as a major psychological boost in their war for the fealty of the ummah. Homegrown Islamist radicals, led by a radical Egyptian preacher, presaged al Qaeda as an organization and developed a daring plan to attack the WTC, UN building, New York subway, and other landmarks. The not-quite-successful WTC bombing led to their arrest by federal officials before the rest of the plot could be put into play. Al Qaeda established that it would not rest until its goal had been achieved. Although it took more than eight years of patient planning, it achieved the aims of its predecessors with the 9/11 attack.
Incident: On February 26, 1993, 7 people, including 4 Port Authority workers, were killed and more than 1,000 injured when a car bomb exploded 17 minutes after noon in the garage of the WTC in New York City. The bomb left a crater measuring 100 feet in diameter and 60 feet deep in the three-story garage. Shock waves collapsed the ceiling of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) metro station underneath the complex.
At least 50,000 people fled the 110-story building as black smoke quickly filled all floors. Emergency power supplies went out, plunging the buildings into darkness and preventing alarms from going off. The building’s operating control center was just above the garage, where the blast was centered. Some people smashed windows so they could breathe. Helicopters were called in to rescue people trapped on the roof. Seven schoolchildren were trapped in elevators for hours when the power went off.
Nearly 750 firefighters—the equivalent of a 16-alarm fire—along with 40 percent of the city’s firefighting equipment responded, as did hundreds of other police and federal law enforcement officers. Firefighters found steam pipes bursting, cars burning, concrete walls collapsing, support columns buckling, and miles of electric cables strewn randomly over floor and ceiling. The force of the bomb was magnified, because it was contained inside the huge structure.
New York Downtown Hospital treated 139 people, primarily for smoke inhalation, laceration, and burns. St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village treated 103 patients, including one with a fractured hip and one with cardiac arrest. One was pronounced dead on arrival. Bellevue Hospital said that 2 of 53 patients under its care were in serious condition; 1 was in critical condition.
Police received 56 phone calls claiming credit. No calls were made prior to the explosion.
One letter claiming credit for the previously unknown Liberation Army Fifth Battalion was received by the New York Times four days after the bombing. It was believed to have been written by Nidal A. Ayyad, a Palestinian chemical engineer born in Kuwait, who was later charged with the bombing. The original text of the letter was found on one of Ayyad’s computer disks. Saliva on the envelope containing the letter was traced to Ayyad. The letter demanded the United States to stop all military, economical, and political aid to Israel; stop all diplomatic relations with Israel; and stop interfering with any Middle East countries’ interior affairs.
On March 4, 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged Mohammed A. Salameh, 26, a Jordanian-born Palestinian living in Jersey City, with, according to the charge sheet, “aiding and abetting” the bombing “by use of an explosive device causing the death of at least five individuals.” The handyman was arrested that morning after investigators determined that he had rented the bomb-carrying Ford Econoline van on February 23, 1993. Police searching his apartment found bomb-making equipment and explosives residue. Salameh had given the apartment’s address on the van rental slip found at the Ryder truck rental agency in Jersey City. Several hours after the bombing, He returned to the agency with a companion and reported that the Econoline E-350 had been stolen from a nearby grocery
store parking lot. He also went to a Jersey City police station to report the theft. Investigators had found pieces of the van in the rubble, saw it listed in the nationwide computer directory of stolen vehicles, and followed the lead to Ryder trucks and ultimately to Salameh. The rental documents had traces of chemical nitrates, which are often found in explosives. When Salameh returned to the agency with the police documents confirming that the van had been stolen, he asked for return of the $400 security deposit. The FBI arrested him as he walked to a nearby bus stop.
The FBI linked Salameh to a rental space at the Space Station Self Storage area in Jersey City. Employees identified him as a man who rented a shed in November 1992 using the name Kamal Ibraham. When the unit was searched on March 5, 1993, agents discovered several hundred pounds of urea and nitric acid that, if combined and triggered correctly, could produce an explosion. Kamal Ibraham had also purchased the chemicals in November 1992. Employees said that the day before the bombing, they saw Salameh and several other men make trips to the storage unit using a yellow Ryder van. They also saw Salameh make several calls from a nearby pay phone, whose records showed four calls made February 25, 1993, to the office of Ayyad, with whom he had a joint bank account.
Police also searched other New York area apartments, including the Brooklyn apartment of Egyptian-born Ibrahim Elgabrowny, 42, the cousin of Sayyid A. Nosair, who was acquitted of the murder in 1990 of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Elgabrowny was arrested on March 4, 1993, and charged with possessing five fraudulent passports and with obstruction of justice after hitting an FBI agent during the search. Agents found a licensed handgun, 150 rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, and false Nicaraguan passports for Nosair and his wife and three children in Elgabrowny’s apartment.
The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks Page 14
